Vaulted straight into elite company with festival double

The list of winning jockeys on the first day of the 1997 Cheltenham Festival made familiar reading: Jamie Osborne, AP McCoy (twice) and David Bridgwater, the last two being Martin Pipe’s current and former stable jockey. But then came a new name on the roll of honour, and not once but twice.

Robert Thornton was 18, still an amateur who could claim 5lb, and his name would not have leaped out from the racecard, nor would he have been recognised by many on the racecourse. Yet he left his mark at jump racing’s biggest meeting with back-to-back victories in the last two races on the Tuesday card.

“Is it really that long ago?” is Thornton’s initial reaction when asked to recall that day 20 years ago that first made his name and launched a career featuring 1,123 wins over jumps in Britain and Ireland, countless big-race triumphs and 16 festival winners.