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A teenage rider has won the iconic Birdsville Cup at Australia’s most remote race meeting.

The biggest ever Birdsville Races culminated in scintillating style today, with the headline 1600m UBET Birdsville Cup narrowly taken out by

Adin Thompson, a 17 year-old apprentice from Miles in Queensland, won the $40,000 Ubet Birdsville Cup on the topweight Blue Jest.

The final day of Western Queensland’s richest two-day race meeting drew a crowd of close to 5000 to the tiny outpost close to the South Australian border.

The Birdsville Cup offered stakes of $40,000, a record in the race’s prestigious 136-year history.

Thompson, one of the youngest Birdsville Cup-winning jockeys in history, is apprenticed to Blue Jest’s husband and wife training team Bevan and Mel Johnson.

Bevan Johnson said: “The horse felt good all week. They told me you couldn’t win with top weight and then we drew the worst barrier.”

Bevan Johnson’s win at Birdsville continues a string of successes at country race meeting for the stable after being crowned Queensland Country Trainer of the Year in 2017.

The Johnsons have been taking horses to the Birdsville Races since 2010 but 2018 marks their first Birdsville Cup victory.

Their jockey daughter Dakota had won many races on Blue Jess but fell pregnant this year giving young Adin Thompson the opportunity to ride in the Cup.

The 2018 Birdsville Races boasted the biggest fields in the event’s iconic 136-year history with a record 170 acceptors for the 13 races held over the two days.

The previous record of 164 was set in 2015.

Runners journeyed from as far away as Darwin, Ballarat, Stawell, Quorn, Murray Bridge, Adelaide, Tamworth, Wagga Wagga and the Gold Coast with al races telecast nationally for the first time.

Half of the wagering proceeds with Ubet have been donated to the Drought Appeal to help Queensland farmers.