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Thornton Thrives Under In-Form O'Dea

2 March 2019

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By Isaac Murphy

The Steven O’Dea stable is flying, Reckless Choice and Scallopini saluted last weekend and Cool Sequence continued the trend too good for them in the Bench Mark 75 Handicap over the 1110 metres at Doomben today.

The one constant with the three O’Dea runners is young hoop Boris Thornton, who is determined to keep his weight down to retain the rides on the progressive types.

“I got here about fifty minutes before the race I only had the one today, happy I was able to make the most of it,” Thornton said.

“I’m pretty restricted with my weight, 55 kilos is my ideal riding weight in town it can be a bit of a sruggle to get down to 54 sometimes.”

“With the stable going so well at the moment it gives me that extra incentive to get down to 54.”

Thornton said O’Dea had given him the opportunity to ride some top horses and feels like he is riding in the best form of him career.

“I’ve been on some good horses and I’ve really got some confidence and feel like I’ve found some form with my riding, so I’m keen to keep that rolling,” he said.

“It’s been a combination of getting some nice rides and having that belief in myself I can ride consistently at 54 kilos.”

Stable Foreman Matt Hoystead said the drop-in trip suited the gelding who was carrying some fairly decent form dating back to Magic Millions day.

“We stepped him up to the 1400 metres last start and he just didn’t get the distance, he was much more suited over this trip today,” Hoystead said.

“He’s been plagued by bad barriers his last couple dating back to Magic Millions day where I thought he acquitted himself really well, so his form was probably a little better than it looked on paper.”

“We gave him a little freshen up since his last start run, put the blinkers back on and he showed a really good turn of foot today, it was great to see him back in form.”

Hoystead say that stable expected Tabbing to tow Cool Sequence into the race, but the gelding jumped well enough to dictate from the front.

“Boris (Thornton) rode him a treat, we probably expected Tabbing to get away first and Cool Sequence to get the trail behind, but he began so well he was able to control it from the front.”