Peter Adams
Peter Adams
1937 – 2009
Most amateur riders achieve their biggest successes in hunter chases or point-to-points. However, Peter Adams has a unique claim to fame. At Ayr on Saturday, 30 April 1966, he won the Scottish Champion Hurdle on Blue Venom. He not only rode horses; he also owned and trained him.
Born into a farming family on 17 February 1937, Peter trained Blue Venom under permit at his Torhousekie Farm, near Wigtown, in Scotland, where the gelding was stabled at one end of the cow-byre and his daily rations included a gallon of milk.
The son of Le Dieu d’Or had been bought by Peter and his brother, Sandy, for only £250 from Hawick trainer Harry Bell, who, at the time, also trained three of his siblings. When recording his Scottish Champion Hurdle triumph, Blue Venom was one of only two horses Peter Adams had in training.
In the run-up to Ayr, Blue Venom had gained four consecutive victories, winning twice at Ayr, then at Carlisle and Hexham. There was no fluke about his Scottish Champion Hurdle success. In establishing a new course record, he defeated Kirriemuir and Spartan General, who had finished first and second in the 1965 Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.
Peter rode just one winner in the 1966/67 season: novice hurdler All On at Carlisle’s Easter meeting. He again rode one winner the following season, that being on Fantastic Night, trained by Gordon W. Richards – the only winner that Peter did not also own and train – in the Colonel John McKie Memorial Challenge Cup Amateur Riders’ Handicap Hurdle at Perth in September.
On July 2, 1969, he married Etta Kay. Later that year he gained a final success aboard Cape Horn, who landed a novice hurdle at Ayr.
As someone who did not take up race riding until he was in his late twenties, Peter had a short career in the saddle. He retired to concentrate on his farm and became a noted breeder of blue-faced Leicester sheep.
Peter Adams died in Dumfries Infirmary in October 2009, aged 72.
His winners were, in chronological order:
1. Blue Venom, Ayr, 14 March 1966
2. Blue Venom, Ayr, 4 April 1966
3. Blue Venom, Carlisle, 9 April 1966
4. Blue Venom, Hexham, 23 April 1966
5. Blue Venom, Ayr, 30 April 1966
6. All On, Carlisle, 25 March 1967
7. Fantastic Night, Perth, 28 September 1967
8. Cape Horn, Ayr, 17 November 1969
