Thornton hoping it's 13th time lucky after another operation

The weighing-room veteran injured a knee dismounting after riding his landmark 1,000th winner at Wincanton on Boxing Day and needed his anterior cruciate ligament to be reconstructed.

While rehabilitation has not gone entirely to plan, Thornton is optimistic he is on the home straight after dismissing retirement talk.

“I had the operation at 2.30pm on Tuesday and came back round at 4pm,” said the North Yorkshire rider who won the 1998 Cheltenham Gold Cup on Cool Dawn.

“They’ve taken the screw out and also tidied up some scar tissue around the front of the knee cap.

“I don’t expect to be back before mid-September at the earliest still but hopefully it’s getting there.

“That’s my 13th operation in total so I’m hoping it proves lucky.”

Meanwhile, Gold Cup hero Big Orange could renew rivalry with Royal Ascot runner-up Order Of St George at Goodwood.

Both warriors are entered for the Qatar Goodwood Cup on August 1 as Michael Bell’s Big Orange seeks an unprecedented hat-trick in historic races over two miles. Only Mark Johnston’s Double Trigger has won the big race three times, but they were split between 1995, 1997 and 1998.

Royal Ascot heroine Coronet could take on older fillies and mares in the Yorkshire Oaks at York’s Ebor festival. Fifth in the Epsom Oaks and third in the Prix Saint-Alary in France, John Gosden’s filly stayed on strongly to claim the Ribblesdale Stakes.