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John Thompson may have trained better horses than Sweet Deal but few are as special to him than the honest six-year-old mare.
There's a chance Saturday's Group 3 $175,000 Killahy Equine Hawkesbury Crown (1300m) could be Sweet Deal's final start – she's entered in the Chairman's Sale next week – and if that's the case going out a winner would mean a lot to the Randwick trainer.
The mare's standing with John Thompson comes from her links to former jockey Tye Angland and her current rider Nash Rawiller.
Angland rode Sweet Deal to a win at Rosehill on the 17th of November 2018, a week before his final Australian race ride and eight days prior to the Hong Kong fall that cut his career short.
"She's been a good mare in a lot of ways and she holds a special place in my heart,'' Thompson said.
"I was very close to Tye and she was my last winner for him. She was Tye's last metropolitan winner in Australia and she was Nash's first Saturday winner back from Hong Kong (in August 2019)."
Sweet Deal, $4.20 with TAB on Thursday, also provided Thompson and Rawiller with a win in the $1m The Hunter last year and the trainer is convinced she's in that sort of form heading into Hawkesbury.
"I think she is at the top of the game now and 1300m is perfect,'' he said.
"It's the same distance she won The Hunter over, dry track, she's well in at the weights, Nash back on, she ticks a lot of boxes."
Thompson said another attempt this autumn to stretch the mare out to 1500m is behind her slump in form since returning from the spring but she showed at her last run another good win is within her reach.
She clocked a 33.64, including a race best 10.76 from the 400m-200m (Punter's Intelligence), in a closing fourth in the Group 2 Sapphire Stakes (1200m), from a position a lot further back than normal, at Randwick two weeks ago.
"We just went down the wrong path. We aimed at the Group 1s and the 1500m just wasn't her go,'' he said.
"She just doesn't run out that distance simple as that.
"We freshened her up and came back to the 1200m which she ran very well at. She was just a little bit slow to jump coming back in distance and didn't show the sharpness out of the gates.
"It just takes the edge off them and it's hard to come back in distance at the best of times. Back to 1300m she'll be in the first four or five no doubt."
Stablemate Into The Abyss is also due to go through the Chairman's Sale and Thompson is just hoping she can return to her best form but concedes she faces a task.
The five-year-old ran seventh behind Starspangled Rodeo at Rosehill four weeks ago.
"She ran better last time but the conditions on the day didn't suit,'' he said.
The trainer is upbeat about Purple Sector finding his best in the Group 3 $200,000 Evergreen Turf Hawkesbury Gold Cup (1600m) after what Thompson described as a case of 'second-up syndrome'.
The gelding didn't threaten at any stage running 10th behind Yao Dash in the Doncaster Prelude at Rosehill four weeks ago, a remnant of a tougher than planned first-up run in the Newcastle Newmarket.
"We didn't plan to ride him so close first-up but he drew wide and jumped okay and nobody was going forward," he said.
"He had a bit of a hard run and I think he suffered a bit of second-up syndrome.
"He should improve, he had a little freshen between runs and I think he goes best that way."
Purple Sector, $8.50 with TAB, emerged in the spring with a brilliant win over 1600m at Randwick on TAB Everest Day then backed it up with a stakes win at Flemington before a midfield finish in The Gong.
"It's a dry track and he has a good draw with a strong rider on, it wouldn't surprise to see him bounce back to his best,'' he said.
"If he runs up to his best he can win this race."
