When winning the Perth Cup is more than just ticking one off a bucket list.
- Bruce Clark
- Dec 30, 2025
- 4 min read
Picture this. Big Peter Walsh is driving home from Bunbury, not a long haul, about 45 minutes maybe, but he is having chest pains.
And for a man with a more than ample chest, the pains are getting more than, well, ample.
Things are worrying to say the least, especially for him. Enough to know to ring his sister, working at the local surgery at Busselton.
She quickly dispatches an ambulance, fearing Walsh might not make it home, let alone at all.
“Next thing I knew “Buckets” was above me about to give me mouth to mouth, or the kiss of life, whatever you call it,” Walsh recalls.
“No way was I letting a bloke kiss me, let alone Buckets. I could hear the ambulance siren in the distance, and I think I said: “I’m coming good, I’ll be alright,” even though I wasn’t.”
So, what has anything of this got to do with the TABtouch Perth Cup on New Year’s Day.
Well Walsh is that butcher, from Busselton. With brother Greg he bought an abattoir on Queen Elizabeth Street half a century ago and has since conquered the meat world, allowing for a passion in horses, the punt, wine and hospitality. If you see the name Amelia, like in Amelia’s Jewel, or Amelia Park, you’ve just about got him.
Buckets is, or sadly was, Graeme Ridge, no-one quite sure where the “Buckets” bit came from, but apparently it wasn’t meant to be complimentary at the time, but he was always known as simply Buckets.
Worked for a quarter of a century for Walsh’s brother-in-law Neil Henchie, at Pendrey Agency, delivering all things rural to the west’s farmers.
“He was just a champion fella, everybody loved him, no-one ever said a bad word about him, he was part of our extended family as we got to know him very well.” Walsh said.
But it wasn’t that long after Buckets and that kiss may have helped Walsh save his life, that he lost his own.
Life’s handicapper dealt him a dreadful impost on the form card reading a penalty of leukaemia and it was a final race he couldn’t win.
“He was only 60, full of life, great family, it was just tragic, so tragic,” Walsh said.
Enter Buckets’ son Craig and Brett to the story.
“Perth Cup Day was always dad’s favorite day of the year, he just loved it,” Craig said.
“There is a photo of us at home together which we treasure, that was his last Perth Cup Day, he’d never owned a horse, but he loved the races and when we lost him, we just decided to do something for him and to remember him by and embrace for all the family.” he said.
So, Neil comes back to Walsh with a request from the Ridge lads - “we’ve got to find a horse for Buckets.”
“There was only one condition,” he said to his brother-in-law.
“They had to name it,” said Walsh.
Walsh had the horse, a son of Pride Of Dubai, lot 23 in the 2022 Magic Millions sales in Perth from the Amelia Park draft, knocked down to Henchie, the boys had their horse for dad Buckets and Buckets Ridge it was duly named.
Walsh stayed in, and carrying his green, red sleeves, white armbands colours, the wildest of dreams is one sleep closer.
Buckets Ridge the horse, named after Buckets Ridge, dad, granddad, husband (to Vicky) and all-round good fella now runs second favorite in a Perth Cup.
“We never thought any more of just having a horse run around in dad’s name, let alone winning a race,” Craig Ridge said.
“This horse has brought us all together, it’s been such an emotional ride for all of us, but now to think of the Perth Cup, well that’s something different, something we never could have dreamed of.”
“No matter what happens on Perth Cup Day, we already feel like we have won it, just to have a horse for dad in his favorite race on his favorite day and to get there with a chance, wow, it’s just unbelievable.”
Sure, there have been six wins along the way, and the near $500,000 in prize money fuels the excitement, but this really is a money you can’t buy experience.
Like when the Ridge grandkids sidle alongside Willie Pike after a Northam Cup win brandishing their home-made signs “Go Buckets”, at the Melvista Stakes Day at Ascot, and that lead-in win in the Towton Cup.
Vicky Ridge is less than exuberant (but certainly not removed) in her cheering, it’s left to a more subtle “Go Hon” as Buckets Ridge does what husband Graeme could only have hoped for.
Walsh may not come across as that “sentimental bloke”, but you can bet he’s hoping there is another cuddle in the Buckets Ridge story on New Year’s Day.
“It’s been so good for everyone that to even get this horse to a Perth Cup is just unbelievable."
Walsh knows how hard it is to win one. He got there with King Canute but that was back in 2004. Swift Knight managed to find Buster O’Malley and Colin Hayes with top liners Phizaam and Bianco Lady in the Cup glory days back in 1983 and 1985, running second on both occasions.
“Dad would just love to be there on his favorite day, imagine having a horse called Buckets Ridge running,” says Craig Ridge.
And if it does happen, and if someone goes to give Walshy a kiss on the lips, he might need more than another resuscitation. He’ll need a big bucket! A Perth Cup trophy might have to do.
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