One of the Festival’s finest

National Hunt racing’s answer to the football World Cup is just around the corner.

Okay, so it’s not quite the same – thankfully the four-day Cheltenham Festival takes place every year! – but it’s an analogy readily accepted by Robert Thornton, a top jockey of the recent past.

Thornton, a keen Cheltenham Town football fan, rode more than 1,100 winners in a standout career, 16 of which came at the showpiece Cheltenham meeting in March.

Rather like the German footballer Miroslav Klose, who scored 16 goals across four World Cups, he often produced his very best on the biggest occasions.

“I’ll take that comparison,” laughed Thornton, who was up against the likes of Ruby Walsh, AP McCoy and Richard Johnson in their pomp for much of his career, a career that stretched over 20 years from 1995.

So what was the secret of his success at the Cheltenham Festival?

“It was always something we targeted,” said Thornton, who was number one jockey for many years for trainer Alan King, who is based just over the county border in Wiltshire.

“It was where we wanted to perform, we waited and waited for the meeting all season.

“It was always our priority, rightly or wrongly.”

Supporters of Thornton – he rode 30 Grade 1 winners so there were plenty – will say he was spot on, of course, with the King/ Thornton partnership realising 10 winners at the four-day extravaganza, including victories in the Queen Mother Champion Chase and Champion Hurdle with Voy Por Ustedes and Katchit, respectively.

“It was a good time, very good time,” said Thornton, who these days is Stud/Racing Manager for Apple Tree Stud just outside Stow-on-the-Wold. “It was obviously very enjoyable.”

Originally from Darlington, Thornton, now 44, moved to the Cotswolds as a teenager, landing his first job with celebrated trainer David Nicholson.

And his move to Gloucestershire was quite deliberate.

“The Cotswolds had that extra appeal because it was so close to Cheltenham Racecourse,” he said.

“Obviously working for David Nicholson was a big attraction but I was just a stone’s throw from Cheltenham.

“Cheltenham was the Mecca, all roads lead to Cheltenham.”

So what is it like to ride at the Cheltenham Festival, which this year runs from 14th-17th March?

“It’s incredible from the moment you get on the horse for the first race,” Thornton said.

“Walking out onto the racecourse, you can hear people shouting your name.

“Everyone wants to see the horses. Cantering down to the start, everyone is excited and if you’re on one of the fancied horses there’s a wave of noise that follows you.

“When you start, there’s a huge roar and there’s another roar when you jump the first.”

And what about actually winning a race at the Festival?

“That’s indescribable,” said Thornton. “There’s no feeling like it. Winning any race at the Cheltenham Festival is so special.”

Thornton was just 18 when he won his first race at the meeting.

In fact, he won two in two because after steering King Lucifer to success in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup, he won the Pertemps Final on Pharanear.

Both those horses were trained by David Nicholson and Thornton said: “The first win is always very special but I was very young, I didn’t really appreciate it.

“It took me another seven years to win at the Festival again and I made sure I appreciated it when I was older.” Full story online.

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