Well, he never did.

The Cessnock jockey, the Australian record holder for winners at 4447, announced his retirement at age 63, after 49 years of race riding.

When reminded of his usual response to the retirement question, the man many simply call RT, laughed: "That's it.

"I might have to go and try and get a job with the stop and go sign now.

"But there's plenty of jobs on the blackboard, don't you worry. There's always something to do."

The Australian Racing Hall of Famer has not ridden in a race since July and said retirement had been in his plans for the past year.

"Twelve months ago I knew I'd sort of only had 12 months to go," he said.

"Then COVID set right in and that buggered me getting back up to north Queensland to ride, which I love doing every winter.

"I thought, well, now's a good time, I've had my fair share. I've lived the dream, 49 years of it. I had a wonderful innings.

"I've had my fun in the sun, no worries mate, so it's time to ride off into the sunset. But I'd do it all again tomorrow."

A legend of Hunter racing, Thompson rode seven group 1 winners and captured countless stakes and cup races, despite rejecting overtures from top Sydney trainers, including TJ Smith and Neville Begg, to relocate from Cessnock.

"Heaps of times," he said of offers to move to the city.

"But I had my apprenticeship with my grandfather, then my dad took over, so it was always a big family affair.

"I didn't want to leave here. I loved going to Sydney to ride, but Cessnock was the place. I like the smell of the gum leaves too much."

He spent two years riding in Hong Kong for Begg in the early 1990s but his heart was always in Cessnock, where he had one of his career highlights.

"Winning the Cessnock Cup with Dad [in 1987], we won five races that day," he said. "I was lucky enough to win seven group 1 races, 11 Jungle Juice Cups, six Cairns Cups, so I've had a great career. And I was able to represent Australia on a number of occasions overseas."

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The success and longevity, though, did not come as easy as it appeared for the natural horseman, who was now looking forward to spending more time with his three grandchildren and travelling with his wife, Jenni.

"There's a lot of sacrifices," he said. "The old sweat box was my second home. I'd like a dollar for each hour I've spent in there, but that's part of the game.

"I was always a heavyweight jockey and when I started off in the early 70s, the topweight was only 54 kilos. The bottom weights are 55 today.

"You had to go to Sydney and ride 47 and a half and you had to claim three and two and a half kilos, and ride at something like 45.

"Kids are born at that weight these days. I can have three meals a day now and get back to normal."

As well as the success, Thompson was grateful to be walking away in one piece.

"I've been pretty lucky," he said. "I only had the one real decent [fall], when I had a compound fracture of the ankle [in 2004] and I was out for two years. Apart from that, I had a pretty good run.

"I had a broken collarbone, broken toe, couple of broken ribs. Riding for that long, 49 years and 28,000 odd rides, I've come out of it pretty good."

Trainers and jockeys paid tribute to Thompson on Tuesday.

Scone trainer Rod Northam grew up idolising Thompson and went on to form a regular partnership.

"He was always a favourite of mine and the fact he rode some of my horses, it was amazing," Northam said.

"It's a sad day. He meant a lot to me over the years and helped me a lot in my training career. Just a legend of the sport.

"He rode my first winner the start before it won, and he said to me, put an apprentice on next start, let it go to the front and it'll just win, and it's exactly what happened.

"Ever since then I've tried to get him on as many of my horses as I could.

"He's a real horseman. If he didn't think it was going to run top five, he wouldn't punish the horse, so you had something to work with next start.

"He's always kind to the horse and put it first. Some jockeys don't do it. He was the ultimate horseman."

Cessnock trainer and long-time friend Jeremy Sylvester said Thompson's feedback was invaluable.

"You don't have to worry about putting the stopwatch on them when he rides them," he said.

"He'll just tell you where, what distance, if it's any good, needs time or a couple of runs ... it's just that wealth of knowledge."

Newcastle jockey Andrew Gibbons, the 2019-20 NSW premiership winner, said Thompson's record in the stewards' room was unbelievable and "you'll go a long way to find a better bloke".

"He's a big factor as to why I think I've gone to the level I have," Gibbons said. "I was just chipping away and I needed to improve somewhere.

"I just started watching him, trying to find out why he was so good. What I learned was he was just consistently and extremely good at keeping his horses out of trouble.

"He kept his horses in a good rhythm and I tried to copy that. I'll never get to be as good as he was at it, but it's definitely improved my riding."

Dual group 1 winner Darryl McLellan, a former champion Sydney apprentice, was another Hunter hoop to learn from RT.

"When I first started riding, I just followed him and it taught me a lot," he said. "It never put me far wrong, and he's a wonderful jockey and a wonderful bloke.

"He hardly got hurt or suspended. To ride so many winners and be as competitive as he was, it's definitely a feather in your cap to go around that many times and hardly get suspended.

"And you'd find it tough to find anybody that would have a bad word to say about him."

Thompson said he had no plans to train, even with Cessnock racecourse under transition to become a Racing NSW pre-training facility.

"No, no, no. None of that stuff," he replied. "That's 24-7 that job and I've seen all that happen, with my father and grandfather."

He rated Upper Hunter star Romantic Dream as the best horse he rode.

"I won my first two group 1s on him, up in Brisbane when he was a two-year-old," he said.

"He won in five states of Australia and beat Luskin Star at weight for age in Sydney too. He was a bloody good horse."

As for the best jockeys he rode against, he said: "I always said Peter Cook and Wayne Harris, but there's been stacks of them.

"The two years I had in Hong Kong, I rode against the best there. But anywhere you go in Australia, the leading riders there, they are not leading riders for nothing."

And the best trainers?

"I've got to say my father [Arthur], but I rode for all the good trainers," he said.

Thompson's grandfather, father and uncles were trainers or jockeys and their advice at an early age has stuck with him.

"Just work hard and be a good listener, that's all I got told early on," he said.

"A bit of hard work doesn't hurt anyone."