Sam Thornley's weekly winning streak

By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk  

In his first year as an open driver Sam Thornley is on some sort of winning streak right now.

The 24-year-old has driven 20 winners since June 19, and had at least one winner every week for coming up 10 weeks, his latest being with Kotare Argent at Rangiora last Sunday.

It's a run that none of the other top drivers in the country have matched.

"I wasn't aware of it, I don't look into that (the numbers) too much," says Thornley, "but it has been a great run. Can't complain."

The country's leading driver Blair Orange has reined more winners in the same period with 28 though he was on holiday recently so doesn't have the continuous run of weekly winners that Thornley has. Thornley though is keen to deflect any personal kudos. Talk about a driver in a purple patch of form just doesn't wash.

"I'm just lucky I get the right horses - very lucky."

"It's about getting the right draws and a good run," he says modestly.

"I just win as many as I can and then look forward to the next one."

His run includes a treble at Addington on July 26 (DJ's Gamble, Kotare Argent and Dance Hall Girl) and three doubles on July 3 (Kotare Rimu and The Royal Gamble), July 17 (Kotare Rimu and Nikolai Ray), and August 7 (Coba Charged and Royal Del).

"All the wins with Kotare Rimu have been the best ones," says Thornley, "he's a very nice horse. One of the better three-year-olds in the country."

"He's probably the best one I've driven."

In all, during the past two months or so, he's driven winners for eight different trainers - Ross Houghton, Brent Borcoskie, Fred Fletcher, Jeremy Pearson, Brent Weaver, Chris McDowell, Ken Barron and Bruce Negus.

With 457 drives in 2026 Thornley is the fourth busiest driver behind Blair Orange (644), Wilson House (487) and Matthew Williamson (458) with his 48 wins this year putting him well within reach of his personal best 70 that he drove in 2025 in his last year as a junior.

"I always aim to do better than I did the previous year so here's hoping."

Orange leads the premiership with 106 wins to be well clear of anyone else (John Dunn is next on 77) while the likes of House and Williamson have been regular and prolific winners, just not every week.

Sam Thornley's winning run :

August 23 - Kotare Argent - Rangiora
August 21 - My Wingman - Addington
August 14 - Paris Prince - Addington
August 9 - Rosario - Ashburton
August 7 - Coba Charged and Royal Del - Addington
August 2 - Coba Charged - Addington
July 31 - Shadow Creek - Addington
July 26 - D J's Gamble, Kotare Argent and Dance Hall Girl - Addington
July 19 - Star On The Rocks - Addington
July 17 - Kotare Rimu and Nikolai Ray - Addington
July 10 - The Royal Gamble - Addington
July 3 - The Royal Gamble and Kotare Rimu - Addington
June 26 - Classie Linc - Addington
June 21 - Classie Linc - Addington
June 19 - Kotare Rimu - Addington

He has four more drives at Addington on Friday with Longview Tui (R3), Courage Machete (R5), Crusher Lou (R8) and Coba Charged (R9) while at Ashburton on Sunday among his drives will be Ellie Rose (R1) and Keltic Tiger (R5).

"I just hope we can keep it going."