The Peters blueprint: Family, patience and 11 stakes winners this season

Cover image courtesy of Western Racepix

Cosmic Crusader’s return in Saturday’s G3 Bletchingly Stakes is more than the comeback of a Group 1 winner. It could cap one of the finest breeding seasons in the country for Peters Investments.

Heading into the final weekend of 2025/26, horses bred by Bob Peters’ operation have won 11 stakes races, equal second among Australian breeders alongside Yulong Investments and trailing only Godolphin’s 30. Four of those stakes winners have carried the Peters colours, a reflection of an owner-breeder model that continues to succeed on its own terms.

While much of the industry chases commercial fashion, the Peters family has spent decades backing the same principles: patience, proven female families and horses bred to improve with time.

Cosmic Crusader to step out in Bletchingly

Saturday’s G3 Bletchingly Stakes at Caulfield is well known stepping stone for horses heading towards the big spring carnival races. This year’s field of nine is led by G1 Northerly Stakes victor Cosmic Crusader (NZ) (Maurice {Jpn}) who is resuming with a new trainer, Andrea Leek at Pakenham.

“We thought it might be worth a crack over East. He's shown that he's got the ability. He will start on Saturday in the Bletchingly to kick off his prep and then it’ll be race by race from then on,” said Liam Peters, who is racing manager for his grandfather Bob Peters of Peters Investments.

Liam affectionately calls his grandfather ‘the Old Boy’ throughout the interview and it’s obvious they have an outstanding relationship.

“I would assume he’ll end up in races like the PB Lawrence and the Memsie going forward, but we’ll just see how far he can get into the carnival if he does measure up over there. It's good seeing a lot of WA representation going over to the East recently, whether they're the Old Boy’s horses or other people's horses.”

Fellow WA runner Aztec Ruler (Universal Ruler) runs in the Bletchingly Stakes.

As well as Cosmic Crusader, who also won the Listed Carbine Club Of WA Stakes this season, Peters Investments bred and raced G3 Eurythmic Stakes winner Diamond Scene (So You Think {NZ}), as well as Listed winners Arcadia Park (NZ) (Ocean Park {NZ}) and Westbound (Toronado {Ire}).

Listed winners London’s Image (Headwater), Sentimental Hero (Al Maher) and triple Group 3 winner Western Empire (NZ) (Iffraaj {GB}) were bred by Peters Investments but sold as tried horses and are now raced by others.

New head trainer for the system

Bob Peters has long been acknowledged as one of Australia’s best breeders, and he’s kept the same process over many years. His broodmares live across Australia and New Zealand, and the weanlings come home to their property in West Australia for education. From there, they go into training once old enough, and Peters likes to have his horses with one main trainer.

“A few years ago, we changed over our trainers and brought Michael Grantham into the whole system. He had a few ebbs and flows getting used to things and ended up moving properties, but now everything’s running smoothly,” said Liam Peters.

“Working with Michael is great. He is one of the best horsemen that I've ever met. We all like having each other's thoughts and opinions and it's good to keep each other on our toes and keep each other thinking and guessing. It's a really easy process. Michael takes a lot of pride in how he presents his horses.

“It’s collaborative and I think the Old Boy is definitely enjoying his racing a lot more nowadays.

“Tony that runs the farm here is just amazing. It's his whole life. He's so dedicated. It's worth giving credit both to the old boy and the farm staff, especially Tony. Cosmic Crusader had a puncture through his tendon sheath, it didn’t damage the tendon but the Old Boy gave him time with 12 months in the paddock over the hills. The horse has developed and matured.”

Cosmic Crusader was a winner on debut at two, then added another win as a spring 3-year-old. He won two in succession as a spring 4-year-old, and then missed almost a year away from the track. He wasn’t seen from October 2024 until August 2025 when he resumed with a trial. This season he has added four wins, two at stakes level, to take his record to eight wins from 17 starts with earnings over $1.5 million.

He’s got his ways when it comes to matings

Much like famed breeder Tesio, who refused to discuss his methods and left it to analysts to try and unravel, Peters wasn’t keen to discuss his grandfather’s reasoning behind his mating choices.

“The old boy, he's got his own ways, and he's stood the test of time with the methods he uses. He’s a bit fan of stallions that will get you a mile and beyond. We have been trying to buy a few from the sprinting ranks in the last few years to balance things out.

“He puts in a lot of work, starting very early every year to get his matings together, and tosses and turns with a few of them.”

When asked how many mares Bob Peters is doing mating plannings for this season, Liam laughed.

“His answer is always too many. It fluctuates, so I can’t give you an exact number, but that’s what he says to absolutely everyone that asks that question.” The actual answer is “40-ish”.

“He tries to keep it around that number each year, but sometimes it gets out of hand. We try not to have too much sentimentality when we move some on, but there's a few that he definitely has soft spots for. The dam of Western Miss, that has put three in a row now, Western Pride obviously comes from a prolific stakes winning family. There's a few like that that he has soft spots for.”

Western Pride (Animal Kingdom {USA}) won four of her eight starts and is a half-sister to Western Empire, who won the G1 WA Railway Stakes in 2021 for Peters Investments before he was sold on Inglis Digital in 2023 for $150,000. He’s won three Group 3 races in WA this season. Another half-sibling is Listed winner Western Temple (Dream Ahead {USA}) and this season’s 3-year-old Listed winner Westbound.

“I think he's into the 4th or 5th generations of some of them by this stage.”

The sires of this season’s stakes winners demonstrate a willingness to spread his mares across Australia and New Zealand without much focus on the commercial yearling market.

“He puts the mares to whichever stallion he thinks will suit them best. When he puts them to a stallion and if the combination works and gets a nice foal or yearling or the 2-year-old starts going well, then he’ll continue to support the stallion. There’s no point changing what works.

“He’ll consistently try to go more than once for most matings and then start swapping around if need be. The mares can swap between New Zealand, New South Wales and Victoria. It's all a very easy process, working with Jarrod (Byers) at Milford and Julie (Harris) at Holbrook, and all the New Zealand mares are now at Waikato Stud who do a great job with them.”

Liam Peters spoke a lot about how his grandfather is great at problem solving. When presented with a problem that appears to have only a couple of mediocre solutions, Bob Peters has an uncanny ability to find a better solution from an angle no one else has seen.

“He's great to work with. He only ever wants to teach and provide and help people learn more things. He always says he's not done learning either. He'll never try to claim that he knows absolutely everything. I can ring him anytime whether it's about horses or not, he's willing to help,” Liam Peters said.

“The way he does things is just different. He just thinks differently to everyone.”

Emotional connections to each horse

The whole process is a family run affair with Liam’s mother Melissa doing all the administration for the horses.

“I’m in the bloodstock side of it, but then my mum is working every day in the office doing all the admin work, and my sister is taking more of an interest since Crispy came home from the vet hospital. She would say he is her horse. The whole family is getting involved and playing a part and enjoying every bit of it,” Peters said.

There’s a strong emotional connection that runs through everything the family does together.

“There’s only been three times that I’ve cried after a race. One was Cosmic Crusader winning his Group 1. Obviously, it was Michael’s first Group 1 and he’s one of my closest mates,” Liam Peters said.

“The other week Olympic Park won after breaking his pelvis and having all sorts of issues. I’d hand walked him for hours every day over a period of a few months.”

Olympic Park (NZ) (Ocean Park {NZ}) was a good 3-year-old last season, winning his first two starts, then adding two stakes placings. But then he pulled up sore when last in the Listed Challenge Stakes in February 2025. He went through a long rehabilitation, returning to the races in June 2026, then won second-up at Belmont earlier this month.

“And Crispy, I mean So Brave. We call him that which is not the best nickname, but when he won his maiden, I couldn’t stop bawling my eyes out. That was just something else, and I know my mum and sister were doing the same thing.”

So Brave (So You Think {NZ}) survived a firey truck crash as a weanling and spent months in hospital. He still has the burn scars, and the nickname says a lot about the Peters’ family sense of humour. At the time of his maiden win, Melissa Peters told the story to racing.com.

“He was involved in an accident in May 2021 when a car drove into the truck outside of Kalgoorlie. He and seven of our other weanlings were being transported home from NSW,” said Melissa Peters.

“The truck caught on fire and the bravery of the driver was incredible. He had 16 horses on there, the electrics wouldn't work so he was manually able to open one of the doors and eight horses were able to get out. Eight others unfortunately perished, either because of the fire or smoke inhalation.

“Little So Brave was in the back section of the truck and had to jump over a few of his travel mates that had already died to get out. He and the others ran off down the highway and the local Kalgoorlie racing community, led by Peter Fernie, were able to round them up and keep them safe.”

So Brave, now a 5-year-old gelding, has won three of his 12 starts and over $100,000.

“It amazes me the time everyone is willing to take and the effort behind the scenes that people wouldn’t even know about. Those two horses (Olympic Park and So Brave) are very intelligent animals and they’ve taken everything in their stride, and it think it helps when horses who have a willing attitude to get them through issues,” said Liam Peters.

A strong team of exciting youngsters

TTR asked Peters who are the horses we should be watching out for in the upcoming spring. It was Listed Aquanita Stakes winner Westbound who was the first one Liam mentioned.

“Westbound has come a long way from the beginning what he looked like as a younger horse. I remember the first prep he had with Michael. He was small and a bit weedy but he obviously had the brain for it. He wanted to be a runner, and was just a bit cheeky. It’s pretty typical of the Western family, but he's just come on leaps and bounds,” Peters said.

“He's filled out, he's grown. He is still obviously quite leggy. You can see it with his action. He really throws those front legs, but the maturity that he's made both physically and mentally from the start to now has just been absolutely massive.”

Western Miss (Ghaiyyath {Ire}) is another rising 4-year-old, from the same family. She only began racing this winter, and was placed in her first two starts before winning her next three in succession.

“She’s a proper Ghaiyyath, a big strong leggy type and is out of Westbound’s half-sister who had only eight starts but won four of them.

“This filly is one that needed a little bit more time. She hopefully can reach that black type level one day. She's definitely showing some promise, just needs to learn a bit more racing manners at this stage. It’s just a family that continues to keep providing.”

Peters Investments tend not to race their horses as 2-year-olds, or at least not until the end of their 2-year-old season. Among the rising 3-year-olds are a few that show promise.

“The Old Boy's done it the same way for years. He's only ever had a few 2-year-olds that will properly race before July. He had a couple step out this season. Treasured Legacy is one worth following. She had one run and went a little bit sore, so she’s being saved for the 3-year-old races.”

Treasured Legacy (Ole Kirk) won three trials as a pre-Christmas juvenile but was ninth of 10 in her only race day appearance to date.

“There’s a full brother to Cosmic Crusader. He's not really a similar mould and looks a bit of a faster racehorse. He might be worth following. He's had a trial.”

Cosmic Icon (Maurice {Jpn}) ran second at the trials in May.

“It’s good to see all these younger horses coming through. There's a fair few more that we've bought at the sales, and it’ll be interesting to see them, as we bring in new blood. We don’t really have any bias in terms of gender when we’re buying. But for a nice filly you might be willing to put in a couple of extra bids.”

And on the season’s outstanding results, Liam Peters was thrilled for his grandfather.

“He's put in a lot of time and effort and a lot of financial backing into the racing industry to get to this point. It’s great to see it paying off for him.”