Cessnock Cup Double
The Newcastle Jockey Club will for the first-time stage Cessnock’s two major races on the same day. Monday October 28 is “Cup Day” at Cessnock with the $37,000 Cessnock Leagues Club Jungle Juice Cup (1350m) and $37,000 East Cessnock Bowling Club Cessnock Cup (2125m) the features on an eight-race program.
A Calcutta on the Jungle Juice Cup will be held at the Cessnock Leagues Club the day before the Cup at 7pm.
Hall of Fame jockey Robert Thompson has dominated both Cups in the past. The Jungle Juice Cup was first run in 1981 and Thompson has won the race eleven times. He combined with close friend and Cessnock trainer Jeremy Sylvester to run the Jungle Juice Cup with Justifiably Proud (1988), Desalante (1989), Mighty Rimu (1993) and Youthful King in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Robert Thompson’s late father Arthur trained two Jungle Juice Cup winners, Top Hat Joe (1982) and Action Time (1985) and he rode them both.
His other winners were Barzoon (1984) for Phil Atkins, Beaucastel (1994) for Vince Jones and General’s Sniper (2012) for Tracey Bartley.
Sylvester has trained eight Jungle Juice Cup winners, the six mentioned above plus Pre Record (1992) with Harry Troy aboard and Youthful King (2011) with Alison Threadwell in the saddle.
In 2011 the Jungle Juice Cup meeting was held at Scone.
Thompson has ridden six Cessnock Cup winners. Golden Slipper placegetter Rosie Herr trained locally by Beaney Jones was Robert Thompson’s first in 1978. His other winners were Full Alert (1983) trained at Newcastle by Eric Sanford, Gay Scene (1987) and Trevino (1991) for his father Arthur, Hot Aussie (1995) for Max Lees and in 2017 he was aboard Ken Parker’s Invicta.