King Charles III was pipped to victory by a well-known racing personality during his short-lived career as a jockey
The then Prince of Wales riding Long Wharf at Plumpton, where he was beaten by Derek Thompson(Image: PA Archive/PA Images)
Horse racing legend Derek Thompson has been forgiven by King Charles for beating him in a race, but Queen Camilla still isn’t over it. The King, then the Prince of Wales, had a brief stint as an amateur jockey in the early 1980s, participating in six races.
Before his marriage to Diana, Charles even rode at the Cheltenham Festival in 1981. He didn’t secure a win during his short-lived career, although he did come second twice. One of those runner-up finishes was on his debut at Plumpton in a 1980 charity flat race. Thompson was in the same race on board Classified and beat the future King, riding Long Wharf, to the finish line.
The pair have since jovially looked back on their brief racing rivalry. While the King has moved on, the current Queen is less forgiving. The popular commentator told Freebets last year: “I beat the future King. And I remember at Royal Ascot, we were having a chat, and I said, ‘Sorry, Sir, I beat you all those years ago.’
“He said, ‘Don’t worry. I forgave you. Don’t worry.’ His wife, the Queen, then said, ‘But I haven’t Tommo!’ We always joke about it, but it was an incredible day. I’ll never forget it.”
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Thompson looks back on the race fondly. He confessed that even before the flag was raised, he knew his mount, trained by future six-time champion National Hunt racehorse trainer Nicky Henderson, stood a good chance of winning.
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He said: “It was a charity race. I rode a horse for Nicky Henderson. He used to drive down from London three times a week at five o’clock. I got there and rode him out. It was a horse called Classified who hadn’t run before.
“He wasn’t the champion trainer then because it was 40 years ago. He’d just started out. I remember on the Sunday before the Tuesday, we’d gone for a gallop, three of us. I was riding Classified.
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“Nicky was on another horse, and the stable jockey, Steve Smith Eccles, was on another horse. We did a mile gallop on the hills at Lambourn, and nobody else saw it.
“And I won the gallop by about 20 lengths. I wasn’t showing off or anything, just won it. Steve said next to me, ‘What the blinking heck is that, Tommo?’ I said, ‘He’s called Classified – has never run before.’
The future King had a short-lived career as a jockey in the early 1980s(Image: Getty Images)
“He said, ‘Well, you’ve just beat me [by] 20 lengths. Giving me two stone. The horse I rode won a handicap over at Newbury under 12st 7lbs last week. You’ve just annihilated me. You must be on the biggest certainty of all time.’
“Apparently, all the stable staff at Nicky’s backed me at 16-1. If I hadn’t won, I’d have been dead half an hour later. It was incredible.”