Tuesday, 1 August 2023

Members statements

Peter Mertens

Sonja TERPSTRA (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (14:59): I rise to advise the house of the sad passing of Peter Mertens. Peter, despite being small in stature, was a giant in the racing industry. At the age of 14 Peter left school and his family home in Morwell to become an apprentice jockey for George O’Malley in Sale. In 1979, his first year of racing, he achieved his first win on Meadow Law at Bairnsdale. This was not to be his only win, as his success continued with 2100 wins under his belt and an outstanding career that lasted 35 years, and for that he was widely regarded as the king of Gippsland. Following a challenging race fall in 2013, Peter could no longer follow his passion and turned to training horses in St Leonards in 2016. It was during that time that he met and later married Gulcin. Gulcin and Peter eventually settled in Montmorency, and despite Peter being given a cancer diagnosis, Gulcin and Peter married in 2020 and enjoyed three beautiful years together filled with love, laughter and all that life had to offer. Peter was a proud father to six children – Troy, Zac, Tory, Jake, Beau and Lily-Anne – and proud stepdad to Sibel, Sarah and Serena, and of course proud grandfather to Sophie, Marshall, Jax and Jax’s sibling due in October of this year. A life well lived and sadly gone far too soon. Vale, Peter Mertens.