Legendary Jockey Tim’s tribulations and triumphs

ONE of the greatest national hunt riders of the 20th century had Waterford connections with international renown of their own. And though the lows of a particularly tragic loss may have tempered the winning heights he achieved, this man still stood head and shoulders above his peers among among a golden generation that included Aubrey Brabazon, Dick Francis, Johnny Gilbert, Bryan Marshall and Fred Winter.

A native of Limerick, the impossibly hardy Tim Molony moved to England and became Britain’s top jump jockey after WWII, winning four successive Champion Hurdles at Cheltenham from 1951-54. It was a feat made even more remarkable given that in the summer of 1950, his wife, Isa Murphy-Bowe, formerly of Butlerstown House just outside Waterford City, died following a long illness at their home in Hemswell, Lincoln. She was aged 30.

A horsewoman who’d been a familiar face at meetings all over Ireland in her youth, Isa was daughter of the late Patrick and Joanie Bowe from the city and a granddaughter of William Murphy of Butlerstown House, one of the country’s biggest horse dealers. In the absence of her late parents, Willie gave Isa away on her wedding day in Mount Melleray in November, 1945. Prior to getting married, she had lived with her widower granddad and aunt Mai in Butlerstown House.

Her cousin, Rev. Paul Gabriel Bowe, officiated at the graveside when Isa was buried in Butlerstown cemetery on Saturday, 19th August. It was described by The Munster Express as one of the largest funerals seen in the city for years; over ninety cars from various parts of Ireland had been part of the procession from Waterford North Station, which went at walking pace down the Quay and along the Mall.

The attendance included many leading names from the “Sport of Kings” in these islands, and representatives from across local business, farming, and civic circles. Poignantly, the chief mourners included Tim and Isa’s little girl, Patricia, who was a few weeks’ shy of her third birthday.

Molony was champion jockey across the water no fewer than five times between 1948 and ’55. His lookalike younger brother and bestman Martin, who was then the dominant jumps and flat rider in Ireland, finished runner-up in the British standings in ’49. Tim regarded Martin, who retired at 26, as the superior rider. Many would agree. All who saw him in action would attest that they both had great hands.

First past the post in 10 Cheltenham festival races between 1952 and ’56, Tim amassed over 900 winners to his name at a time when rides were far scarcer than today. These included the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Knock Hard, and successes on board three of that period’s other outstanding hurdlers, namely Freebooter, Roimond and ESB. Famously, he won the Champion Hurdle four years on the trot: the first on Hatton’s Grace (who had also triumphed in the previous two editions), the next three on Sir Ken.

After taking up training in 1958, Tim was the only bidder for a particular lot at Goffs Sales when a yearling was knocked down at the giveaway sum of 400 guineas, half his reserve price. He took the decision to geld him. “I was champion jockey five times but the only thing I’m known for is being the bastard that castrated Red Rum!” Tim told Donald “Ginger” McCain, who trained the Kilkenny-born racehorse to a hat-trick of Grand Nationals in the seventies.

His grandfather-in-law William Murphy was a cousin of the famous racing Widgers (whose stable Tim rode for as a young man) and Morgans. Willie and his brothers were also bloodstock specialists, and he travelled the world. He bought horses for practically every government in Europe at some stage (army troopers), and had a huge British and Italian clientele for animals in the hunter class. His nephews Patrick and William became successful jockeys in America.

Reckoned the finest judge of horseflesh in the land, up until the 1930s Willie operated out of his family’s extensive Waterside base in Waterford City, which is where the future Isa Molony (named after her grandmother) grew up. Her parents subsequently moved the family (including sisters Elizabeth and Eleanor) to St Otteran’s Place. Willie, meanwhile, relocated to Butlerstown.

When he died in 1954, aged 82, a near-unprecedented cortege of mourners, comprising acquaintances from all walks of life, rich and poor, met his hearse at the Suir Bridge ahead of the funeral mass in Ballybricken. Among those present and at Willie’s burial in Ballygunner were the brilliant Molony brothers and Tim and Isa’s daughter, who had three half-brothers from her father’s marriage to second wife Stella. Tim died at his home near Melton Mowbray in December, 1989, aged 80. Sadly, “Trish” or Safie, passed away in France, at just 46, in 1994 and was laid to rest in Hillcrest Grove, Waterford.

Top photo: Tim Molony and Goosander negotiate 'Beechers' on the way to finishing 5th in the 1958 Grand National. Although never successful in the National, Molony won the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Knock Hard as well as consecutive Champion Hurdles and was champion jockey five times. [Via Chris Moreton/X]