Retiring Adelaide trainer Peter Jolly reflects on career and family with pride

Peter Jolly has trained his final runner after four decades and can now sit back and watch his family continue to build the Jolly training dynasty.

Retiring trainer Peter Jolly and wife Helen. Picture: Makoto Kaneko

The impact of Peter Jolly’s foray into the racing game will be felt in South Australia for generations to come, and now, having saddled up his final runner, he can reflect on the people that have made that journey so memorable – his family.

After a training career spanning four decades, the patriarch Jolly will not renew his license for the 2024-25 racing season, instead happy to watch on contently as his family continues to cement the Jolly name as one of SA’s racing dynasties.

Growing up in a trotting family, Jolly participated in showjumping and hunting before catching the racing bug – it’s ran rife through the family ever since.

“My father was a butcher, he used to ride and drive trotters at Kadina and my grandfather trained them, but I was never interested in the trotting side of it,” Jolly said.

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Jolly, who turns 81 in September, trained his first winner at Tailem Bend, remarkably, in the last race of the final meeting held there.

“It was a horse called Corner Girl, she ran second five times in a row, Jimmy Mettam rode her,” he said.

“I took him off her, and ran her at Tailem Bend and John Letts won on her – Jimmy never forgave me for taking him off.

“I tried to name another horse Corner Girl a few years ago, but it got knocked back.

“I rang them and asked why, they said it’s too suggestive, I said ‘I had a horse called that!’, and they told me the records don’t go back that far.”

Peter Jolly (bottom left) with sons David (left), Richard (right) and granddaughter Chantelle (top right).

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Jolly’s career started training on a farm at Dingabledinga near Kuitpo Forest, there he prepared smart mare Forextra – a winner of 14 races.

He then moved to Adelaide in the 1980s, and it ignited a fire in sons Richard and David to make the next progression in their careers.

“We started training in town, Richard got licensed as my apprentice and David was my foreman – we had quite a good time,” Jolly said.

There had never been any doubt that the boys would follow their father into racing.

“Richard used to come home from school and train his shetland pony for the picnic meetings, they used to have 100m races. He won them all, his first one when he was five,” he said.

“When he came to town, he rode in two sets of trials and they granted him a license – he rode a Group 1 winner when he was 16. David rode at the picnic meetings as well, but he was a bit heavy.

“They had a good grounding, They learnt at a young age and that’s why they are very good judges now.”

.@jamieleekah07 is on the board as Morvada wins nicely at @SAJockeyClub 🤩 pic.twitter.com/DVVZGCwoD2

— Racing SA (@RacingSA) April 30, 2022

Jolly won more than 25 stakes races as a trainer, he reflects on Lazing About, Major Wilkes and Padre as some of his great horses, along with Morvada, who won nine races, including the Group 3 Shaftsbury Avenue at Flemington in 2021.

“Lazing About was a great horse, I think I won about six in a row with him,” he said.

“He lost form for 12 months then we got him back again, he was a difficult horse to train.”

Richard and David are now Group 1-winning trainers, and granddaughter Chantelle is co-trainer with father Richard.

The pair came agonisingly close to notching a three-peat of Adelaide trainers’ premierships this season, but still managed to secure the overall state trainers’ premiership.

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In a landmark day for the family, all four trained a winner on the same card at Morphettville in 2022, when Morvada (Peter), Miss Langtry, Gaze Grise (David) and See You In Heaven (Richard and Chantelle) all saluted.

Morvada wins the Shaftesbury Avenue Handicap at Flemington. Picture: Pat Scala/Racing Photos

“Chantelle is the fifth generation in our family of horse trainers, I’m very proud of that, and they’ll carry on the tradition,” he said.

“That would be the highlight of my training career, when we all trained a winner on the same day.

“I’ve had a great innings, I can sit back now with my wife Helen, she did all the secretary work. My daughter (Susan) does all David’s book work, the whole family is involved in the racing side of it.

“To have a family that’s been so successful – it’s a great thrill.”

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Jolly never forced racing on his children, and it’s now them that will be keeping him in the game, once his license expires on July 31.

“It’s the sort of thing you don’t push your kids into, they either like it (or not), Richard and David never played football or anything, they used to come home on the school bus and all they wanted to do was get on their ponies and ride,” he said.

“If you didn’t love the game, you wouldn’t be in it. I’ve got shares in horses with Richard and David, I’ll still be heavily involved.

“I can stand back and criticise now when the horse doesn’t win, I’ll blame them and not the horse – like most owners do.”

Originally published as Retiring Adelaide trainer Peter Jolly reflects on career and family with pride