New training partnership for North Queensland

By Glenn Davis

Father and son training partnerships have become common in most major racing centres across the nation.

However, in a first for Far North Queensland, father and son trainers Trevor and Peter Rowe have joined forces and will saddle up their first starters as a team at Townsville on Tuesday.

The Cairns-based Trevor Rowe, 65, has been training for more than 40 years and has won a host of country Cups in North Queensland including the Cairns Cup in 2016 with Chateau Dettori.

Trevor's son Peter, 33, has been training successfully for several years after starting off as a foreman for his father.

He also works full time while preparing a team of 10 horses in Cairns and was helping his father around the stables when the pair decided to become the state’s latest training partnership.

Peter Rowe is also a budding race caller and is the regular replacement in the area when local broadcasting legend Bluey Forsyth is unavailable.

“I was a hobby trainer when I started off then I took up training full time about 15 years ago,” Trevor said.

“I’ve won a lot of the Country Cups including a Townsville Amateur Cup and Cairns Cup and I’ve won the Cairns trainers premiership about seven or eight times.

“I’ve got 20 horses in work myself and Peter had quite a few but has retired some so between us we’ve got about 30 in work right now.

“We lodged our application for a training partnership about a month ago and there were a few hoops and hurdles we had to overcome before it was approved last week."

Peter Rowe is looking forward to the joint training challenge after grappling with a decision a few years ago whether to train or take up his passion for race calling.

“I started calling races when I was 15 and spent some time with the late Wayne Wilson,” Peter said. 

“I used to send tapes to him and to Luke Marlow and Josh Fleming.”

The Rowes have accepted with four runners at Cluden Park and are confident all with perform well.

Trevor was reluctant to separate his quartet and expect all four to be highly competitive.

“We have four in at Townsville and I’m hoping all four will be competitive,” Trevor said.

“Love Express ran a nice third last start and our first starter, Tanoshi, has been working well.”