There was not much Hec Anderton could not do with a horse.
The widely respected member of one of Otago racing’s great dynasties started as a jockey, had a long and successful career as a trainer and co-trainer, developed interests in breeding, and mentored and encouraged several people, including family members, in the industry.
He was best known for his exploits as a trainer.
Anderton, who died in Dunedin on September 5, aged 84, trained or co-trained the winners of over 350 races from his Wingatui stables. He had 22 wins with his father, also called Hector, and 98 wins over eight seasons with his late son, Steven.
It might be classified as an industry but horse racing is not a home for anyone who does not have a deep passion for horses.
His daughter, jockey-turned-trainer Debbie Kennedy, said her father was a good horseman because he loved his horses.
“In the afternoons, we’d go and strop up and he’d go back and have a look at the horse and sort of go over it and go, ‘oh, he’s looking a bit light’ or ‘his coat’s not looking the best’ and that sort of thing.
“He just really cared for his horses, and he was particular with their feeding and stuff like that.
“Everyone likes to train a winner. But it was more his love of horses and the satisfaction he got out of working with them.
“He trained every horse very individually, and that took a lot of work. You get to know a horse when you’re training it for a race, and he knew all the little things about what that horse needed.”
Anderton was an avuncular figure with time for a yarn with anyone.
But he also had some old-school values. If you went through a gate, you closed it. If you turned on a light, you switched it off. And you never walked around a bit of rubbish on the ground without picking it up.
He was also quite particular about the stables being mucked out properly, and would happily send his children back to do it again if it was not done right the first time.
Debbie and brother Steven worked for their father in their younger days and his expectations never lowered.
“You got given no favours. Just because we were family didn’t mean that you could get away with anything. We still had to get up and do our stuff, and if we didn’t do it properly, he told us about it.
“He was probably harder on us than most of his other apprentices because he wanted to teach us to do the job properly. You were never allowed to do half a job.”
It is impossible to talk about Hec Anderton without mentioning his brother, White Robe Lodge founder Brian.
The pair were exceptionally close, and had some common breeding interests.
Another generation of racing in the family has now emerged in the form of Australian-based jockey Jaylah Kennedy, Debbie’s daughter and Hec’s granddaughter.
“His biggest thrill, he said, right to his dying day, was watching his granddaughter ride and be successful. He loved it.”
Her father was immensely proud of all his grandchildren and was always interested in what they were doing and the first to put his hand up if a babysitter was needed, Debbie said.
“His whole life actually revolved around his family.”
Racing was always a demanding business, and it left little time for outside pursuits, but her father was a bit of a character who enjoyed a joke.
Hector Thomas Anderton was born in Mosgiel on March 21, 1941.
He was the fourth of seven children born to Hector senior and wife Alice (nee Powell).
After his early education at St Mary’s School, Anderton was sent “into town” to attend Christian Brothers, but the classroom life was not for him, and he quickly signed on as an apprentice jockey with his father.
His brother, Brian, rode his first winner aged 13 but a rule change extended the minimum age for an apprentice to 15, which was Anderton’s age when he rode his first winner, Irish Wings, at Beaumont in 1956.
His first major win in the saddle was the Churchill Stakes at Riccarton two years later on Fountainhead.
“I was staying at the boarding house with the staff from the stable of George Greene, who trained Fountainhead,” Anderton told the Otago Daily Times in 2008.
“The horse only had 7st 3lb [46kg] as a 3-year-old and I phoned Mr Greene to inquire if he had a rider.”
Anderton was told to get to Riccarton at 4am for his first ride on Fountainhead.
“Mr Greene asked me how would I hold the horse and I replied that if he didn’t put me on he would never know.”
Anderton went into a training partnership with his father, and they had 20 winners in their first season together, but the son went it alone early in the following season.
He tied for the trainers’ premiership with 41 wins but stepped back to join the local brickworks and freezing works before operating a horse transport business for the next five years.
The itch to train never went away, and he began operating out of rented stables before buying the Zetland Lodge stable at Wingatui in the late 1960s, which heralded the beginning of a long and successful spell in training.
Off the track, Anderton married Pat Roughan at St Peter Chanel, in Green Island, on October 1, 1966.
They settled into a busy life of horses and family. Michael was the first child to arrive, followed shortly after by Paul, twins Steven and Debbie, Janine and Tania.
While Anderton was the face of the training operation, his wife was a vital supporter in the background and kept exceptionally busy by looking after the growing family as well as employees at the stables.
They were years of hard work — Anderton famously said he and his wife did not have a holiday for 28 years — and treasuring success when it came, which is never guaranteed in the racing game.
Anderton’s greatest horse was Mellseur, a hard-charging mare of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Mellseur won the group 1 race now known as the Thorndon Mile at Trentham in 1980 to go with the Thames Valley Stakes and George Adams Handicap. She won 17 races in all, including the South Island Thoroughbred Stakes at Orari twice and the Gore and Waikouaiti cups.
“I would lean towards her being the best horse I trained — but it is hard to decide from horses from so far apart [in time]”, Anderton told the ODT.
“But Mellseur was the top weight-for-age mare in the country of her year. She was an extremely good horse.”
He also relished success with The Jewel, who won the group 1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas in 2002, the group 1 International Stakes at Te Rapa, and the Doomben Roses.
Sand Sweeper was another strong performer with 10 wins in New Zealand, including the 2005 Canterbury Gold Cup and Easter Cup.
Anderton enjoyed regular visits across the Ditch, winning 10 races at eight different tracks on five trips to Australia. He won listed races at Caulfield and Moonee Valley with Native Monarch, and won at Flemington in hurdles (Noble River), steeplechase (Owhata Son) and flat (Native Monarch and Ain’t No Doubt) racing.
He had a soft spot for jumping horses, won his first Great Western in 1974 with Jak Tat, and had his major win in the discipline with Rock Crystal in the 1986 Great Northern Steeplechase.
He had taken over Rock Crystal upon the death of his father.
“Rock Crystal had bowed a tendon the year before and Dad had showed me how to patch up a tendon just before he died.”
The horse gave Anderton a second Great Western win in 1988.
Anderton bred various horses, often in partnership with brother Brian. One was De Montfort, whom he trained to win the 1999 Dunedin Cup with daughter Debbie in the saddle.
After forming a thriving training partnership with son Steven, Anderton retired from training in 2008, later telling the ODT he wanted to give his son a chance to step out from his shadow.
“I had two reasons for retiring and one of them was to see what the other side of the coin looked like.
“I reckon as long as I was standing beside Steven, I was going to be getting the accolades which he richly deserved. I did not want to be standing in his way.
“I walked out of that stable and left everything there … and said ‘it’s your go now, boy’.”
Steven later tried to lure his father back into the game but Anderton was enjoying his new-found spare time too much.
He made a brief return to training when tragedy struck the family in March 2015. Steven died in hospital following an accident involving a horse truck.
Anderton trained in partnership with Steven’s widow, Claire, before standing back to allow the talented horsewoman to run the operation.
Horses were his stock in trade but Anderton also enjoyed his feathered friends.
He dabbled in budgie breeding and relished the chance to show the birds in competition.
Anderton is survived by wife Pat, children Michael, Paul, Debbie, Janine and Tania, and 12 grandchildren. — Hayden Meikle
HEC ANDERTONÂ
Horseman