Flat jockey Peter Brette was born in Stockton-on-Tees on March 3, 1966. His uncle was head lad to Newmarket trainer Tony Hide. Aged 14, during an Easter holiday, he paid a visit to Newmarket and his uncle gave him a leg up on one of Hide’s horses and taught him to ride.
He left school at 16 and began an apprenticeship with Tony Hide with ambitions of becoming a jockey. After a couple of years, he moved across town and joined Michael Stoute’s stable.
He rode for five years in Britain with limited success before, in search of new opportunities, following a Tony Hide associate to Dubai to work for trainer Bill Mather. He was offered a winter contract to ride for the Godolphin Stable. He became the first champion jockey on the Dubai circuit in the 1991-92 season and was runner-up in 1994-95.
He also became a bit of a globetrotter. During his career, he rode in England, Denmark, Sweden, Dubai, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Zimbabwe and Australia. He combined his final four years as a jockey in Dubai with working as assistant trainer to Bill Mather.
He had his final mount on Makaruka, finishing sixth at Nad Al Sheba on February 3, 2000. He’d planned to continue riding for several more years but when Mather decided to retire in 2000 and offered him the chance to run the stable, it was an opportunity he didn't want to pass up, even though it required him giving up riding.
His training career got off to a good start, with the unraced Fatek winning the Arabian Scandinavian Insurance Co-sponsored mile at Jebel Ali in the hands of Derby-winning jockey Willie Ryan in November 2000. However, he soon found it impossible to compete against the ‘big name’ stables loaded with horses owned by wealthy Arab clients.
After winning 17 races his first year, he won just one from 39 runners during the 2003-2004 season.
He again decided to try something new and went to America in 2004. After a brief stint working for Vinery Stud Farm, he joined Michael Matz at Fair Hill Training Centre as an exercise rider and assistant trainer in 2005.
In the morning workouts for Matz he was the only man allowed to ride Barbaro, who went on to win the 2006 Kentucky Derby but shattered a leg two weeks later in the Preakness Stakes, which ended his career and eventually led to his death.
He also rode work on Matz’s Union Rags, winner of the 2012 Belmont Stakes at three and the Champagne Stakes and the Saratoga Special Stakes as a two-year-old.
