THE GOLDEN AGE OF THOROUGHBRED SHOWJUMPING HORSES & RIDERS IN SOUTH AFRICA (PART ONE)

Pictured above: An amazing South African Showjumping Team photograph C1985 of from left to right FLAUNT & Gonda Betrix / POWERFORCE & Barry Taylor / STORM FINCH & Anneli Wucherpfennig / GOSSIPER & Peter Gotz. In Part One, of what will be a three part series, we take a look at the cream of the hugely talented pool of Thoroughbred horses, who once finished with their racing careers, went on to establish themselves as exceptional showjumping horses of the highest order in South Africa together with their riders, many of whom became household names from the late 1960s through to the early 1990s. During that period these super athletes thrilled big crowds at major events like the Rand Easter Show, the Royal Show, the Rothmans Showjumping Derby and the Tongaat Grand Prix. Many of them were also brought directly into our living rooms by the SABC during the Saturday afternoon sport shows of the early years of television in South Africa.

Horse

APPRAISE DRESS SUIT FLAUNT GOSSIPER

HONEY GIRL (SPEEDY CIRCLE) NEBRASKA

POWERFORCE (WILLIE GARVIN) PRECENTOR SEVILLE STORM FINCH TAMBOURLAINE THALES TORCH SIGN TSUNAMI Rider BornColour Sex Sire

Mickey Louw Janie Myburg Gonda Betrix Peter Gotz Gonda Betrix Anneli Wucherpfennig Barry Taylor Sue Louw-Pieters Anneli Wucherpfennig Anneli Wucherpfennig Janie Myburg Peter Gotz Mickey Louw Barry Taylor 1965 1971 1975 1971 1968 1971 1972 1973 1967 1973 1966 1961 1958 1978

Brown Brown Chestnut Dark Bay Bay Chestnut Chestnut Brown Bay Bay Bay Bay Chestnut Chestnut Gelding Gelding Gelding Mare Mare Gelding Gelding Gelding Gelding Gelding Gelding Gelding Gelding Gelding Joie De Vivre II Kingbenitch Prosperous Porky Arctic Circle Even Beat Akbar II Preamble II Jerez Jerez Dramatic II Noble Chieftain Signification Trocadero Dam

Logistic Dress Ring Fast Feet Cantankerous African Helio Shalvah Silver Shadow Limoges Minden Thunder Light Majorca New Eclipse Tontorch Beauclare Dam Sire

Combat Abadan II Royal Affair Cantador II Astale L'aretin Clouds Abadan II Giafar Thunderhead II Preamble II Double Eclipse Victory Torch Dramatic II Grandam Sire

Hyperion Lenin Red Wood II Defiant II Sunstone Boveney Brookhill Niccolo Dell'arca Fenimore Cooper Kipling Niccolo Dell'arca Grassgreen Marlborough Mail Plane

Horse

APPRAISE DRESS SUIT FLAUNT GOSSIPER HONEY GIRL (SPEEDY CIRCLE) NEBRASKA POWERFORCE (WILLIE GARVIN) PRECENTOR SEVILLE STORM FINCH TAMBOURLAINE THALES TORCH SIGN TSUNAMI Breeder

Birch Bros. G. Strydom D.O. Wright & Son E.V. Williams J.H.P. Blignaut Mrs. L.M. Houseman Oasis Stud (PTY) LTD Mr. R. Koster & Son / Klavervlei Stud Mr. R. Koster / Klavervlei Stud Mr. R. Koster & Son / Klavervlei Stud Mr. R. Koster / Klavervlei Stud Mr. M.de Wet M.G. Cooper Varsfontein Stud Racing Record

Runs: 31 Wins: 2 Placed: 4 Runs: 7 Wins: 0 Placed: 0 Runs: 29 Wins: 4 Placed: 6 Runs: 10 Wins: 0 Placed: 0 Runs: 0 Wins: 0 Placed: 0 Runs: 26 Wins: 1 Placed: 4 Runs: 0 Wins: 0 Placed: 0 Runs: 29 Wins: 6 Placed: 4 Runs: 19 Wins: 1 Placed: 3 Runs: 17 Wins: 1 Placed: 2 Runs: 46 Wins: 6 Placed: 14 Runs: 54 Wins: 8 Placed: 7 Runs: 122 Wins: 8 Placed: 28 Runs: 11 Wins: 0 Placed: 1

Note: The Koster family and their Klavervlei Stud are the breeders of many extremely talented Thoroughbred showjumpers in South Africa. Their list of super talented horses that have performed at the very top of the sport of showjumping in their second careers is truly remarkable and impressive and is by no means limited to just the four horses mentioned above.

Horse

APPRAISE DRESS SUIT FLAUNT GOSSIPER

HONEY GIRL (SPEEDY CIRCLE) NEBRASKA

POWERFORCE (WILLIE GARVIN) PRECENTOR SEVILLE STORM FINCH TAMBOURLAINE THALES TORCH SIGN TSUNAMI SA Showjumping Derby SA Outdoor Grand Prix SA Showjumping SA Indoor Showjumper Of The Year

Championships Grand Prix Harry Amler Trophy

1981

1986 1979 / 1980 1975 / 1976 / 1978

1981 1975

1989 / 1990 / 1991 1986 1979

1985 / 1987 1979 / 1981

1983 1977 / 1978 / 1979 / 1981

1987

1980 1982 1985 / 1986

1982 / 1992 1978 1986 / 1990 1985

1976 / 1977 1973 1977 1983

Let’s look at our featured horse & rider combinations in Part One. Anneli The gorgeous PRECENTOR and Sue LouwPieters won the 1985 Transvaal Championships and narrowly missed out on a chance of winning the 1983 Rothmans Showjumping Derby with just a silly stop at the top of the bank and a couple of time penalties, eventually finishing third. Sue did a real work of art in producing PRECENTOR from off the track to the top grade of showjumping and the result was one of the

Although PRECENTOR had gaps in his competition career, Sue pretty much kept him in regular work until his late teens when he contracted Cushing’s disease. He is now buried on Sue’s property, which is a leading pre-training and spelling farm in KZN, now aptly named PRECENTOR PLACE. Sue is one of the most highly respected showjumping coaches in South Africa and a horsewoman of note.

Above: PRECENTOR & Sue Louw competing. Below: PRECENTOR as a yearling prepared for the 1975 National Yearling Sales. Above Right: PRECENTOR & Sue Louw after winning the 1985 Transvaal Showjumping Championship.

Above: HONEY GIRL & Gonda successfully negotiating the derby bank in the old arena at the Inanda Club.

What more can one say about the immaculate and superbly talented Gonda Betrix that hasn’t been said or written about before? Anyone who understands total goal focus, self-belief and the need to keep working as hard, if not harder, when you are

already at the top of your game will totally get the magic and success that was Gonda Betrix. Space restricts us here, so let’s get straight onto the fabulous mare HONEY GIRL. Gonda bought her from Louisa Coetzee and she was already a tremendously successful showjumper in the junior ranks when Gonda purchased her. Although not bred directly by the Koster Family & Klavervlei Stud, HONEY GIRL was by ARCTIC CIRCLE (pictured below as a yearling and ready for the 1961 National Yearling Sales) who was bred by them, being a son of DRAMATIC II.

Trainer George Azzie paid the fifth highest price on the 1961 National Yearling Sales of R6930 for him on behalf of Mr. & Mrs. Charles Engelhard. He was the champion 2yo of his year, finished 7.45 lengths behind Numeral in the 1964 Rothmans July Handicap and ended his racing career as a 9-time winner and 13 places from 48 runs. ARCTIC CIRCLE appears to have stood for only one season at stud and is noted as producing 11 foals in that year, one of them, HONEY GIRL, being probably South Africa’s best ever Thoroughbred showjumper! Above Right: ARCTIC CIRCLE as a 2yo. Centre Right: HONEY GIRL & Gonda looking fantastic over a huge triple bar. Below Right: FLAUNT & Gonda Betrix, winners of three consecutive South African Showjumping Championship titles. Flaunt’s full sister, Fair Flight (registered as Allegation), was also hugely talented and so beautifully produced by June Fletcher.

The diminutive Janie Myburg is pictured below with her two awesome South African Rothmans Derby winners, DRESS SUIT in 1981 (Below Centre) and her 1978 winner TAMBOURLAINE (Below Bottom). Janie, is the wife of George Myburg, mother of Michele and grandmother of first season Eastern Cape trainer, Montana Turner. Janie has not been feeling too good of late and we hope she gets better soon. A brilliant horsewoman who has ridden so many top showjumpers in South Africa that it is hard to keep track of them all. Sadly Janie lost the fabulous TAMBOURLAINE to colic shortly after his Derby win. Bred by the Koster Family at Klavervlei Stud, the dam of TAMBOURLAINE and the dam of Sue Louw-Pieter’s PRECENTOR were ½ sisters.

Pictured opposite with his very consistent and loyal partner, THALES (by Noble Chieftain), Peter Gotz was at the top of his game for a good three decades through the 70s to the 90s in South Africa and rode many other great horses during that period, including the tiny mixed-breed CHARLIES SWOP, the tall and very talented Porky mare, GOSSIPER, as well as NOBLE CUT by Ten Dollar (a son of Porky). Peter also competed with distinction as an individual in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics on a Belgian Warmblood stallion called DIDI, which he leased from Michael Whitaker.

To my mind Mickey Louw’s retirement from the sport as still a young man came far too soon, as there was still so much to come from him. A terrifically naturally talented

A wonderfully nostalgic hand written letter (dated 15th January 1974) from Torch Sign’s breeder, Mr. Hendrik Swanepoel of Colga Stud, to Mr. Tony Wilson, his owner.

rider with an eye second to none and his take-no-prisoners approach to winning jumpoffs against the clock saw him emerge as the winner of countless showjumping competitions both here and in the United Kingdom. During his time of competing in South Africa Mickey rode some superbly talented horses. Two names that come to the fore though are APPRAISE, a son of Joie de Vivre II (by Relic) and TORCH SIGN (by Signification). Both were exceptional horses and together amassed an unbelievable list of wins in the biggest showjumping competitions on offer in South Africa (the equivalence of racing’s Group 1 events). Mickey, who is now fully retired and living on the KwaZulu Natal South Coast, is quick to credit his ex wife, Sue, for a lot of his success. Mickey explains that he always had a day job and that it was very much Sue who ran their yard, caring for the horses and doing a lot of the schooling of the horses. Above Left: Mickey Louw and APPRAISE, with the then secretary of the South African National Equestrian Federation, Mr. Bob Charter, at APPRAISE’s official retirement ceremony in 1982, aged 17. Below: Mickey Louw with another of his fantastic partners, TORCH SIGN, competing

in the old derby arena at Inanda. Barry Taylor is (in my opinion) the last of the riders from the “golden age” (besides Gail Foxcroft, Ronnie Lawrence & Anne-Marie Esslinger who we will feature in Part Two) who remains active and very much part of the top end of showjumping in South Africa at present. Barry rides with a wonderfully natural relaxed feel and is tremendously effective on all types of horses, be they Thoroughbreds or Warmbloods of varying ring temperaments and ability seem to respond positively to him, the result being that he always produces beautifully prepared competitive horses who are a joy to watch. Barry runs one of the biggest competition yards in Johannesburg together with his gorgeous and very supportive wife Lorette, herself a rider of note!

The wonderful POWERFORCE (Top Next Page) who Barry enjoyed a very successful junior career on before making his mark in the adult ranks must rate as one of his best horses ever seen in South Africa, but there is an exceptionally long list of horses that Barry has not only produced, but competed on as well with great success. (Bottom Next Page) Barry and his extremely talented Trocadero gelding TSUNAMI (out of Beauclare by Dramatic II) as a young A Grade.

Photos Previous Page: Both photos are of Anneli and the fabulous SEVILLE.

We wrap up Part One with the great Anneli Wucherpfennig and wow what can one say, but take a bow Anneli! This remarkable lady and rider of note left the United Kingdom for South Africa with a host of multi discipline international and British successes as part of her resume.

She quickly established a string of top horses and began her onslaught on the South African showjumping scene. Being always fearless and extremely focussed when the chips were down meant South African showjumping fans and spectators were treated to some of the most exciting jump off rounds ever from Anneli. A truly dedicated and consummate professional who at 80 something still rides daily and competes regularly, what an amazing, much-loved lady! - S E L E C T THOROUGHBRED NEWS Above: Anneli and the extremely brave and courageous STORM FINCH (by Jerez, a son of Dramatic II) bred by the Koster family at their Klavervlei Stud.

Below: Anneli and NEBRASKA (by Even Beat, who was one of the 42 sons of Drum Beat who took their place at stud in South Africa), showjumper Of The Year in 1982. NEBRASKA, a 7/8 brother to DEVASTATION (by Drum Beat) owned and ridden by Clodagh Shaw.