Jockey, assistant trainer and Riding Master Stephen Jupp’s career in racing has spanned five decades and he will thoroughly deserve his retirement which starts at the end of this month.
Jupp was one of the top riders of his day in an era when the competition was ultra tough.
Top jockeys Robbie Sivewright and Charlie Barends, upon seeing young Jupp playing junior soccer at the Kingsmead football club, suggested to his father he apply for the South African Jockeys Academy due to his tiny physique.
In 1972 Fourteen-year-old Jupp had never sat on a horse before but gelled with them immediately, although the Academy itself in that day was tough due to a prevalence of bullying. It took him just three months to be workriding and nine months later he had his first ride at Clairwood on the Jackie Gorton-trained Saving Grace, which finished unplaced.
His first winner was in his fourth ride on the Eileen Bestel-trained French Doll at Scottsville. Looking back he regards Scottsville as his favourite track. He recalled, “It used to have a dip at about the 1400m mark where you disappeared from view and the bend had a reverse camber so it wasn’t an easy course but I once rode five winners in a day there.”
Stephen Jupp
Jupp was indentured to small-string Clairwood trainer Joe Goss, but was in demand and had 1500 odd rides as an apprentice for 156 winners, seven of them for Goss.
Among those was the Brian Cunningham-trained Amazing Grace, who in 1975 became the first filly to win the Grade 1 Smirnoff Plate. As an apprentice he also won the Kings Cup and the In Full Flight Stakes and finished second in the Gold Cup aboard the Jackie Bell-trained Compass Star.
The Oppenheimers wanted to buy the indentures from Goss but the latter refused and Jupp believes in retrospect that was probably a blessing in disguise.
However, upon becoming licensed he joined the Newmarket-based Oppenheimer stable, whose trainer was John Gorton.
The Oppenheimer’s good sires Free Ride and Wilwyn had been replaced by Ribofilio, who did not throw much, so they went through a relatively dry spell and soon closed their Newmarket stable and began using a number of trainers.
He did win the SA Oaks twice for the Oppenheimers though with Grease Paint and Torpedo Boat and also won the Jubilee Handicap for them. He went on to win the latter race three times in succession.
He had plenty of support and his big career wins which sprang to mind were the Grade 1 SA Guineas on Crimson Waves, the Racing Digest 1900 on the one-eyed Bluffing, he twice won the Grade 1 Ok Gold Bowl, on The Monk and Honey Chunk respectively, the SA Derby on Kadarko, the Keith Hepburn twice, on First City, owned by Bles Bridges, and on Susan’s Dream, and he also won the Grade 1 SA Fillies Sprint on the latter, and he won the Grade 1 Natal Derby twice, including on Fire Arch.
However, he said his best memory in racing was his victory on the Roy Magner-trained Leopard Strike in the first million rand race in SA, the Bloodline Million.
He recalled, “Leopard Strike was the most expensive horse in the race, costing R250,000, and I was so confident I told Roy Magner to put his wages on.”
His best finishes in the July were third on Violero and fourth on Tickets And Tax and he finished third in the Met twice, on Brief Affair and Bluffing respectively.
Jupp’s career was cut short when he injured his back in a fall at Randjesfotein one morning at the age of just 38.
He had ridden with a selection of South African greats like Gerald Turner, Martin Schoeman, Raymond Rhodes and David Cave in Johannesburg, Michael Roberts and Johnny McCreedy in KZN and Garth Puller and Karl Neisius in the Cape, among many others.
He said, “In Johannesburg a trainer could throw his colours in the jockeys room and would not mind who picked them up. In KZN Muis (Roberts) was different division and was just about unbeatable at Greyville.”
He remembered the Cape trainers, Terrance Millard, Theo de Klerk and Jackie Bell as being top class and in Johannesburg he had ridden for the like of Ormond and David Ferraris and Jean Heming and he named Clairwood trainer Jackie Gorton as “a legend”.
Jupp also rode in Mauritius for five months for Sir Guyton Duval and had a number of winners.
Top trainer Charles Laird offered Jupp a job a year after his retirement from the saddle.
He was assistant to Laird for eleven years, including in his SA Championship-winning year, and ran his KZN satellite yard at Clairwood before Laird moved down from Johannesburg. He was thus associated with many great horses like Vodacom Durban July winner Hunting Tower, Lion Tamer, Warm White Night, Oracy, Rebel King and many others. He recalled Laird as being a master of planning target races for horses, no matter whether they were top class or lesser thoroughbreds. He said the other key to his success was the “hard-working Anton Marcus.”
Upon Clairwood being closed, Jupp applied for a position as riding master at the Academy and was there for six seasons. “I loved teaching the youngsters,” he said.
Drumming in “the basics” was his first goal. He mentioned current champion jockey Lyle Hewitson as being easy to work with as “he had good manners and listened, he was not a big shot.”
Donovan Dillon, Callan Murray, Keagan de Melo, Ashton Arries, Eric Ngwane and Serino Moodley are other talented riders he has worked with and he mentioned Khanya Sakayi as a rider who had become prominent among the claiming apprentices due to “sheer hard work.”
Jupp’s son Calvin followed him into jockeyship but had to stop due to an ankle injury and his other son Darren has a fire protection company where Stephen might now help out in while enjoying his retirement.
By David Thiselton
