By MIKE DILLON
Peter Williams has something of a record in racing.
The Canterbury horse trainer almost certainly has sole rights to the fact he served his entire jockey's apprenticeship without actually riding in a race.
But he came close: as a 15-year-old, he starved himself hard for two weeks for his debut ride at Motukarara.
"I was all set to go and they put the races off from the Saturday until the Monday," Williams recalled. "I couldn't hang on any longer. I went into the jockeys' room and pigged out on cucumber sandwiches."
That was the end of that: he was too heavy to take the ride on the Monday and his father, Joe "Kaka" Williams, took all the young Williams' riding gear back to the saddler for a refund, declaring that he was not paying to fit out a fat jockey.
Peter Williams went straight down the road and signed on as a butcher's apprentice, but kept his rider's licence intact for the entire length of the five-year apprenticeship.
The somewhat trimmed but still jolly Williams has done much better as a trainer.
Despite scant northern representation, he and his wife, Dawn, have already won the Auckland Cup with Sea Swift and the group-one Railway with Loader, and nothing would give them greater pleasure than completing the big Ellerslie treble by producing Sir Clive to win today's $350,000 Mercedes Derby.
After Sir Clive's massive third to Derby favourite Danamite in the Avondale Guineas two weeks ago, that is a realistic goal.
Williams could not be happier with Sir Clive's fitness. The niggling worry is the colt's tendency to be a shade slow to jump from the barriers, something which cost him dearly when he finished a luckless third in the Bayer Classic and also hampered him in the 2000 Guineas at Riccarton.
Rider Grant Cooksley described Sir Clive as "dumb" after he was slow to jump out in the Avondale Guineas.
From an inside gate today, if Sir Clive is even a shade tardy he could end up being shuffled back to the tail as the outside horses come across to find a handy position inside the first 300m.
"The trouble is that he's too relaxed," Williams said. "Ideally, I'd like him to be running fifth or sixth, somewhere in that group behind the leaders, but I'm not going to start telling Grant Cooksley how to ride a Derby."
Cooksley has ridden Sir Clive in most of his work since the colt has been stabled at Takanini and is confident he is in the right condition to give him a chance to add to his Derby wins on Tidal Light, Cavallieri and Look Who's Talking.
After a substantial six-figure deal was struck on Friday, Sir Clive will race for the first time today in the colours of Dubai owner Sheikh Mohammed bin Kahilfa Al-Maktoum.
The sheikh is heavily in to camel racing, which has an even higher profile than horse racing in Dubai.
Williams has lost 28kg this year and to this day has never looked at a cucumber sandwich after making himself sick on them in the Motukarara jockeys' room 30 years ago.
But champagne and smoked salmon over the Derby trophy tonight - well that's another matter.
Sir Clive and Danamite look to be safe anchors
No better time than now to change record
How the riders rate chances
Walker back in harness
Racing: Here's hoping for salmon sandwiches at today's Derby
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