What started as an unexpected way to get off his PlayStation as a teenager could lead to Ben Thompson’s first Group 1 win in Saturday’s Sydney Cup.
The blossoming Queensland rider grew up in Victoria as the son of greyhound racing trainers and didn’t ride a horse until he was 15.
As he tries to break into the Group 1 club when he rides Adelaide Cup winner Good Idea in the famous colours carried by champions like Saintly and So You Think on Saturday, Thompson reflected on how his riding journey started out of the blue.
His father Jason took him on a trip to see horse trainer mate Frankie Stockdale who put the young Thompson on a stable pony, starting his love affair with horses.
ADELAIDE CUP: AT LEAST THE COLOURS WERE MELBOURNE CUP-WORTHY
March 8, 2021 7:18 pm
By Matt Stewart, Racing Editor
The hopes of a homespun
Melbourne Cup win copped a hit with the sound defeat of
Tralee Rose but at least the “colours” were stamped with local Melbourne Cup history with
Good Idea’s win in today’s
Adelaide Cup.
Warrnambool-trained Tralee Rose, the equal Melbourne Cup favourite before the gates opened for today’s Adelaide Cup, ran a flat fourth.
It was a performance that did not crush her Melbourne Cup aspirations, given she may have come to the end of a long campaign, but Tralee Rose will no longer sit atop Cup betting when lists are revised tomorrow.
Good Idea goes one better in the Adelaide Cup justhorseracing.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from justhorseracing.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.