News and Media

If I weighed 30 stone and waddled towards the Parade Ring at Great Yarmouth I may hear some shout: ‘Hello, Big Fella!’

I’d look around and see it would be Derek Thompson.

I’ve seen Mr. Thompson at the races on numerous occasions including when my girlfriend entered the Best Dressed Lady Competition at Great Yarmouth. Marlene got in the top ten. As we were walking back Tommo said: ‘You should have won!’

No, he wasn’t talking about my chances!

It’s always a racing certainty that Derek Thompson will be greeted with a warm welcome at courses and he is a natural when it comes to Ladies Day. A true entertainer and good bloke. In fact, he is quite comical without realising and some have even noted he is on the same wavelength as Alan Partridge with his advert for Crown Hotel, Bawtry, Doncaster. His comedic quote: ‘Are you well? I thought you were.’

I’ve been following horse racing for over 30 years and Derek has been a race caller as long as I can remember. But let’s learn a little more about his career as a sports commentator.

Derek Thompson was born on the 31^st July 1950 at Stockton-on-Tees, Yorkshire, England. His brother, Stanley, was a horse trainer and Derek rode a few races as an amateur jockey. In addition, he used to ride with the local hunt where he met future Grand National winner Bob Champion, who is a lifelong friend.

Thompson was a natural when it came to sport and commentated on a point-to-point race at the age of 15.

In fact, unknown to many, he worked, unpaid, as an assistant trainer for Denys Smith. Later, he move to Chantilly, France, to be assistant trainer to Pierre Sanoner.

At the age of 18, he began broadcasting for a local radio station which led to an opportunity in 1972 working at London for BBC Radio Sport. He worked alongside Peter Bromley and called a few Grand National races over this period.

His big break came when joining ITV in 1981 and appeared on World Of Sport and midweek racing coverage. His career moved forward in 1985 when he joined the newly formed Channel 4 Racing as a presenter until 2012. He and John McCririck were dropped by the newly formed International Management Group (IMG).

These days, Thompson commentates for At The Races and talkSPORT radio.

In recent years, he has suffered from ill health which led to the biography written by Lee Mottershead titled – Tommo: Too Busy To Die, published by Racing Post Books (2014).

A great read.

Born on December 18, 1984, in Co. Kildare, Katie Walsh is, of course, the youngest daughter of trainer Ted Walsh and the younger sister of twelve-time Irish Champion National Hunt Jockey Rupert ‘Ruby’ Walsh. She retired from race riding on April 27, 2018, aged 34, immediately after winning at the Punchestown Festival on Antey, trained by Wille Mullins, but, for the better part of 15 years, was a trailblazing amateur jockey, who rode a total of 189 winners in Britain and Ireland, including three at the Cheltenham Festival.

Indeed, alongside sister-in-law Nina Carberry, who is married to Ted Walsh Jr., Katie Walsh still jointly holds the record for the number of rides by a female jockey in the Grand National, having contested the Aintree marathon six times.The pick of her placings and, at the time, the highest placing ever achieved by a female rider, came of her first attempt in 2012. On that occasion, she rode Seabass, trained by her father, who was sent off 8/1 joint-favourite and looked, briefly, like he might win. The 9-year-old led over the final fence, but was joined, and passed, on the run-in, eventually finishing third, beaten a nose and five lengths.

The partnership tried again in 2013, with Seabass sent off clear 11/2 favourite, despite being 5lb higher in the weights than the previous year. He was driven along from the third-last fence, but soon weakened out contention, finishing in thirteenth place, 85¾ lengths behind the surprise winner Auroras Encore. The following year, Katie Walsh finished in the same position on Vesper Bell, trained by Willie Mullins and, in 2015, suffered her one and only non-completion in the National, when unseated by Ballycasey, also trained by Mullins, at the penultimate fence. Thereafter, she finished nineteenth, and last, on Wonderful Charm, trained by Paul Nicholls, in 2017 and twelfth on

Baie Des Iles, trained by her husband, Ross O’Sullivan, in 2018, but both horses were completely tailed off.

 

Katie Walsh’s twitter account: https://twitter.com/katiewalsh9

As the best-known steeplechase in the world, with an estimated worldwide audience of 500 million, the Grand National requires little or no introduction. However, it is worth noting that, in recent years, the annual Aintree showpiece has undergone a raft of safety-related changes, not only to the Grand National Course, but also to the race conditions. Among other eligibility criteria, Grand National entries must now be at least seven years old, while jockeys must have ridden at least 15 winners under the Rules of Racing, including at least 10 in steeplechases.

Consequently, unless the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has a major change of heart at some point in the future, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the records for the youngest horse and the youngest jockey to win the Grand National could never be broken. As it stands, the record for the youngest horse to win is held, jointly, by five five-year-olds, namely Alcibiade (1865), Regal (1876), Austerlitz (1877), Empress (1880) and Lutteur III (1909). For the record, the last six-year-old to win the National was Ally Sloper in 1915 and the last seven-year-old to win was Bogskar in 1940.

The record for the youngest jockey to win the Grand National is still held by Bruce Robertson Hobbs, who was 17 years, 2 months and 27 days old when, on March 25, 1938, he partnered Battleship, trained by his father, Reg, to victory in a driving finish. Hobbs owed his victory, in part, to a push on the backside from fellow jockey Fred Rimmell, which prevented him from being unseated at the seventh fence, now known as ‘Foinavon’. Battleship, for his part, was derisorily dismissed by the ‘Sporting Life’ of the day because of his diminuitive size, but he did, indeed, become ‘the smallest winner in history’.