She wasn’t a favourite, more so the dark horse, but boy did she impress.
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Brett Thompson’s two-year-old bay filly, Deviate ($6) ran a strong race on Friday, December 14th to claim the Horsepower 2YO Maiden Plate (900 metres) at Scone Race Club, despite not being picked as a favourite.
Thompson was feeling confident heading into the race but had his eyes on favourites, Kris Lees’ (Taree) Snowzone ($1.70) and Brad Widdup’s (Hawkesbury) Miraculous ($5) who went on to place third and fifth.
“She [Deviate] did the job of getting over some fancy runners they thought wouldn’t get beat,” Thompson said.
She’s only a little filly but she knows how to gallop and has a really good will to win.
- Brett Thompson
Deviate started with a favourable gate to then go on running mid field until she crept up to place first ahead of Pat Farrell’s (Gosford) Bengalla Bay by a length and a half.
“The filly did more or less what we thought she would do,” Thompson said.
I said to my boys ‘I think she will be very close to winning and they might all get a shock with her because all the talk was about Kris Lees horse and Miraculous'.
- Brett Thompson
“She proved me right. She went a way and won by a length and a half.”
Despite running fifth in the Keeneland Gimcrack Stakes (1000 metres) at Randwick, Thompson says her skill was on show and was surprised her bet wasn’t high
“She showed really good ability in that race. She ran fifth but should’ve placed second,” he said.
“I was quite surprised she wasn’t really well in the beating after what she showed in he first two year old race in Sydney.”
The future for Deviate relies solely on prize money collection.
“The main thing is we’re trying to pick up enough prize money to make it to the magic millions two year old race on the 12th of January,” Thompson said.
“She needs to be running a place or winning in Sydney to be good enough to go up there.”
I just want to thank the owners for the opportunity to train her and thank my staff for all the hard work they’ve put in.
- Brett Thompson
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Jay-Anna Sleeman
Reporter for the Western Advocate. First began as a sports journalist with ACM in 2018 before moving on to cover news and court.
Reporter for the Western Advocate. First began as a sports journalist with ACM in 2018 before moving on to cover news and court.
