Harness racing a new stage for NY actor

There have been only two loves in Peter Ogden’s life – theatre and harness racing.

And while the first drew him to a life on the stage in New York, the second has brought him back to his roots, and honoring the memory of his grandfather.

Peter has been sponsoring a memorial race to the late Harold Ogden for 15 years, with the latest edition at Echuca Harness Racing Club on Sept 22.  This year’s memorial was won by Sir Floyd (Auckland Reactor) trained by Ash Warton and one of four winners on the night for rising star reinswoman Ewa Justice.

“The race always has a rug and a trophy, because that’s what grandad loved best about winning a race – a rug and a trophy, no matter how small or inconsequential the trophy was,” Peter, who lives at Picola, near Nathalia, said.

“Grandad was one of the three founders of the Echuca club and was a long-serving committeeman and life member. So, it gives me a buzz for the race to be run here each year. It was always the small country clubs, and the battlers of the sport grandad had a soft spot for, so it’s always at Echuca, and always a lower-rated race,” he said.

“Every now and then, someone will come up to me at the meeting and share a connection with grandad or a story or memory about him, and that’s a really special part of it.”

Peter has fond memories of growing up spending time with his grandfather on his farm at Koyuga where he ran cattle and horses.

“I was very young, probably only 10 or 12, and grandad was a very old-school horse person, an owner and huge on breeding,” Peter said.

“I always loved the chance to help him look after the horses, and I had about six or eight moments with grandad which even now I can recall as if they happened yesterday.

“He had an amazing eye for breeding, which even then was incredible to me. I remember standing with him looking at a paddock of about 30 mares and they all had their foals.  He knew every mare and every foal by sight.”

Harold Ogden was born in 1900, to Irish parents who had emigrated from County Armagh.

“I only learned recently that he enlisted for service in World War 1 – he was only 15 years old!  That is just incredible to me to think about, him going away to France at such a young age,” he said.

“He had a foundation mare called Native Hilda (1946-1971) and he always called her his foundation broodmare – that line would give him many of his good horses, such as Truant Armagh – but I think the line is pretty much extinct now.

“His first very good horse was Charles Armagh, which won the 1960 Sunraysia Pacing Cup, just the second time the race was run, and it was the prelude to what’s now known as the Mildura Pacing Cup.

“He won the Maryborough Cup with Mab Scott, and Truant Armagh won the last AG Hunter Cup run at the Showgrounds.  He had a lot of success and to me, at my age, around 11 or 12, those horses were like Tulloch to me! I guess that’s where the love was really born for me with horses.”

But despite his love of horses, it was a career in the theatre that beckoned for Peter.

“I was never much good at school and it was always the arts and the theatre that I wanted to work in.  But in the 1970s in Australia, people thought you were mad if you wanted to work in theatre – so I took my chance and headed first to London for a couple of years, then to California and finally New York, and that’s where I stayed.

“I was mainly acting, but producing, doing lights, stage managing. You have to do that because theatre is a very collaborative affair – it’s a bit like harness racing in that aspect, because you have to be prepared to do the work or you don’t get anywhere.

“I think grandad’s wonderful work ethic rubbed off on me.  No matter where I have been in my life, I’ve always had his work ethic, and it’s stood me in good stead.  Grandad was just a special man, and I really value the opportunity to honor him and remember him each year.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink