Robert Thompson is showing no signs of retiring after riding 3824 winners over 39 years, he is still going strong after having accepted four rides at Warwick Farm last Saturday.

He rarely rides in the city these days preferring the Hunter Valley tracks, and meetings on the central coast of New South Wales.

Thompson, like most jockeys, has had his share of falls, the worst at Warwick Farm when a broken leg forced him onto the side lines for two years.

He holds the record for the most number of winners, eclipsing the previous record of the late Jack Thompson (no relation), breaking his record at Port Macquarie four years ago.

Anthony Freedman is to move his training operation to Flemington, stables vacated by the Patinack operation, who are concentrating in future on stables at Warwick Farm.

Flemington is obviously the place to be, it offers excellent facilities with the capacity for 22 trainers and 550 horses.

When the Freedman family, of four brothers, originally came to Melbourne they set up stables at a few offcourse locations about Flemington, before the decision to train on course.

Caulfield was the next location before setting up the ultra modern training complex, with tracks at Rye, known as Markdel.

Stewards were active at Caulfield on Saturday, suspending Jake Duffy for 10 meetings until December 11, and Craig Newitt will be on the sidelines until December 14, which entails 14 meetings.

Any young person with designs of becoming a horse trainer would be advised to seriously consider Ballarat as a training base, it is fast becoming a popular area, it excellent facilities that cannot be equalled, the best all round training centre in Australia.

An all weather pro ride straight track of 1400 metres, with a rise of 9.98 per cent, is railed both sides and adjacent to the members drive being a major feature at Ballarat.

With around 200 horses in work at the course, at least 130 uses the straight track each day, Darren Weir is a great advocator for the track, all his horses work on it each day, and he should know, he is getting the results.

There is not much chance of any course in the country emulating Ballarat with such an excellent facility, as they are all cramped for room.

The straight gallops are the secret to its success, it places pressure evenly on forelegs, instead of turning tracks where the bulk of pressure is placed on the inside leg.

It is a great sight to see horses gallop in a straight line and being eased up as they reach the foothills of Mount Pisgagh, had that same track been available in the days of James Scobie, he may never have gone to train at Flemington.

There is no room for cheats, that message was sounded very clearly earlier this week by Racing Victoria’s recently appointed C E O Bernard Saundry, “we want anyone who does anything that compromises the integrity of the sport brought to account and penalised”

During the spring carnival the Compliance Assurance Team conducted 117 stable raids, with five of those resulting in stewards inquiries.

The two completed to this date have bought about successful prosecutions, Racing Victoria invests $10 million annually into integrity related services, including the funding of integrity staff costs and expenses , disciplinary board costs, external legal fees and drug testing.

Plastic running railing will be rolled out to a further eight racecourses and training centres this month, at a cost of $65,000 to $80,000, the budget for railing is $400,000 per year.