The period between the Christmases of 1997 and 1998 really was a golden run for jockey Andrew Thornton, kick-started by the King George VI Chase success of See More Business.
At the time, Thornton, now a TV pundit, had enjoyed his first Cheltenham Festival success on Maamur for Captain Tim Forster but in a weighing room which contained Richard Dunwoody, AP McCoy, Mick Fitzgerald, Adrian Maguire and the like, he was some way from the top of the pile.
A magnificent 12 months changed that, though, beginning when Thornton proved to be the choice of Paul Nicholls to replace the suspended Timmy Murphy on 10-1 chance See More Business in the Boxing Day highlight.
A smart novice, he had been to Ireland twice but come off second best behind Dorans Pride, but the following season he showed his class when giving lumps of weight to Indian Tracker and Banjo in the Rehearsal Chase at Chepstow, which persuaded connections to head to Kempton Park.
“I remember there was a rule in place at the time that if you picked up a whip ban in a race worth over a certain amount of money, it was an automatic 10-day suspension, and that ruled poor Timmy, who I used to sit next to, out of the King George,” said Thornton.
“I’d moved down south by then but had already gone back up north to see my family for Christmas when my agent Dave Roberts rang to say Paul Nicholls wanted me in the King George.
“I remember thinking ‘I hope he doesn’t want me to go in and school him’ as that would be a heck of a long way, but Paul said it was up to me and I just told him if he was happy for me not to, I wouldn’t bother.
“It was only 15 years later we were talking about it and Paul confessed he was glad I hadn’t gone in because See More was not the best in his early days!”
It was a stacked King George. One Man was there, winner of the previous two renewals, Suny Bay went off joint-favourite with him having just bolted up in the Hennessy, there was David Nicholson’s perennial bridesmaid Barton Bank and the 1996 Grand National winner Rough Quest.
The finish, perhaps one of the most famous in modern times, concerned none of those top-class animals, though.
“My only instructions were not to ask him too many questions early and to give him plenty of room,” said Thornton.
1997 King George VI Chase – See More Business pic.twitter.com/0Xxr2lmC4i
— History of Horse Racing (@horsevault) May 14, 2023
“I was a bit worried when Djeddah lined up on my outside but he disappeared early and after that I had plenty of daylight.
“I remember going through the race and thinking none of the other big yards were in form at the time, Gordon Richards (One Man) was struggling for winners, so were Charlie Brooks (Suny Bay) and the Duke (David Nicholson), so it shouldn’t really have been a surprise it was Nicholls and (Martin) Pipe fighting it out.”
The Pipe horse was the McCoy-ridden Challenger Du Luc, mercurially talented but, frustratingly for connections, in the middle of a string of four successive seconds.
“One Man made a bad mistake five out and that knocked the stuffing out of him, Barton Bank hit the next hard and soon he was gone. We left Suny Bay turning for home and Rough Quest could never quite get on terms,” said Thornton.
“I took it up turning in, but I had no idea AP was still absolutely cantering until I saw a pair of blinkers out of the corner of my eye.
“I mean, we all know what he was like but AP even took a pull going to the last. When he started riding him, he seemed to go slower and See More Business was a very strong stayer.
“He was Timmy’s ride, I knew that, so when he got back on him next time in the Pillar (Cotswold Chase), I wasn’t upset. Of course, he went on to the Gold Cup and got carried out by Pipe’s Cyborgo, which was a bit controversial at the time.”
Thornton did not see any of that, though, as he was out in front on Cool Dawn, never to be caught.
“I only rode See More once again, five years later in the Rehearsal Chase when he gave a future Grand National winner in Bindaree the best part of two stone and a beating, he gave me some feel that day,” said Thornton.
After the King George, Thornton’s golden run included a Tolworth Hurdle on French Holly, the Racing Post Chase on Super Tactics, the Rendlesham Hurdle on Buckhouse Boy, the Royal & SunAlliance Novices’ Hurdle on French Holly and then the Gold Cup.
A broken leg in the off-season, while never a good time to get one, meant he was off for a couple of months before the big winners kept on flowing, culminating with French Holly in the Christmas Hurdle.
“Would you believe, when I rode him on my hurdling debut, I think he was my first ever ride for Ferdy Murphy,” said Thornton.
“Ken Whelan was riding for Ferdy at the time, but his career was just taking off in Ireland and he made his hurdling debut at Ayr during the November meeting at Cheltenham and his owner Kieren Flood wanted someone who was going to be available and was in the top six in the championship. I think I was fifth.
“The day he won at Cheltenham as a novice, I’ve never had a feeling like it off a horse. That was over two-mile-five and I’ve often wondered how many Stayers’ Hurdles he’d have won.
“Over two miles, we kept bumping into Istabraq, who is in the conversation for the best ever. That day at Kempton, we thrashed Dato Star, who had beaten us in the Fighting Fifth but that was really our first run, as he was all wrong when I pulled him up at Ascot.”
There was to be a tragic end to the French Holly story, as he died in a schooling accident at the age of eight.
“We probably shouldn’t have sent him chasing, as he was such a big horse,” muses Thornton.
“He jumped OK on his chasing debut but a week or so after I was on my way up to Hexham and I remember ringing Ferdy saying I’d pop in and give him a school. I remember to this day Ferdy said he thought he’d jumped well enough and he didn’t school his horses that much.
“Anyway, I can vividly remember saying to him ‘what have we got to lose’. I’ve thought about that for 25 years. I’ve schooled over tens of thousands of fences and never before or since have I had anything like that happen.
“People used to crab the way he jumped hurdles and he’d often land on all fours, but he hardly ever lost momentum. He was some horse.”