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ARTHUR FERGUSON

RUNAWAY HORSES

There are many breathers and spare takers on the pay roll of the Metropolitan Trotting Club but one paid official earns his dirt.

This is Arthur Ferguson, whose job is to parade up and down the course on his hack and when a driver hasn't put enough gum on his pants to keep him in the sulky, "Fergy" has to collect the careering horse and cart. Tis a job that calls for nerve and initiative but Ferguson, in the opening event at Addington on Tuesday showed himself a master of stopping runaway horses.

Ambition and Gemlight lost their drivers and came tearing through the straight. Ferguson couldn't get two at once, so he went for one and made a bird of him. He pulled him up and brought him back to the birdcage gate. By this time the other was coming into the straight, and "Fergy" put to sea again. The masterly fashion in which he judged to the split second the moment to wheel his mount and stick in his heels was deserving of the ovation given him when he brought the bolting horse to a standstill.

Ferguson, who is huntsman to the Brackenfield Hunt, needs only to operate once a day as he did on Tuesday, and he is worth good money to any big trotting club.


Credit: NZ TRUTH 12 Nov 1931