andrew thornton

Didn't see what he did but I bet it was't good, he's a poor jockey.

Andy Thornton is one my favourite jockeys and was very successful a decade ago thanks to his partnership with the Alners. Gave Cool Dawn a beautiful ride in 1998, and that same year won one of the novice's hurdle on a horse for Ferdy Murphy. He also made Kingscliff, Sir Rembrandt, The Listener, Miko De Beauchene the chasers they were, and probably was unlucky not to win a second Gold Cup but the former two were around at the time of Best Mate and Kicking King. The way he was treated by the owners of The Listener was appalling. His win on Miko in the Welsh National and Haydock Gold Cup were memorable moments. Hopefully he gets to add to his tally of 3 Cheltenham winners before he retires. A rider who has given a lot of time to horses throughout his career.

Also very good if you need somewhere to hang your clothes.

Did you see the ride he gave on a fav at Plumpton on Monday Viva, probably not as bad as I say, more somewhere in the middle, but definitely not my favourite person at the moment.

viva, hes a nice guy and very insightful for interviews etc etc but realistically hes not the greatest. hes had some good days but id say a training career is nearly upon him!

Best jockey riding.. apart from Paul Moloney.

He is articulate certainly, maybe how he talked himself onto all those nice horses in the mid to late nineties plus the listener who was one of my favs, backed him the first day he won in England

The way he was treated by the owners of The Listener was appalling. 

Was jocked off because he kept decking one of the best jumpers in training.

French Holly

the listener one of the best jumpers in training? i liked the listener, but like many of his sires progeny, jumping wasnt their most valuable asset, particularly the older they get

reve, think you getting confused with your namesake.
The Listener brilliant on soft/heavy around Leopardstown

Just where exactly did he get to on Sir Rembrandt in Best Mate's 3rd Gold Cup?

Thought he'd gone off to Cheltenham High Street - then suddenly appeared back in shot from absolutely nowhere...Just needed another couple of strides to get up and win as well...

kingscliff when the reins broke really early on and he rode it to win was a superb bit of horsemanship, might have been at ascot?

i dont think reve is made for the jumping game but the listener came down quite a bit. i wouldnt consider him a good jumper anyhow. adequate generally

Remember his winning ride on Kingscliffe at Ascot? Real horsemanship

Sorry elise your post was not there when i started typing

i've just been looking, can't see it on video or youtube

Tracked leader, left rein broke and hit rail after 3rd, led next, came clear from 3 out, not fluent last, impressive

a large bit was the horse i'll grant you, but if i recall correctly he used the mane and the fact he rides long saved him

The way he sits right into a horse keeps him on board, not sure it helps the fluency of their jumping though, Kingscliff as a young horse was very very good if I remember.

If i remember it correctly, Kingscliff won the Foxhunters before he went on to contest handicaps etc the next season.

Andrew Thornton rode The Listener 12 times, winning 5 and 2nd twice but to say he "kept" decking the horse is a bit far fetched. He only failed to complete 3 times, once when slipping up on a bend in a hurdle and then in 2 of the most competitive novice chases of the season at around that trip, being the Reynoldstown Chase and Sun Alliance at the Cheltenham festival. Bear in mind too that in a chaser's novice year it's more likely to make mistakes and especially in the second half of the season in fast run competitive races, as opposed to eary strolls where they go a sensible pace on novice jumpers.

Richard Johnson rode the horse once and fell and Daryl Jacob had a fall and an unseated on the horse too from 10 rides, so overall failing to finish 6 times from 30 starts wouldn't suggest it was the best of jumpers and with only 9 careers wins with Thornton being on for over half of them suggests his record isn't too bad on the horse.

racing post awarded the commentary "jumped well" in both his first 2 novice chase starts where he spreadeagled the opposition in soft/hvy incl a Gr 2, before winning another Gr 2 at Chelt.
Thornton put him on the floor next twice before a layoff the following Nov and his last ride on the horse:

RP: might even have won had he been ridden with a bit more urgency. He jumped superbly until making a minor error at the third-last, where he was just a bit awkward, and his rider seemed to accept very quickly that Star De Mohaison was going to beat him, because while The Listener was never more than three lengths or so adrift of him, it was only after the leader made his mistake that he was really asked again

Deckie Johnson put the horse on the floor on his fourth career start in a hurdle race, and he only fell or unseated in 2 out of 16 chases after Thornton was jocked off.
Thornton failed to complete on 3 of his 10 rides on the horse and clearly the owners were not happy with his last ride  at Sandown, so they had every right to get someone else.

Have to concede though that Thornton riding the best of his career last 18 months.

Andrew Thornton spent a lot of time working with the Alner's chasers in their early days often making them the jumpers they were.

Reve, I would not say The Listener was a bad jumper. In fact, he could be compared to say Kauto Star. Impeccable 90% of the time but prone to uprooting the odd fence! Thornton made him the stag he was and Robert Alner pointed this out once or twice. The way he was jocked off was disgraceful.

What really annoyed me was the third time Daryl Jacob rode him was in the Hennessy Gold Cup, and I backed him to maintain placings with Beef or Salmon from that season's Lexus. Jacob kicked on in early in the start and after the last fence suddenly began to tire rapidly, and the Beef got up to nail him near the line. I also a lot of money, and often wonder if Thornton had still been on him, would he have held onto him a little bit longer and try to caress him home over those final 100 yards.

By the way, Thornton won jump ride of the year twice. That one the day the reins broke on Kingscliff, and also Miko De Beauchene's triumph over Halcon Generaldais in the Welsh National.

ray humphries, his owner is one of the biggest cuunts in racing.  as well as throwing off 2 jocks, he took the horse out of training with robert alner because he thought alner wouldnt have been able to get the best out of the horse following his accident. hopefully karma will ensure he never has another winner in his life

Didn't JP offer a million for Kingscliff?

As in was saying though, there's a big difference between basically leading all the way in small field early novice chases against other inexperienced novices, where on 2 of his first 3 chase wins The Listener only had 6 opponents and went off 5/4f and 8/11f in what amounted to sole trials really, and then doing the same in 2 of the most competitive novice chases of the season where the general pace of the race is faster and the opponents better class and all runners then have more experience over fences.

The faster pace from the front and being harried by better quality rivals puts more pressure on a horses jumping when they aren't doing it easily from the front and getting their own way. We've even seen that with Denman recently too.