David Thompson

David Thompson

Although he was born in the Durham pit village of Eldon, becoming a coal miner was never on young David Thompson’s mind as a future occupation. His grandmother used to watch horse racing on the TV and David quickly got to love it.

With leading dual-purpose trainer Denys Smith based just a mile and a half north-west away at Holdforth Farm in Bishop Auckland, David began there when he ten years old, “just messing around the place at weekends”. 

When he left school in 1978, his father took him back to see Denys Smith on Sunday and he started work there the next day. Within a year he had an apprentice’s licence.

Having failed to ride a winner on the Flat, he won ten races over jumps in the mid-1980s, with just four horses contributing to those victories, all of them trained by Denys Smith. 

David’s first ride over obstacles was on Ha’way Geordie, finishing fifth of 12 runners in the Cuckoo Conditional Jockeys’ Novices’ Hurdle on December 4, 1982. The following month the eight-year-old gave him his first win when coming home eight lengths clear in the Ellerman Bee Line Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle at Sedgefield. The pair had another Sedgefield success before the season ended.

He rode three winners during the 1983/84 season, including two on the six-year-old Rivers Edge, but it was his other winner that season, Tot, that provided him with the most wins. David finished first on him five times altogether, but after landing the Roxburgh Handicap Hurdle at Kelso on May 1, 1985, Tot was disqualified, along with the runner-up High Drop, for badly hampering the fourth horse home, Mount Rule, on the run in.

Twenty-two days later, Tot gave David his tenth and final victory when taking the Gillie Bros Abbotsford Handicap Hurdle by two lengths. 

Although he had rides for at least two more seasons, he had no further wins. His final mount appears to have been at Sedgefield on January 28, 1987, when Carlingford Boy came in eighth of 11 finishers in the Slalom Selling Handicap Hurdle, having been prominent to four out. 

For all his wins, he rated the highlight was riding Rivers Edge in the 1985 County Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. There were 27 runners and David was upsides the eventual winner, Floyd, most of the way until weakening two out and finishing unplaced. 

Eventually, the rides dried up and he carried on working for Denys Smith as his assistant trainer, in charge of his second yard at Shildon. Then when the horse numbers dwindled, Smith gave up Shildon and David returned to the trainer’s main base at Holdforth Farm. 

When Denys Smith retired, David’s father-in-law had a permit holder’s licence and some stables, so David got himself organised to take over the place. His long apprenticeship and experience gained with Denys Smith stood him in good stead when applying for a trainer’s licence. 

After 25 years in the business, he began training in the spring of 2003, David took out his own dual purpose licence, based at South view Racing Stables in the village of Bolam, Co. Durham, just off the A68. 

He had his first winner with Sovereign State over hurdles at Stratford in July of 2003, having bought him for only 1,200 guineas at Doncaster Sales. He gradually built up his own business to fill his 28-box yard.

David Thompson’s winners as a jockey were, in chronological order:

1. Ha’way Geordie, Sedgefield, January 18, 1983

2. Ha’way Geordie, Sedgefield, May 27, 1983

3. Rivers Edge, Ayr, January 4, 1984

4. Rivers Edge, Kelso, January 11, 1984

5. Tot, Ayr, March 12, 1984

6. Czermin, Kelso, October 6, 1984

7. Tot, Haydock Park, December 13, 1984

8. Tot, Kelso, January 9, 1985

9. Rivers Edge, Wetherby, May 8, 1985

10. Tot, Perth, May 23, 1985