I apologised to the King for what I did – he forgave me but Queen Camilla hasn’t | Racing | Sport
The then Prince of Wales riding Long Wharf at Plumpton, where he was beaten by Derek Thompson (Image: PA Archive/PA Images)
Racing icon Derek Thompson has been forgiven by King Charles for defeating him in a race, although Queen Camilla still isn’t over it. The King, while still Prince of Wales, enjoyed a brief spell as an amateur jockey during the early 1980s, competing in six races.
Prior to his wedding to Diana, Charles even competed at the Cheltenham Festival in 1981. He failed to claim victory throughout his brief racing career, though he did finish second twice. One of those second-place finishes came on his debut at Plumpton in a 1980 charity flat race. Thompson was competing in the same event aboard Classified and pipped the future monarch, riding Long Wharf, to the winning post. The duo have since light-heartedly reminisced about their brief racing rivalry. While the King has let it go, the current Queen remains less forgiving.
The popular commentator revealed to 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.”
Thompson recalls the race with great affection. He admitted that even before the starting flag dropped, he recognised his mount, trained by future six-time champion National Hunt racehorse trainer Nicky Henderson, had a strong chance of success.
The future King had a short-lived career as a jockey in the early 1980s (Image: Getty Images)
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.
“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.
Queen Camilla has a long memory (Image: Getty)
“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.’
“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.”
