Thorne looking forward to Gleneagle Lincoln bid Stephen Thorne has made a blistering start to his training career and could take it to a new high in the €100,000 Nua Healthcare Irish Lincolnshire at the Curragh tomorrow where he saddles the favourite Gleneagle Bay. The lightly raced five-year-old won on debut for Joseph O’Brien at Dundalk last spring and having been bought for 85,000 guineas at Newmarket last July, filled the runner-up spot on both subsequent outings in Premier Handicaps including over this course and distance. “It has been the plan for some time for Gleneagle Bay and the preparation has gone unbelievable,” said Thorne after saddling a treble at Dundalk yesterday evening. "Colin (Keane) sat on him in Leopardstown last week and we asked him when he came back in if he still wanted to ride him, and he said 'absolutely I do'. We got the nod from him anyway. Everything has gone so smoothly. "Obviously, the one concern is the soft, soft to heavy ground description. Whether he wants that type of ground, I don't know. He's a half-brother to an Ayr Gold Cup winner who won on soft ground. He does bend the knee slightly, so we would be optimistic but it is a big-field handicap. "He looks the one on the paper, he looks the one you would put a ring around him and say 'he is going to win one of them', whereas a lot of the others are quite exposed. "When he shot clear in the Sovereign Path and got done on the line, that was when we said me might need to put something (headgear) on him down the road. "We gave him the benefit of the doubt in the Curragh. I don't think he finished as strongly as I would have liked in the Curragh, so we have put the cheekpieces on him now so, if he gets to the furlong pole and is there, it just gives him the focus. Thorne is double handed in the Lincoln as he also runs Independent Expert who won five times for Andy Slattery and was snapped up by current connections for €20,000 at Goffs last November. "Independent Expert doesn't have much up her sleeve in terms of handicap ratings, she is probably on a stiff enough rating. "Chris Hayes rode her in Leopardstown last week and rang me up the following day and said he would love to ride her. That's a tip in itself! "He knows how to win a Lincoln, he has won three. I was delighted when I got that call. "She is going well, she is fit and ready to go. She won first time up last season (in Cork), but unfortunately she hasn't much up her sleeve. "Can a six-year-old win an Irish Lincoln? She will acquit herself well." Additional reporting by Michael Graham
