Andrew Thornton reflects on long career as final rides loom

Andrew Thornton’s retirement at Uttoxeter today will signal the end of an era in weighing rooms up and down Britain.

The 1998 Gold Cup-winning jockey is calling it a day following a career in the saddle which saw him ride his first winner way back in 1991 for northern training great Arthur Stephenson.

As well as Cool Dawn in the blue riband, there were two other Cheltenham Festival successes and a raft of other big-race successes.