John Thompson has kept his integrity and dignity intact as the face of Patinack Farm, even as he trained for the past two years without a budget and not knowing when he will get paid.
He is facing the final month as Nathan Tinkler's trainer with sadness but also pride with what was achieved. It has been well documented the fall of Patinack and that, on occasions, Thompson has not had feed, bedding or transport for his horses but taken it in his stride from a mantra handed to him by his old boss, Bart Cummings.
"The school of Bart – don't worry about all the garbage, just get on with the job," Thompson said.
"He told me that from day one and that's what I have done [at Patinack]. I haven't worried about all the other trash, which was hard sometimes, I had a job to do, that was to train the horses.
"It has been a great experience. The last two years it has been very hard to run his stable because there was no budget. It was a good education to run a stable off an absolute minimum budget. It was tough times but still managed to keep getting winners."
Thompson has branched out as a public trainer in the past six months and while it is not the four-state operation he ran when Patinack was at its zenith, there are different pressures.
"A lot of people won't associate with me because I still have horses for Nathan. That's very hurtful," Thompson said. "But I can't do anything about that, I can only do what I can do with the horses I have got and get winners."
Thompson will finally get a payout from Patinack, which is believed to be in the hundreds of thousands, before next month's Magic Millions sale but has rarely talked about his own struggles, preferring to work hard.
"I don't really want to talk about it that much because I have always felt I would be paid eventually," he said. "I'm just going to keep my mouth shut about it because if I do I will get paid before the sale. All I can say to the last two years we have been very reliant on winning races and that is how we have got paid.
"He [Tinkler] has struggled big time in the past two years with cashflow. The last 12 months it has got real bad to point he has had to sell it all. There is not much I can do about that."
In the next month the Patinack horses will leave for maybe the final time and the programs for cups-bound Tremec and Hooked, which was third in the Australian Derby, are being affected. Thompson had his eyes set on The Metropolitan for Tremec and the Epsom with Hooked, but those races are in the days after the sale at the Gold Coast.
"They will both have a couple of runs before being sold," Thompson said. "We just want to win some prizemoney with them and find the right races for them before the sale. We can't worry about anything else."
Dead-set stayer Tremec will run in the Premier's Cup at Rosehill on Saturday, while Hooked lines up in the a benchmark 95 over 1500 metres. Their program could see them have their final run for Tinkler during the Newcastle spring carnival in the features of the Newcastle Gold Cup and Cameron Handicap.
"The 1800m on the weekend is still a bit short for Tremec, he is going to those longer trips, and if the track is real heavy we could still scratch and go to the Wyong Cup next week," Thompson said.
"Hooked is flying and we decided to keep him fresh and have a crack at the big mile races because he has the turn of foot to be competitive in them. He will run Saturday and then maybe have one more before the sale.
"Reflectance is the other one that goes around on Saturday [in the last] and he has come back better than his last prep, and there is a race in him before the sale.
"These horses going in long term, is a good thing for me but short term it is going to be painful because they leave a hole in the stable and they are quality horses. I just need more horses to go into their boxes."
Thompson has a couple of clients who are looking to buy at the Magic Millions dispersal sale but would welcome more owners and can offer an inside knowledge of the racing stock to be sold. However, he feels for Tinkler, who still has a role in the racing side of things even as the business is wound up.
"It is sad really because he [Tinkler] has put a lot into racing and people tend to forget that because of all the other things. Racing is losing a bloke that has a real passion for the sport, and I don't care what he says, it is still there," Thompson said
Patinack Farm never became the racing and breeding giant Tinkler dreamt of, but for one brief season, in 2010-11, the potential was there to see after 156 winners for the term. Thompson looks at his time in charge with some pride, four group 1 winners overall and more than 40 stakes winners, but it has been his ability to get the best out of the team that is remarkable.
"We only ran at full strength for one year and we ran third [on the trainers' premiership] in the country that year, had the most two-year-old winners and were runner-up in the Brisbane and Adelaide premierships. Those are good results," Thompson said.
"From that year on, the downfall started as the money started to dry up and we had to cut back. We had Nechita there are couple of years ago and she was best the horse I trained for him. She was an untapped sprinter that we never saw the best of, but I have trained a lot of slow ones as well.
"What I am proud of is that we have seen a couple of thousand horses go through our hands that have been sold everywhere around the country and to Singapore. You can count on one hand the horses that have gone on and won races."
The future for Thompson might be on show in the opening race at Rosehill as impressive filly First Seal, owned by the China Horse Club, steps out again with Hugh Bowman in the saddle.
"Hughie rode her Tuesday and said she was spot-on," Thompson said. "It is an interesting race because there are a few trying to get into the Golden Rose and it will be a good test for her.
"We are not in the Golden Rose and her goal is the fillies' races like Flight Stakes, which from what she has shown us is a race she can win."
