Peter, who has resided in the Macleay for all of his 79 years, will have a race named after him at the Kempsey races this Saturday.

It’s a fitting time for Peter to be honoured, with the Gladstone Cup, a race he’s celebrated a win in twice, held on the same day.

Peter Ball was born to train horses, it’s been in his family for generations.

Peter’s father worked horses for campdrafts while his mother trained them for racing.

Peter preferred the racing side of things and followed in his mother’s footsteps.

As a young boy he would be in his mother’s shadow and help out with the chores until he was old enough to get his own trainer’s licence at the age of 17.

It wasn’t long until Peter made the short move with wife Janice from Kinchela to Gladstone, where Peter would end up training hundreds of horses and win plenty of prestigious titles along the way.

None more so than with Schwantz, who secured Peter’s first win in Sydney in 1993.

Schwantz won 15 races in total, including the Armidale Cup, Wingham Cup and the Gladstone Cup at Kempsey.

While Schwantz is a shadow of his former self, the 31-year-old horse is still kicking and enjoys the pastures of the family farm.

Peter’s love for training horses saw him remain in the trade when many others gave it up. His daughter Gaye put it best.

“Not many stick to horse training, you either go broke or bald or both,” she said.

However, the 79-year-old couldn’t imagine doing anything else and will continue training horses until the end.

“I love it, it isn’t a job to me – it’s my passion,” Peter told the Argus.

“The horses are like my little kids, you take care of them and treat them right and they give back to you.

“I have met a lot of great people and made plenty of great mates. I am blessed to have good owners and it’s great to train their horses.”

Peter admitted he wouldn’t be able to do it without the help of his wife of 58 years, Janice, who completes all of the paperwork.

Peter’s skills and knowledge have been passed on to his two children, who are both successful horse trainers.

Gaye returned to Gladstone to help her father five years ago after a stint training horses on the Gold Coast while son Tony worked at one of the biggest stables in Australia at Godolphin in Sydney before recently making a move to Taree with plans to open his own stable.

Unfortunately none of the five horses Peter currently trains are ready to go for this weekend, but it hasn’t lessened the importance of having a race named after him for this Saturday’s meet.

“I am very proud to have a horse race named after me, it makes me very happy and I will thoroughly enjoy this Saturday’s race meet,” Peter said.

The Peter Ball Benchmark 55 jumps at 3.50pm.

Kempsey Race Club president John Graham said Peter is a deserving recipient of the rare feat as he’s done a lot for the sport for a long time.

The first race jumps at 1.13pm on Saturday.