Master jockey strolls in for sixth Cairns Cup
Jockey has six appeal
THE trainer calls him a “freak” and the owner says he is a real “marvel”.
Whatever you want to call him, Hall of Fame jockey Robert Thompson is now a sixtime Cairns Cup winner, with Saturday’s result on The Harrovian possibly his easiest yet.
The 61-year-old hoop sat quietly and waited for his opportunity as the Stephen Massingham-trained gelding coasted to the line to score by almost three lengths.
“He (Thompson) said the horse would win ... we would be wealthy punters if we could all have (his) confidence),” owner Tom Hedley said. FULL STORY PAGE 26
THE trainer calls him a “freak” and the owner says he is a real “marvel”.
Whatever you want to call him, Hall of Fame jockey Robert Thompson is now a sixtime Cairns Cup winner, with Saturday’s result on The Harrovian possibly his easiest yet.
The 61-year-old champion rider was never flustered in running the 2100m Cup journey, he just sat quietly and waited for his opportunity as the Stephen Massinghamtrained gelding pulled him into the race and coasted to the line to score by almost three lengths.
The Massingham, Thompson and The Harrovian combination did it last month at Townsville in their Cup and added a Cairns Cup to their ever-expanding resume on Saturday.
The Cessnock-based Thompson’s career of winners continues to soar – now well over 4400, with plenty more to come if his performance on Saturday is anything to go by.
The Tom Hedley ownership group collected the quinella as Follow Suit, trained by Lauren Abbott, placed second to The Harrovian, but never looked like causing a boilover for the favourite.
“He is just a marvel,” Hedley said of Thompson.
“He said the horse would just win and you can only be as confident as Robert in life saying stuff like that.
“We would be wealthy punters if we could all have the confidence of him.
“He said he could go around again on this horse and do it again today.”
The Harrovian, who started at $2.40, became the second Cairns Cup winner for the Massingham and Thompson combination following on from Magnum Forty Four back in 2011.
“He is a gun,” the elated trainer said.
“I won a Cup here in 2011 with RT and he is just freaky.
“There is not a rider that rides the Cairns track the way he does. “He is just a freak of a rider.” Despite getting on in years, Thompson has now ridden the Cairns Cup winner for the last three years, all for different trainers, as well as four of the last five.
The John Zielke-trained Cyclone Path set the pace at Cannon Park on Saturday afternoon as the The Harrovian sat midfield for much of the trip and took over just after the 200m mark.