COURTESY OF THE WEST AUSTRALIAN
No one could perfectly capture nor describe the emotions Chris Lewis felt when saluting aboard Petes Honour in Friday’s Vale Mark Lewis Pace at Gloucester Park.
So no one tried. They merely combined in a symphony of united applause, welcoming back to scale the heroics of a sporting legend who lost his son far too soon.
Mark Lewis, 43, died unexpectedly in his sleep the week before and left a void truly felt worldwide, both through his equine professionalism and companionship.
“We’ve had calls from America and all-around Australia,” Chris Lewis said.
“Doug Dilloian Jr (in America) was one of Mark’s best mates. He rang and was just devastated, and said, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to go on.’ When making a new move, he’d always bounce it off Mark first.
“Mark was a quiet guy who only had some really close friends. They were loyal to him, and he was loyal to them.
“People probably didn’t always understand him, but that was him.
“He was a great horseman who knew more about horses than I did.
“That was his life.”
At 19 years of age in February 2000, Mark became the then youngest driver to win a race at the exalted Meadowlands racetrack in the USA when partnering Lord Marques.
Mark’s motto was that horses always came first, a fact that Chris favourably recalls from a trip to visit him in America thereafter.
“When 9/11 happened, we were over there for a month to stay with (US trainer) Kelvin Harrison,” he said.
“That morning, we were going into New York, and that rail trip would have taken us straight under the towers.
“The only saving grace was that we had to work the horses first.”
In all, Mark drove 245 US winners and trained 61 in a stint that shaped him both on a working and human front.
“He was prepared to go above and beyond,” Chris said.
“One time, a mare was sick, and he just stayed up all night, dripping it and leading it. That was the type of person he was.
“He wouldn’t step on an ant; he just cared so much about animals.”
Becoming just the third reinsman in history to register 6000 career triumphs with Petes Honour in September 2023, a poetic symmetry emerged when the Jemma Hayman-trained four-year-old was engaged for Friday’s race.
“The moment we saw the name of the race, we had to make sure the preparation of that horse was spot on; I felt the pressure of it being a Group race,” Hayman said.
“I’ve never wanted to win a race more for somebody than I did.
“To see Chris cross the line and look up at the sky, I don’t think a word can describe that, but that memory will last forever.
“No father should ever have to feel that. People can say what they want about racing but it’s there for people when they need it most.”
Hayman’s husband, champion trainer Ross Olivieri, utilised Chris’ masterly driving skills to collect some of harness racing’s richest glories across a premiership-winning partnership stretching many decades.
Despite the tumult and torture of the previous week and a half, outwardly, Chris was cool and composed as ever when he sailed Petes Honour to lead Friday’s contest.
Even with half a lap remaining and his rivals rowing away, it was clear that Lewis and ‘Pete’ had them done.
Propelled by a higher power, the pair paced away in sweet isolation, giving the invariably reserved reinsman a chance to salute the heavens.
“It was a tribute and that’s the way it felt,” Lewis said.
“I was totally concentrated on the race and making sure I did the job.
“I felt for Deb (Chris’ wife); she wasn’t able to make it.
“The warm down was pretty hard. I still feel empty.
“But crossing the line, it just felt right.”
Petes Honour was named in memory of the late Peter Carbon, a scratch golfer who would often be given the ‘honour’ of teeing off first.
Carbon was a part-owner of the Olivieri-trained Double Expresso, who Lewis drove to multiple Group 1 successes in 2019.
“To achieve what he has achieved and still be driving at the level he is, is unbelievable,” Olivieri said.
“He can always get that little bit extra out of his horse; there’s no one like him.
“And you will never find anyone who can say a bad thing about him.”
The racing industry sends their sympathies to Chris, Deb and sister Nicole as we remember a friend to human and horse alike.
