Thomson booked to ride Bianco Lady

Press, 17 November 1982, Page 49

Thomson booked to ride Bianco Lady

NZPA . Perth Champion jockey, Brent Thomson, has accepted the mount on the Sydney mare, Bianco Lady, in the $225,000 Winfield Perth Cup (3200 m at Ascot on January 3. Thomson had his first ride on Bianco Lady when she brilliantly won the $70,000 Sandown Cup (2400 m in Melbourne on Saturday. After the win, Perth bookmakers shortened Bianco Lady’s Perth Cup quote to 5/1 and she now shares the second line of betting with Nicholas John.' The champion, Kingston Town, which will arrive in Perth on Sunday, was the best backed cup runner at Ascot, firming from 3/1 to 5/2. Thomson, who has just completed a successful spring carnival (he also won the Caulfield Cup on Gurner's Lane and the Moonee Valley Cup on Triumphal March), said he would arrive in Perth on December 21. He will ride the Colin Hayes-trained Galleon in the $175,000 Swan Brewery Rail-

way Stakes (1600 m on January 1 and the two-year-old, Top Post, in the $75,000 Karrakatta Plate (1200 m on December 27. Galleon, ranked one of the best “milers” in Australia, is the early favourite at 4/1 in markets on the Railway. Thomson, who will have no difficulty making Bianco Lady’s cup weight of 50.5 kg, said he was most impressed with her Sandown Cup effort. “She must have a great show in the Perth Cup, even with Kingston Town in the field,” he said. "He does appear to be well weighted but still has to give Bianco Lady Bkg, and that’s, a lot of weight.” Thomson has had only one previous ride in the Perth Cup — he finished third on Yashmak when Magistrate won two years ago. Bianco Lady will have only one Perth start in preparation for the cup. Thomson said he had been asked to ride her in the weight-for-age Cox Stakes (2400 m at Ascot on December 27. A Sandown Cup failure,

Nicholas John, is still likely to make the trip west, according to his trainer, Colin Alderson. Alderson said he was not perturbed by Nicholas John’s fading tenth to Bianco Lady after looking a threat momentarily in the straight. “There is nothing wrong with the horse,” Alderson said. “I think it might have been the fact that he was racing second-up after a short spell.” The champion trainer, Tommy Smith, is still likely to have three runners in the Perth Cup — Kingston Town, Just a Dash and Port Carling. Smith said there were excuses for Port Carling’s unplaced run in the Sandown Cup. He said the horse had been shuffled. back through the field at a vital stage. “He did a good job to finish seventh,” Smith said. Allez Bijou ran an impressive fourth in the Sandown Cup but his trainer, Chris Honeychurch, is likely to “save his legs for Sydney in the autumn.”