Life Held No Ifs for Buttsy

Obituary By Tony Wode

North Queensland racing has had many great characters but few have lived a life as colourful and adventurous as journalist, horse trainer and raconteur Terry Butts.

Buttsy, as he was known to his friends the world over, finally lost a brave fight against a long illness earlier this week at age 79.

A resident of Townsville since the late 1980s, Buttsy’s wide circle of friends were a reflection of his life experiences, among them judges, lawyers, politicians, journalists, many famous racing identities and everyday people.

It seemed there was hardly anyone he didn’t know and very little he didn’t try in his working life.

He was for many years a bookmaker, managed hotels, was the first English speaking race caller in Hong Kong, also called in South Africa, and wrote for various publications during a packed and drama filled life.

Buttsy was born into a racing family in 1943 in Albury, the son of leading trainer L.K. (Bill) Butts and mum Dulcie. 

He maintained a lifelong connection with Albury, which was to pay off handsomely in his training days.

His biggest success was in the 1991 Townsville Cup with ex-Albury galloper Gift Man who was trained for him by Ray Caught, and came from legendary country trainer Richard Freyer.

But after completing a cadetship as a reporter on the Border Mail, it was journalism, as well as racing, that shaped Buttsy’s life. 

In the old nomadic days of the reporting business, Buttsy’s career included stints on the Dominion in New Zealand, South China Morning post in Hong Kong, The Mail in Durban, the Mackay Mercury, NT News, the Townsville Bulletin, the Townsville Advertiser and North Queensland Register.

He proudly boasted that as a turf editor he introduced the first form guides in Hong Kong and Durban and helped launch the international career of legendary Australian race caller Jim McGrath.

Fluent in Cantonese from his days in Hong Kong, Buttsy was a skilful story teller.

As a young sports reporter in the late 1980s I remember when he first showed up in the Townsville Bulletin newsroom, arriving fresh from Darwin.

He made a beeline for the sports desk and regaled myself, a young David Reguson and the Pratt brothers Michael and Tim (sons of the great race caller Larry), with the stories of his days in Hong Kong, South Africa and on countless race tracks - and we were transfixed.

Just last year he showed me an extract from a memoir written by one of his old mates about their time together in “Honkers”.

The two of them had gone to the Macau races and later “both full as a boot” went to a swish restaurant for dinner and more drinks.

Buttsy spotted a table of people enjoying a Chinese banquet and homed in.

“Do you know I can do a very clever trick? I can remove the tablecloth from this table without disturbing anything.”

With a swish Buttsy whipped the table cloth away, sending everything flying. The sumptuous duck went skyward toward Peking, the lamb in the other direction towards Mongolia.

Security was called. Buttsy had only a faint memory of that night but believed it. His magic trick was never revived.

As a journo he didn’t hold back.

For a number of years his column in the Townsville Bulletin, known as Ifs and Butts and then Butts on Monday, was a must read - and often pushed the limits.

His vast array of contacts kept him up to date with rumour, humour, fact and fiction doing the rounds in the city. He did a good job of sifting through it under the watchful eye of the libel lawyers.

After leaving the Bulletin to step up his horse training, Buttsy also wrote a popular racing column in the North Queensland Register – Silks & Saddles - which was  reproduced each week by John “Lucky” Lingard on the Letsgohorseracing website.

On many occasions he was at odds with racing authorities at club and State level with his forthright column which in some cases was the only voice for the rank and file in the North.

Townsville Turf Club chairman Mal Petrofski summed him up from the administration side of the fence.

“Buttsy was passionate about racing and certainly let everyone know his opinion. He knew every bit of the industry from his experience - as a bookie, journalist, caller and trainer.

“He wasn’t afraid to take on people in positions from the top to the bottom.

“We didn’t always see eye to eye but at least you knew where you stood with him and you knew that in his mind he was fighting for what he thought was best for the industry.”

Eventually Racing Queensland lost their patience with him. They took action to rescind his trainer’s license for writing a column piece quoting another trainer critical of the State’s swabbing protocols.

Buttsy was incensed with what he argued was an attack on freedom of speech.

They picked the wrong guy.

With the help of lawyer Barry Taylor, and the support of his inner circle he forced a back down.

At the time there was a bit of mainstream media coverage on the issue and Buttsy went on the local ABC radio in an interview which I happened to hear.

At the end the journo suggested the action seemed excessive.

Buttsy responded saying: “I know. You’d think I’d been caught … with a goat on Castle Hill.”

It was very funny. I rang him to congratulate him and he was shocked. He didn’t know that it had gone to air live… but he laughed.

Buttsy had a very good record for someone who only stepped up his training of horses as a profession in his mid-40s.

His statistics were impressive.

With his characteristic limp (thanks to a serious car accident in Hong Kong) and with binoculars swinging off his arm, he led in 203 winners at a strike rate of 14%. 

It was a team operation with wife Kathy, a school teacher, and children Anne-Marie, Dominique and Brendan all helping out. In more recent years he relied heavily on his  able lieutenant Kerry Donnelly.

With a number of loyal owners over the years that included his long-time friend former Judge Bob Pack, Chris McMahon, John Kennedy, Bob Jones, the late Liam Barry and the late Frank Hornby, Buttsy bought wisely and was good at setting them up for a punt.

His greatest day was the ’91 Townsville Cup when Gift Man, trained by Ray Caught and ridden by one of the best in Paul Gordy, breezed to a big win for Buttsy and a group of local notables including the then mayor Tony Mooney, and Dave Harrison of radio fame.

They won the Cairns Amateur Cup as well.

But over the years Buttsy also won the Cairns Cup and amateur cups in Townsville, as well as feature races in Mackay and many country tracks around the north.

One of his finest results was at Cluden Park when he won the 2014 Cleveland Bay Handicap with Victorian galloper Living On A Prayer ridden by Kelvin Wharton.

Living On A Prayer won by a whisker and landed a sizable betting plonk leaving some of Buttsy’s old bookie colleagues licking their wounds.

He continued to train a scaled back team towards the end of his life and won his last race with the good galloper Proximate Cause in December 2021.

Proximate Cause put together two wins for his new trainer Garry “Muttaburra” Dickson at Cluden in recent weeks to Buttsy’s delight.

He defied his illness for almost three years, thanks to his love for life and the amazing care and support of Kathy - whom he met in South Africa and insisted on calling Kathleen -  and the kids Anne-Marie, Dominique and Brendan (a trainer himself) and his eldest daughter Melinda, from his first marriage in Hong Kong.

Kathy this week described life with Buttsy as sometimes haphazard but never dull.

“It has been a very interesting and wonderful life with Terry. I said to him at the end we’ve had an amazing life - you’ve given me amazing children,” she said.

“We’ve had our ups and downs, but golly it’s been full of variety and full of adventure.

“He was mercurial. He’d suddenly get an idea and woosh we would be gone … or he would suddenly get an idea and we’d think we were going to do something and I’d say “children, we never know we’re going until we’re gone.”

Terry Butts lived life with a flare and passion, which came through in his writing.

He could write and tell a great yarn and was at times controversial. He loved a game of chance and beating the odds, he loved his family and stood up for the things he believed in.

What better way to be remembered.

The funeral for Terry Butts will be held next Wednesday 15 March at 11:30am, at Ryan Community Centre.

Main Picture: Getting the good oil. Terry enjoys a quiet moment with one of his stable stars.

First picture: You little beauty!  Terry Butts leads Gift Man back to scale with Paul Gordy in  the saddle after claiming the 1991 Townsville Cup. Gift Man was trained for Buttsy by Ray Caught.

Second picture: Always flamboyant. Bookie Terry loved a durry and didn't mind a safari suit.