Leading Pearcedale trainer Jason Thompson notched up his 500th winner at Sandown Park yesterday afternoon.
Arriving at Sandown Park with two runners, Eilish won on her racetrack debut before Squiggle Keeping made it win number 500 with a strong victory in race 8.
It is a significant milestone in a career spanning more than three decades, and provided a rare chance for reflection for the three-time Melbourne Cup winning trainer.
“It brought back some really good memories,” he said.
“When something like this does come along and to go back and have a look at them (the list of Sandown winners) was good. I enjoyed it actually, scrolling through them all. Just looking back and seeing the dogs. Whether anybody would believe me, I remember every one of them. Not the wins, but the dogs.”
Thompson got his trainers license as an 18 year old in 1987 but it was almost five years before Liberal Victory recorded his first career win at the View Road circuit. The win was memorable for a number of reasons.
“When I turned 18 I got my trainers license but I went and worked for Kevin Richards for, I think, what ended up being eight or nine years. Liberal Victory would have been in the early group of runners that I had when Kevin retired from training and I took over. I was training from his property and I probably would have been 22 turning 23.
“We were pretty confident with him. From memory, the dog had had a few starts at Sandown and Olympic Park and he hadn’t had a lot of luck. On that particular night I remember it was a coolish night. We did think he could win and there he won pretty well. We were on him too, so it was good.
“He was a very good dog, Liberal Victory. Tom Reynolds owned him and he was there that night. He really enjoyed the dog racing and had a lot of interest in it, so having the then Minister for Sport involved with the dog and having a great interest with him made it pretty exciting really.”
Two and a half years later, Thompson would win the first of his 17 group races at Sandown Park when Light Of Fire won the world’s greatest greyhound race, the TAB Melbourne Cup. Unsurprisingly, it remains the win that stands out to Thompson.
“It was probably three weeks before Melbourne Cup I took the dog to Geelong and trialled him. I came home and said to Kevin, ‘I reckon the dig can win the Melbourne Cup.’
“He’d won the Traralgon Cup and had been in the Geelong Cup and the Topgun. He was just two years old but he had been well prepared going into the series. I was only 25 in 1994 and pretty inexperienced with thinking a dog could win a Melbourne Cup, but I distinctly remember coming home and saying to Kevin, ‘I reckon this dog could win the Melbourne Cup.’ And then, he won his heat.
“It was a good win. I actually thought he was drawn to win the final and I think that he might have been $10 because it was a pretty good field. I just felt that he was a dog that probably would have been out of the boxes and he was going to get straight to the fence he was a keen railer. I actually envisioned what was going to happen and it just happened exactly the way I thought it would. I thought he’d miss the start and get straight in the fence, charge through the first corner and take the lead. And that’s exactly what happened.
“That’s one I’ll never forget. They’ve all been good. I mean, I’ve said it for a long time and I’ll continue to say probably until the say I die, the Melbourne Cup is a race that I want to win. If we only win one race a year, that’d be it. It’s just the greatest race in the world. So they’re obviously, the highlights, naturally.
“But Light of Fire being the first one, if I had to pick out one, that would probably be the most special.”
While his affection for the world’s greatest greyhound race is well documented, it was Next Top Model’s win in the 2010 Sandown Cup that was most satisfying
“It was a funny day that day I’ll never forget it. I went to Ballarat and raced on that Thursday, a twilight meeting and I actually went to Ballarat and took three dogs there. They were all favourites and not only didn’t get a winner, I don’t think any of them placed. I had an absolute blowout.
“But we had two in at Sandown and Seona took them. There was a special event on and Fedex won that and Next Top Model won the Sandown Cup.
“Next Top Model wasn’t a natural stayer and to win a Sandown Cup… I targeted that race a fair way out, just hoping that everything aligned on the night. And it did. She only just sort of fell in she didn’t win by a big margin but to win a Group 1 race with a dog that you had to have absolutely tuned perfectly on the night and have everything got to script was very, very satisfying.
“She was one that was pretty special to us, Next Top Model. We kept her as a pet after she retired.”
Thompson’s 500 Sandown Park victories include 226 individual winners, 17 group race wins and further 94 free for alls or special events. That’s an incredible 22% of winners winning top grade races.
“We’re fortunate to have the quality of greyhounds that we get given by the owners. You can’t do it if you haven’t got the dogs and haven’t got the owners supplying you the dogs.
“That’s what it comes down to, so we’re very lucky.”
With win number 500 in the books, Thompson is keen to add to that total on Thursday night with Black Opium the favourite for the group 1 Sapphire Crown. Success in the Sapphire Crown would be Thompson’s 10th group 1 win at Sandown Park.
“We desperately would like to win a Group 1 with her – any group race really – but particularly a group 1 because they’re very, very hard to win.
“I’d just love her to win a group race before she finishes up. She’s got a chance on Thursday and she’s probably going as good as she ever has going into any of those other group races she’s been in.”
A big number by the numbers
Winners: 500
Individual runners: 226
Group races: 17
Group 1s: 9
Total top grade/special events: 111
Maidens: 31
Average starting price: $3.17
Even money or shorter: 161
Shortest price: $1.10 (four times)
Longest price: $24.20 (Uno Joel, 2007 Melbourne Cup heat)
Fastest winner: Hooked On Scotch (28.939)
Sprint wins: 429
Middle distance wins: 28
Distance wins: 33
