fordson

Definitely not. Peter Simpson the ex Pukekohe trainer lives in America these days and trains at Goshen outside New York !

Eugene McDermott was my grandfather, and was only 54 years of age when he died in 1939. He had had rheumatic fever 6 weeks earlier, in those days medical science had not discovered or were aware that this condition can seriously impact and strain the heart, it is well recognised now. He had won the NZ cup in 1934 driving Indianapolis in his first of three. I train/drive in his colours, first registered in 1912, the oldest set in the country I would think. In 2009, 70 years after his death, in my first drive on Addington in a non tote amateur race, I saluted the judge, a win that gave me enormous personal satisfaction. I am now much older than my grandfather was when he died at Addington, pass a strenuous medical test every year to keep my amateur licence but clearly if a similar event/illness hit me like my grandfather no annual medical can prevent it. John McDermott