By MIKE DILLON
When dad had ridden only one winner in the previous 10 months and son had only one career victory, it was always going to be difficult for them to win on the same raceday.
But wife and mother Sue Peake could not believe her luck when former champion jockey David Peake and their son, Jason, left Ellerslie on Saturday with a win each.
So how does a mother feel watching her son competing in the toughest racing business of all - jumps racing - when she insisted on him never becoming a jockey.
"It's not easy, but there you go," said an ecstatic Sue Peake after watching her husband score one of his rare wins these days on Country Fair in the $12,000 Dow's Port Handicap.
It was veteran trainer, the late George Cameron, who convinced Sue Peake not to let her son follow his father's path into race riding.
"He said: 'Look at the size of his feet, how could he ever be a jockey,' and I listened," said Sue Peake.
Jason Peake did the show circuit and eventing trail instead, but the lure of raceday was there, even if it came years later.
"Next thing I know he's working at Ken and Ann Browne's stable, and the first year he had five screws in his fingers and the next year five in a knee."
Jason Peake has been race riding only a couple of years and has had only a handful of raceday rides.
His two wins have been on Little Bro, dashing winner of Saturday's $20,000 Racing Minister's Hurdles.
David Peake had no nerves watching his son win on Saturday. He knows what a brilliant jumper Little Bro is because he has popped the rising star over a few fences himself at the Takanini training centre.
"He just skips them.
"He's brilliant and he will be a real star when he strengthens further."
That dash won Saturday's feature for Little Bro.
Where he was hopeless trying to apply his brilliance in the very heavy footing at Te Rapa the previous week, in Saturday's good conditions he made ground on his opposition at every fence.
When well-fancied Kings Court and Irish rider Finbar Leahy attacked at the 800m, Little Bro put paid to them in one leap.
But there is no chance co-owner and trainer Blake Naden will be talked into running the still-developing Little Bro in Saturday's $50,000 TV Guide Hurdles.
"It's too far. He's not ready for it and it would kill him," said Naden.
"I'm not saying he wouldn't be ready for it next year, but in this preparation he can have a crack at the Hawkes Bay Hurdles and possibly the Grand National at Riccarton.
"It is just a waste of time thinking about Trentham, because the footing would be too heavy."
Trainer Tony Gillies is mystified by what caused Limerick Lad to be pulled up in the closing stages of the Racing Minister's Hurdles.
Experienced rider Wayne Hillis said he felt Limerick Lad "go wrong" approaching the second-last hurdle.
"We were too close to it and I had to let him jump it, I was just hoping everything was going to be okay when he put his feet down the other side," said Hillis and he walked Limerick Lad back to unsaddle.
Gillies said he can find nothing wrong with the horse.
"He was fine when he cooled off and when I got him home he flew round his paddock. There is no soreness and no heat in his tendons at all.
"Perhaps he put his foot in a hole and felt something.
"I'll get the vet to check him out after I work him in the morning but at this stage we are pressing ahead for the TV Guide Hurdles on Saturday."
Racing: Fortune finally favours family
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