A published author and the first lady workrider to grace the training tracks at Summerveld, today at the age of 77 Molly Joyce has enough horseracing anecdotes and memories to keep any racing fan reminiscing for a week.
Molly published a racy sexy tale called July Fever in 1980. The book was an instant hit with the media and the racing public.
Click below:
Feeling it has relevance even today, she recently republished it on Amazon – please click on the graphic above to find out more.
A bit about Molly – in her own words:
I met Trevor Botten who was assistant trainer to Theo de Klerk at their Beverly Stables in Muizenberg when attempting to learn to jump at a local riding school.
Alan Higgins – we called him Big Al
Trevor and Alan Higgins used to visit the owner Jill Perks for tea after second string. After watching me fall off several times Trevor asked me if I really wanted to learn to ride. I said yes. He replied that I should come to Muizenberg beach at 6 o’clock the next morning and he would teach me.
That is how it all began.
I was put up on a quiet thoroughbred and for a few weeks was only allowed to walk and trot. Then Peter Kannemeyer began to teach me, the two of us working horses together down the sand track. He used to tap me on the back with his crop to get down lower!
My riding improved and I began to ride work for Gail Thompson and Alan Higgins, whom we always called Big Al.
Norman Gottscho was the other stable jockey and he taught me a lot too.
Stanley Amos after his 1965 Fillies Guineas win on Renounce – with owner, Mr P Dolt.
Eventually I was riding gallops at Kenilworth with Johnny Cawcutt and Stanley Amos.
At the same time I was taking dressage lessons with Siegrid de Jager. Her husband Henny was well known in Cape Hunt amateur racing circles.
Norman Gottscho used to hack my horse from Muizenberg up to Siegrid’s place in Constantia for my lesson and when I was finished hack it back!
Gonda Butters also taught me and I learned to jump a bit better with her but I was never very good at it.
However she taught me a lot that stood me in good stead for the riding school.
Trevor got a horse for me called Portavon that had won the Port Natal Handicap and I showed him as a novice hunter at the Cape Hunt and Polo Club grounds, winning that class, the horse likely to make a hunter, then Champion Hunter!
I subsequently started a riding school and called it Portavon Riding School.
Paulie de Wet
Over the years I used to visit the farms with Trevor and Theo and got to know breeders like the Dells of Platberg Stud, Alec Robertson of Grootfontein and the Gortons of Noreen Stud, Paulie de Wet of Zandvliet – and many more.
They all taught me so much especially Alec and the Gortons.
There I fell in love with Drum Beat and watched my first service. At the time I was the work rider of Rumba Rage, a huge Drum Beat horse that pulled like a train but seemed to settle with me.
He was a top division sprinter. The other sprinters I rode for the stable were Benzol, a Silver Tor horse that, if I am not mistaken won 6 races in a row and Easter Tide a Royal Affair horse.
I well remember riding a gallop with Johnny and Stanley at Kenilworth over 12 furlongs flat out and winning the gallop – with a weight advantage!
I rode Chichester and Tragallion for Gail Thompson and a good few for Big Al.
The de Klerk – I rode work for this great trainer
De Klerk always took horses up to Durban for the season and I was the first girl to ride work at Summerveld with the likes of David Payne and Charlie Barends.
I have always written and once had a half page article about Hawaii in the Cape Times as by chance I was visiting the Dell’s farm and stopped to see a mare foaling in the paddock. It was Ethane and the foal was subsequently named Hawaii and became champion yearling of his year. The rest is history!
I hunted with the Cape Hunt and Polo Club and won an amateur race on a horse called Faradak that Trevor had trained for Beverly and Michael Shulman, the son of Scotty Schulman trained for the amateur races.
Finally Trevor and I married and we Built Indicator Lodge at Phillipi named after a horse Trevor had ridden in those amateur days at Durbanville.
Here I prepared the yearlings for the racing stable and Peggy Binstead always gave me her fillies such as Mums the Word and Step Lightly to break in and school.
The riding school days brought me in contact with the late Mike Wintle. I sold him a good pony for his three girls and he and Judy became fast friends. I bought a horse called Non Skid for them that I trained and that won at the Cape Hunt amateur races.
Mike and Judy were hooked and we all went to a culling sale in Colesberg and bought a parcel of mares very cheaply but amongst them was the mare that became Sunrise Stud’s foundation mare. Ask Judy Wintle about that.
The sad end of the story is that Trevor had a stroke and I had to take over the licence. I trained for the Fleggs and had winners with House Lights, Mithra and Saccharum.
Nowadays I paint and write and I live in Johannesburg and with my daughter Susan Loftus who married Johan Loftus.
We produce guide books for Botswana, Namibia and Zambia that means travelling extensively through Southern Africa.
My email address is [email protected]
