William Thornton

William Thornton

1867-1947

William Thomas Thornton rode 55 winners under National Hunt rules between 1887 and 1902, 26 of them at Manchester. He achieved his biggest victory in the 1893 Scottish Grand National. 

Born in  Beverley, Yorkshire in 1867, he was apprenticed to Edward Lawn and had his first ride in public on November 12, 1886, when finishing a distant last of three on Chibby in the Friday Hurdle at Liverpool. 

He rode his first winner on Sophist in the January Handicap Hurdle at Manchester on January 29, 1887, beating Ivanhoe, the mount of capable amateur rider Captain John Lee-Barber, by 10 lengths.

Numerically his best year was 1889 with 11 wins. However, he gained his most important success aboard Lady Ellen II in the 1893 Scottish Grand National at Bogside (known in those days as ‘Eglinton Hunt’). The following day he won the West of Scotland Handicap Chase on the six-year-old Dutchman.  

He had just one ride in the Grand National, in 1891 on Dominion, who was pulled up. Next time out they finished fourth in Manchester’s prestigious Lancashire Chase.

William rode his last winner aboard the 6-4 on favourite Business in the Stoke Handicap Hurdle at Nottingham on February 4, 1902. He had his final ride when Lord Bilbrook finished fifth of nine runners in the Devonshire Handicap Hurdle at Derby on March 12, 1907, by which time he had started training. 

He trained on the Flat, based at Beverley, between 1905 and 1909, from 1912 to 1916, and for one final year in 1919. 

William Thornton died in 1947.