Racing Express Profile: Molly, you’re the best!
NICCI GARNER - Veteran horseracing journalist David Mollett has entertained, educated, amused and exasperated racing fans in SA for nearly four decades. The best-known scribe, he’s controversial, racist, sexist - and many other "ists".
This racing expert says what’s on his mind without qualm or fear of consequence and his easy way with people and immense knowledge about the intricacies of a complicated game have attracted a huge and loyal following in local newspapers.
His genuine love for horseracing and its players is evident in all his prose. But his open-hearted exuberance and unfailing enthusiasm, even for the most mundane of races, show up particularly well in his role as Tellytrack presenter where his frank appraisals have often led punters to change their minds about their selections, inevitably sometimes to their own detriment!
So Molly was warmly congratulated when he received the inaugural Equus Media Award last Thursday. With his roles in the industry encompassing all three genres (print media, television and online), there could not have been a more deserving (or hard-working) winner.
The Media Award is sponsored by Brian Roux’s BBR Bloodstock and Molly won two international air tickets and R30,000 in cash. He plans to take ``my young lady’’ Ning and children Jade (15), Kimberley (13) and Philip (11) to Los Angeles, hire a chevvy and drive up coast along the Golden Highway to San Francisco. ``For once horses won’t be in the picture!’’
Molly said yesterday: ``Winning the Media Award was a wonderful surprise. I had lots of strong competition - from Charl Pretorius for his online contributions on TAB Online and Racing Web and Andrew Bonn for his incredible documentaries. We all fancied their chances a lot.
``My different roles in horseracing - not only writing for Racing Express and Business Day but also as a Tellytrack presenter - gave me a big advantage.’’
He believes his memorable TV interview with Mrs Oppenheimer after Forest Path won the SA Classic when the whole production team had to move from one side of the winner’s enclosure to the other, swung the vote his way. Or perhaps it was ``that wonderful chat with Andrew Fortune at the end of July when he had the championship in the bag. He sat down wearily. You could tell the campaign had taken its toll physically.
``Brian Roux’s media competition has woken a lot of slumbering giants and the quality of our racing coverage has improved so much since it was inaugurated,’’ he commented.
It seems Molly never stops working. Whether he’s on-course, in the office, in the pub enjoying a ``sharpie’’, in the stands watching Philip play cricket (``he’s a mean cricketer, like his dad,’’ the journo says proudly) or on one of his many overseas jaunties, he is on the job.
``Yes, I work hard - and I started a long time ago,’’ said the 62-year-old. ``I’m the `old man’ of the media now.
``[Summerhill Stud’s] Mick Goss once asked me whether I found it difficult being trapped between two generations. My answer was, no. As a `lighty’ in the 1970s and 80s I interviewed such greats as Henry Eatwell, George Azzie and John Brevel and top riders like Martin Schoeman, Gerald Turner and James Maree.
Over three decades later I get great stories from legends like Mike de Kock, Geoff Woodruff, Charles Laird, `Striker’ Strydom, Anton Marcus and Andrew Fortune. I’ve seen some great horsemen in my time and it’s been an honour to develop relationships with them.’’
His rapport with horseracing fans has not been limited to South Africa. Molly travels overseas several times a year. He’s been to the Melbourne Cup, Australia’s most famous race, 12 times, the Singapore Airlines International Cup and Hong Kong for its international meet in December (``a must for every journo’’).
He’s raced extensively in England and Ireland (he was at York’s Ebor Festival last year when Sean Tarry and Chris van Niekerk fielded National Colour to run second in the Nunthorpe Stakes, and hopes Mythical Flight can do well for them this year) and frequently in Europe.
He has attended important race meetings in the USA as well as throughout Africa, India and Mauritius. Is there anywhere he hasn’t been? ``South America,’’ he says smartly. ``We’ve got so many good horses from Brazil and Argentina racing here at the moment. They also tell me the ladies are sensational down there. So that’s got to be high up on my travel agenda!’’
Everywhere he goes, he pens an article or does a to-camera piece for South African audiences and he’s met some of the most important people in international horseracing. One of his most memorable moments was when he was introduced to John Magnier at Epsom four years ago. ``He said, `Mollett? I’ve heard that name!’ ‘’
His most memorable trip, though, was to watch Makybe Diva rack up her third Melbourne Cup win in 2005. ``I watched that race with Charl and after the race we turned to each other and said, `Thank God we’re here. We’ve just witnessed history ‘. She was a horse comparable to the Aussie’s great champ of the 1930s, Phar Lap.’’
She ranks one of his favourite horses of all time in a list that also includes the mighty Mill Reef, ``the greatest horse I’ve ever seen’’, Wolf Power and Horse Chestnut. ``I love nothing better than to get up close and personal with these animals, especially the champions,’’ he said.
His itchy feet started in 1970 when he persuaded his grandfather, who owned paper company Wiggins Teape, to send him to Johannesburg as a paper salesman.
``I’d always followed racing in my hometown of Huddersfield, Yorkshire, but started a hotel management course, purely because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I’d always wanted to become a professional footballer, but broke both my legs through the knee, so will never know if I’d have been good enough.
``My cookery exam clashed with the Gimcrack Stakes at York and I fancied a 12-1 shot. So I climbed into my mini-minor and went to the races. Later my dad asked how the exam had gone. I replied that I didn’t think I’d done terribly well - and caught merry hell. He’d seen me drive through Leeds at 10.30 in the morning. That was the end of my fledgling career in hotel management.’’
Encouraged by the late Timeform boss, Reg Griffin, Molly started writing stable business and reports for the English publication alongside Ian Harrison, who went on to become Racing Editor at The Star.
``I decided I’d like to go abroad,’’ he remembered. ``My grandfather’s company had branches in New York and Johannesburg and he offered me a choice. I didn’t fancy New York - it was a dangerous place! So I asked him where Johannesburg was.’’
He made an inauspicious start in Africa, hating the job: ``It bored me to tears,’’ he said. ``I had to go around and sell paper to printers, many of who would only speak to me in Afrikaans, so I wasn’t very successful! The highlight of my week was going racing with Ian. That was a dreadful two years!’’
Harrison turned Molly’s mind to a more suitable career when the assistant racing editor position opened up at the Rand Daily Mail. Mollett started under Stewart Ramsay in 1972 and around two years later, when Ramsay relocated to Durban, was promoted to Racing Editor.
``In those days racing was huge in most newspapers and I had various assistants down the years, like (former Highveld racing commentator) Peter Duffield and Mike Hessenauer (currently working for Winning form).
He moonlighted for the Sunday Times, working under Edward Griffiths alongside ``the strongest sports team ever accumulated by any one newspaper’’.
Then the Sunday Times changed its editorial direction and that was bye-bye horseracing in South Africa’s biggest newspaper. Their rather blinkered view has resulted in a J&B report and a Durban July report, and that’s it!’’
Molly meanwhile became an icon at the Rand Daily Mail in the next decade or so, but life has a way of unexpectedly chucking curve balls at its participants.
``In 1985 I went to Cheltenham and driving to the course, heard the news that the `famous South African newspaper Rand Daily Mail’ was closing. I said, `Bloody hell, I’m out of a job!’ ‘’
He returned to South Africa and saw out his time and the first couple of Business Days carried no racing at all, ``but Stephen Mulholland, one of the most famous journalists and editors in SA newspaper history, was on the board of directors and he insisted they give me a call straightaway, so I carried on with them.’’
In recent years he has written a popular weekly column for Racing Express and sales pieces for this publication under the pseudonym RINGSIDER. He is a huge fan of Racing Express, which he believes has filled a gaping chasm caused by the erosion of racing coverage in the press in recent years.
``It’s has brought a new affordability to punters,’’ he said. ``It’s got all the fields, top articles and tips. And if you go to any off-course tote or Tattersall’s, 75% of the punters use it. It’s wonderful value.
``I love writing `Mollett’s World’, although sometimes it can take hours, because it’s a light-hearted look at racing.’’
One of Molly’s strengths is his ability to look beyond the favourites in a race to find the elusive ``roughie’’ that could make a bet pay big. ``The Timeform guys used to say, `Odds-on, look on.’ They’ve been proved right time and again! We get a lot of beaten favourites at odds-on, so I steer clear.
``You obviously have runs, and when you need the money, you’ll never cut it, tipping or betting.
``But anybody can pick a favourite. My challenge has always been picking winners at a decent price. Nowadays, I like to find horses for Swingers and Exactas - I’m a big Exacta fan because they yield superb payouts. So I’m always on the lookout for something that’ll make bets pay.
``And from time to time I get tipped a longer-priced horse by a trainer. They all know I’ll divulge any information they give me to the public. I believe that if you try to cheat other people, you’re cheating yourself.
``When I’m on Tellytrack, I’m always aware that people are watching and listening - and that what I say is important. So I do my best for them. I’m gutted when I have a bad meeting.’’
He puts his money where his mouth is, where his ``roughies’’ are concerned and in his famous Place Accumulator perms. ``We all love a bet,’’ he grins. ``It was Paul Newman in one of his movies who said: `Money won is twice as sweet as money earned.’ He was right. There’s nothing like the rush when you drive away with a wad in your pocket.’’
His most memorable winning bet, he said, was on one of his own horses, Pretty Groovy, who was trained by the late Roy Howe.
``Michael Roberts rode her and I had R14,000 to R4,000 on her - and didn’t have my stake if she lost! My heart skipped a number of beats in the last furlong because she won by a head with Muis looking at the second horse and hardly moving the reins!’’
He’s owned a number of horses, some of them top class, like Sparkling Crown, a seven-time winner, and Pretty Groovy, who won five races. ``I’m now at the other end of the ownership scale,’’ he quips. ``While under the influence of Heineken at the Durban July a couple of years ago, Neil Bruss took advantage of me and persuaded me to buy a share in a horse called World Airline. He’s run a few places, but is a mulish individual. I’m hoping he’ll win a race for us one day.
``It has always amazed me, the kindness of people. Whenever he runs, I get sms’, phone calls and emails saying, `Don’t worry, Molly. He’ll win next time’.’’
Times change, he comments. ``The amount of information available to punters nowadays is outstanding. In Eatwell and Brevel’s time, you took your life in your hands if you tried to talk to them about a horse before a race and they swung into pressmen if they didn’t agree with something they wrote.
``I remember once Brevel had a filly who won at Newmarket. She bled from under the saddle in the No 1 box. I asked him what was wrong with her and he replied, `What the bloody hell has it got to do with you?’ I said my readers would be interested. His response? `Tell your readers to take a hike!’
``That doesn’t happen nowadays. Tellytrack is a window to our industry and it does a pretty good job. That’s primarily because our trainers and jockeys handle the media so well.’’
No story about Molly would be complete without a mention of Mollett’s Bar, his pub in Tailand that runs golf tours in Pattaya.
An avid golf player himself, he’s had to mothball his clubs because his knees won’t hold up under the pressure of more than three games a year. He was also an ace table-tennis player in his time. Ever competitive, he now tenpin bowls with his family.
He still enjoys his ``sharpies’’ - ``I was brought up to celebrate with a tipple or two’’ - and particularly enjoys ending a raceday at Kelvin’s Bar.
Aged 62, Molly’s going to have to slow down in the not-too-distance future, but he gives himself another three years on TV (``if they keep me on for that long’’) and an indefinite tenure in the print media.
``I’ve done a lot in the last 39 years that I’m really proud of,’’ he concludes. ``And just like Mrs O, I’m going to be batting for some time to come!’’
and you know Va Va Voom has always been one of my favorites too!!
