Thornton to ride Drumbaloo

Jimmy Lambe is delighted to have secured the services of Robert Thornton to ride Drumbaloo in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival.

The six-year-old is unbeaten in three starts in National Hunt Flat events and has taken the notable scalps of Western Leader and Tornedo Shay on his last two appearances.

Lambe is thrilled with his charge's current condition and feels it would be dangerous to leave him out of calculations at Prestbury Park.

"He won his point-to-point well and we then sent him over to Hereford for a bumper where he won in a common canter," said Lambe.

"Tony McCoy rode him that day and said he felt like a very good horse and could be competitive wherever we decided to send him.

"We brought him back to Ireland and he beat a very smart horse in Western Leader at Down Royal before winning a Grade Two at Navan, so his form is rock solid.

"Robbie McNamara rode him on his last two starts but unfortunately it looks like he'll be riding for Dermot Weld, so we've booked 'Choc' Thornton to ride.

"There is nobody better than him around Cheltenham and I'm delighted to have got him.

"The horse went to Navan a couple of weeks ago for a workout and he was scintillating.

"He normally isn't explosive in his work but he was very good that day and he also went to Leopardstown last week and went well again.

"He will probably have one more piece of work at half-speed on Saturday and he'll then head over to Cheltenham on Sunday week, which gives him a couple of days there before the bumper on the Wednesday.

"He's travelled to England before so he should be fine in that respect and he shouldn't have any problem with the preliminaries.

"He'll definitely be a better horse on better ground and I think he has a good chance.

"If he was trained by Willie Mullins he'd probably be favourite so we're looking forward to it."