‘Choc’ making excellent progress

  by GEOFF LESTER

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THERE is further good news about our stable jockey 'Choc' Thornton, who is making excellent progress from the injury which he sustained on a fall at Newton Abbot only July 5 and might yet fulfil his prediction that he will be back "sooner rather than later".

'Choc', who was told by the medical team that he could be out for 12 months after badly damaging three of the ligaments in his right knee, went to see his surgeon, Jonathan Webb, on Wednesday and received an encouraging bulletin.
   Alan King said: "The surgeon was very pleased with the way in which the knee has improved following the physio, and 'Choc' is able to do away with the crutches and the other support. He will carry on with the physio and is able to do a little bit more each time, but it is a case of 'so far so good' and, while he will know more when he next visits Jonathan Webb, it seems that he might yet return for the second half of the season, which has been his target all along. That is smashing news, and he is clearly going the right way."
   The majority of the major races come in the "second half" of the jumps season, so 'Choc' will be looking to return in January if things go on as they are, but as Alan says he cannot rush things and needs to continue to take it one step at a time.

THE BETCHWORTH KID MAKES PLEASING RETURN

The dress-rehearsal can sometimes be as important as the real thing, and Alan King was "chuffed to bits" with the comeback run of The Betchworth Kid, who finished seventh in Thursday's Goodwood Cup, a race which was being used as a stepping-stone to the Ebor Handicap at York on August 18.
   Alan said: "It was very pleasing, and The Betchworth Kid, who has only been back with us five weeks, having summered with Jo Winter, ran just as we thought he would. Ideally, we could have done with another couple of weeks, but he needed a race before York and the timing was perfect.
   "Hayley (Turner) said that he came there with half a chance of getting in the money, but a furlong and a half out he just took a gasp for air, and she sensibly looked after him then. The race will have done him the power of good, and he'll be out in the field again this weekend before we start continuing his preparation towards the Ebor, in which he ran so well in last year."

© 2010 Alan King Racing Limited       Barbury Castle Stables | Wroughton | Wiltshire SN4 0QZ. Tel 01793 815009  email alanking.racing@virgin.net

Photography by G J Multimedia www.gjmultimedia.co.uk, Rachel King and Steve Smith