During his 20-year career he rode nearly 500 winners, including every major South Australian and Victorian race with the exception of the Caulfield Cup.
[1] He first came to public attention on 30 December 1864 when he won a £100 Produce Stakes between four progeny of Fisherman, on Smuggler, a bay colt owned by C. B.
[2] For several years he divided his time between Adelaide and the South-east of South Australia, riding in both hurdles and flat races.
[4] Hales won the Adelaide Cup in 1874 on Ace of Trumps for William Gerrard ( –1884) of Rapid Bay, and in 1877 on Aldinga for Samuel Gardiner ( –1905) of Bundoora Park.
His most celebrated victory is probably the Melbourne Cup, which he won on Grand Flaneur for William Long, and some of his favorite horses were Briseis, Pardon and First King, for James "Old Jim" Wilson, (1827–1917) of the St. Alban's Stud in Geelong.
... Joe "Leviathan" Thompson, leading Melbourne bookmaker[1] Hales had a long friendship with fellow-horseman and noted poet Adam Lindsay Gordon, which began when Gordon, then a mounted policeman, upbraided young Tommy and friends, who were throwing stones either at a signboard[1] or cattle[8] Tom Hales (1847 – 26 October 1901) married Harriet Amelia Blackler (1860 – 10 February 1897) on 24 August 1887.