Manuka another for Thornton

Trainer Karl Thornton has his small string in tremendous form and Manuka gave the Skerries handler his third winner in three days when landing the Powerstown Demesne Qualified Riders’ Handicap Hurdle under Johnny Barry.

Having his first run for the stable, little more than a month after joining the yard, he travelled strongly throughout, was brought wide for better ground by Barry, and ran on strongly to score by half a length, from the fast-finishing Omega Springs.

“I pre-trained this horse before he went off to bigger yards, but I always thought a lot of him and when he came up for sale, six weeks ago, was always going to buy him,” said Thornton.