Stephen Jupp

STEPHEN JUPP’s accomplished riding career was interrupted by injury at 38, an age at which senior jockeys only start coming into their own.

After a lengthy spell as assistant trainer to Charles Laird, Jupp (54) has just been appointed the new riding master for the South African Jockeys Academy (SAJA) riding master.

Here is a Profile of Jupp written for Legends Of The Turf in July 2009:

As assistant trainer to Champion-elect Charles Laird in KwaZulu-Natal, Stephen Jupp he has seen horseracing from two sides and the sport has been good to him.

As a jockey, Stephen battled it out with a generation of riders commonly regarded as the best the Highveld had seen –  the 70s crowd of  Gerald Turner, Raymond Rhodes, Martin Schoeman, James Maree, Roy Curling and Michael Cave.

“You had to be wide awake in those days because they never gave an inch, there was no buddy-buddy stuff. You could be pushed into a pocket among horses without even knowing it, or onto the fence, or suddenly find your riding crop missing when it was there a second ago!

“They were great riders, individuals who can’t be compared to today’s riders because barring a few exceptions there is no comparison. If I had to put my head on a block I’d say Schoeman was the best of them all. We were friends off the ‘field’ and sometimes, at a push, we’d ‘look after’ each other in a race, but for the most it was each man for himself.”

As an assistant trainer, however, he says has learnt more about the thoroughbred animal itself in his five years as assistant to Laird than in 24 years as a jockey.

“Oh my word, you won’t believe what it takes to get a single horse to the racetrack! They have these constant niggles, sore legs and feet, snotty noses and coughs. They’re like children, you can’t keep up! ”

Laird’s satellite base in Kwazulu-Natal is at Clairwood, a track which represents a full life circle for Stephen, who started his career at the ‘Garden Course’ in 1972. He was apprenticed  in the same year as Paul Gadsby, Hex Davie, Tojo O’Donoghue and Harold Taylor, all of whom would later hold different senior positions in racing, yet not in the saddle. Weighing a mere 35kg, he was indentured to trainer Joe Goss and rode most of his work at Clairwood.

Stephen Jupp

In the early days Stephen also rode for trainers Reg Passmore, Brian Cunningham and Nick Veldman, and later befriended Jackie Gorton.” Mr Gorton was a fantastic trainer, the best I’ve seen. He was a master horseman and taught me a great deal. He wanted me to do well and was big on pace, so my one goal with him was to learn to judge pace. He put me on good horses, left me alone to ride them and told me that I had to judge the pace perfectly if I wanted to win.

“In one period of racing I finished fifth or sixth on about 30 horses for Jackie Gorton. I would time my runs too late or too early. I was too young to realise that several of those rides were probably on horses ‘having a run’, but things clicked after a while and I began to get it right. That set the foundation for my career. I believe I was a good judge, in sprints and in marathons.’’

A versatile light-weight rider has half his battle won and the young Jupp was spotted by Bridget and Harry Oppenheimer in the then Transvaal, who wanted to take over his indentures from Mr Goss and retain the young apprentice. The Oppenheimers had employed Jackie Gorton’s son, John, as their trainer on the Highveld and needed a stable jockey.

Goss refused, and Stephen had to finish his apprenticeship in Durban, but it would prove to be worthwhile as he became Champion apprentice in then Natal just a year after Michael Roberts won his first SA Championship, as an apprentice.

He recalls: “Shortly after that I packed my bags and came up to Johannesburg and within a few weeks I won the UTA Handicap on Victory Song for trainer Brian Cunningham. The prize included a trip for two to any overseas destination, so I asked my friend Greg Sadie to come along to Europe. Greg was in the fashion business, he owed the Mr Man clothing store downtown.

“He decided to combine business with pleasure and was to be my guide. We toured five countries in Europe and went racing a few times. I was 21, it was an eye-opener and even learnt about the fashion business. We were gone for two months and for the first time I picked up weight which took me almost a year to shed when we came back!’’

The Oppenheimers were still interested though and Stephen soon became their retained jockey to trainer John Gorton. “John didn’t have the quality of horses that John Breval enjoyed in his time, but we did win a Derby and an Oaks. His best horses were Giant’s Castle and St Patrick. Our association with the Oppenheimers only lasted a few years before Gorton decided to move overseas and I went freelance.’’

Agiain, his low weight and all-round talents stood Stephen in good stead. He is the one jockey in modern racing history that picked up rides for almost every trainer on the block, from Freddy Chappell and Henry Eatwell to Spike Lerena, Jean Heming, Alec Laird, Ormond Ferraris, Robbie Sage and Patrick Shaw.

“Shaw’s Tickets and Tax was perhaps the best male horse I was involved with, but he was as unsound as he was brilliant,’’ Stephen tells.

The best filly he sat on was Silver Lining, trained by Albie Going. She was by Silverware from Sure Sign ans Stephen tells. “She won her Maiden by 15 lengths, then finished a close second to Little Mo giving her fifteen lengths at the top of the straight, then placed to colts like Tudor Blue and Fuzzy Rag before she broke down. She was amazing.’’

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Of apprentice jockeys, he opines: “I haven’t seen anyone recently in the class of  a Marcus, Strydom or Marwing. The Academy has dropped its standards. These days the youngsters get in too tall (“they are taller than me!’’) and they wear size 7 shoes!’’

On what it takes to ride a Canon Gold Cup winner (Stephen finished second on Compass Star, going down a short head to Numerator in 1975): “My advice to any jockey would be to ensure a trouble free run. You cannot get trapped on the fence because the runners get tired when they go up the hill and they fall back and you have to keep easing your mount.  Look for room, all the time!’’

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Jupp replaces Terrence Welsh who is moving to head up the Cape Town branch of the academy after the retirement of long-serving Vince Curtis at the end of the year.
By his own admission, Stephen is a workaholic and something of a perfectionist and his vast experience as both a jockey and trainer will benefit the apprentices.
“One never stops learning in this game but the academy must be a team effort and I will be working closely with Rhys (head riding instructor Rhys Van Wyk) and Lawrence (O’Donoghue)”.