Terry Thompson

TERRY THOMPSON

Born: 08/07/71, Omaha, Nebraska

Resides: Ankeny, Iowa

• Two-time Oaklawn leading rider Terry Thompson once again had to settle for second behind Cliff Berry,
finishing with 46 wins to Berry’s 50 in a battle that came down to closing week.
• Among his highlights from 2012 were riding Absinthe Minded to victories in the Pippin and Bayakoa,
winning the Prima Donna with Good Deed and pulling an upset in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap
with Outta Tune.
• A journeyman with more than 2,500 wins (he landed his 2,000th at Oaklawn in 2007), Thompson was a
protégé of Hall of Famer Jack Van Berg at the start of his career in 1992, and today is among the regular
riders for Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, who gave him first Kentucky Derby mount in 2010 aboard Dublin.
• Thompson’s richest win of his career came at Oaklawn in the 2003 $500,000 Arkansas Derby, then a
Grade 2 race, aboard Sir Cherokee. The following year, he earned his first Grade 1 victory aboard Island
Sand in the 2004 Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park. Other top mounts in recent years include No Such Word,
with whom he won five stakes in 2010, Payton d’Oro, Decelerator, Worldly, Proceed Bee, Honest Man, Just
Jenda and Hurricane Ike.