By Bruce Stewart
A member of New Zealand’s greatest harness racing family, Les Purdon passed away peacefully last week in Auckland. He was 83.
Les was the youngest son of Hugh Purdon and like his brothers Roy, Sandy, Foster and Joe, he trained horses.
For a number of years he worked for Hugh, and in 1958 he obtained a junior driver’s licence.
His first winner came in June that year when he drove Dusky Valley to win for his father.
Les ultimately drove 235 winners, his last being behind Galaxy at Alexandra Park in March 1985.
Other successes followed. He drove Sally Belwin, trained by Len Bayer and Brian Barlett, to win eight races including the 1975 North Island Breeders Stakes. He drove Gymea Gold to win the 1976 Northern Oaks in which she beat Olga Korbut.
He drove Del’s Trophy (a Birdie Hanover gelding) for Arthur Cross, winning eight races including the first Dominion Breweries Mobile Stakes – now known as the Cardigan Bay/ Young Guns Final.
He also drove one of New Zealand’s greatest mares Delightful Lady to win her first race at Claudelands in January 1977. And he drove successfully in the USA.
Les’s training career began in 1966. His first winner was Goodray which won the Morrinsville Juvenile Stakes.
He trained 152 winners under his own name, 27 with son-in-law Steven Reid, 16 with Fraser Kirk and 11 with his daughter Angela.
Les also trained Born To Trot to win the 1990 Group Two New Zealand Two Year Old Trotting Stakes at Addington.
His best winner was As Required which won eight. He also had success with Chance With Vance which won seven, Reilly and Evander’s Gift. He trained Chance With Vance with Reid.
Reid said “I was working for Les’s brother Sandy and I came to a bit of a crossroads. I was a bit despondent. I was getting some drives, but not a heap. I made the call to take a break from the industry. Les approached me and offered to take me into partnership. I jumped at that. It was at that time I started dating Les’s daughter Wendy.”
After two years training with Purdon, Reid decided to branch out on his own.
“He was really good to me. He gave me gear, carts and he even gave me three horses. It gave me a real kick. Two of the horses were racehorses. One was Amendment which we’d just brought up from Christchurch and he won within two or three weeks of me going into training. I was always very appreciative of what he did for me.”
He continued, “He was an extremely good horseman and a very good driver. He never did a big team, maybe about 10 but he really focussed on his horses. They were always brushed up and they looked immaculate. He was a very good feeder and paid attention to detail. They’re the two things I took away from working with Les.”
Purdon trained for all of his career at a property on Harrisville Road in Pukekohe.
“He bought that property maybe 50 to 60 years ago and his daughter Angela and her husband Kerry own it now. He was a great worker. He was one of those guys who would never get anyone in to do anything on the property. He would do everything himself. He could turn his hand to most things.”
Les had an affinity for colts.
“He used to love his colts. If he could leave them as colts he would. He said to me that he got taught from his Dad that colts needed to be really groomed up. When they go to the races they need to look good because the colts want to look like that. When you think about it, it makes sense. It’s like the boy going out on the town and trying to look good for the girls (laughter). He used to plait up their forelocks, have them bandaged up and they’d be shampooed,” said Reid.
At the end of his training career Purdon focused on exporting racehorses to America and became very good friends with international bloodstock agent John Curtin.
“He worked for Bob McArdle for years. They used to take horses to America and sell them along with John Devlin and Bob Latimer. It was big business in those days. We were selling three $100,000 horses a week to John Muscara,” Curtin said.
During the exporting years Les forged a great working relationship with international horse transporter IRT.
Curtin commented “IRT are so good at keeping you up to date with everything. They’d tell you when the horse got on the plane, what it did on the plane and when it got off. Les was very good at that and kept a track on everything all the way through. He was sensational.”
Les Purdon will be remembered as a quality reinsman and a trainer who focused on detail. He had a generous nature and willingness to help people get on in the industry that he loved.
Les is survived by his three children Angela, Wendy and Adrian and the wider Purdon family.
