Jockey Timothy Thornton built his career in Illinois, but after a brief retirement decided to reboot in his native Louisiana. The decision has led to his best year in the saddle. Thornton, 31, is the second-leading rider in wins in North America this year through Tuesday. He’s also on pace to win his second straight riding title at Evangeline Downs in Opelousas, La. “I decided I might as well go home and give Louisiana a try, and Louisiana has been great,” he said. Thornton has won 193 races from 756 starts this year for mount earnings of $3.3 million, riding mostly at Evangeline and Delta Downs in Vinton, La. The numbers have already eclipsed his career-best totals from 2017, when he won 190 races from 830 starts for $2.8 million in mount earnings. On a national level, Thornton’s win total for 2018 trails only Irad Ortiz Jr., who had won 226 races from 1,012 starts through Tuesday. Thornton is having a particularly memorable meet at Evangeline. He’s won 128 races from 501 starts for mount earnings of $1.7 million. He recently had a five-win night. He’s won four stakes at the meet. And entering the final two weeks of the meet, he had a 19-win advantage over second-leading rider Colby Hernandez. “It’s my second meet here,” Thornton said. “Obviously, last year went well. This year has been even better. My agent, Marcus Guidry, and I have been working hard, trying to do the best we can. Hard work pays off.” Thornton, who was born in Lake Charles, La., is the son of trainer and blacksmith Mark Thornton. Timothy Thornton won for the first time on June 13, 2003, at Arlington Park in Illinois and went on to win seven titles down the road at Hawthorne. Thornton’s stakes winners in Illinois included the popular River Bear and Peyote Patty. “River Bear is probably the coolest horse I ever rode,” Thornton said. “I think he made just under $1 million. Peyote Patty, one summer at Arlington she won at five different distances, both surfaces. She won every race she was in that whole summer. I won a bunch of stakes on her. She was special.” Other notable wins for the rider include on Sort It Out in the 2005 Whirlaway at Aqueduct, Free Fighter in the Grade 3 Stars and Stripes in 2011 at Arlington, and Richiegirlgonewild in the Grade 3 Old Hat in 2010 at Gulfstream. Thornton in 2015 traded his tack for a position with a California-based company owned by the parents of his fiancée, Devin. But he ultimately felt the call to return to the track and did so with the blessing of all involved. Thornton said he did not know how things would go breaking into a new circuit, and so Devin initially stayed in California. “I told her, ‘I’ll call you in a month, let you know if we need to pack up everything and head this way,’ ” Thornton recalled. “She loaded up.” Thornton ended up making a key connection not long after his arrival in Louisiana: He started riding regularly for trainer Karl Broberg, who was familiar with Thornton. “He had done really well in Illinois, was trying to get started in Louisiana, and we were at a point where we were looking to make a change, and it just seemed to work,” Broberg said. “He rides smart. He just rides smart.” Thornton, who has won two stakes at the meet for Broberg, has been grateful for the alliance. “They were looking for a rider, and I kind of fell into the spot, which turned out to be awesome,” he said. “Everyone wants to ride for the leading trainer in the country.” Thornton’s next stop will be Delta Downs, where one of his Evangeline stakes winners, Pickett, will see action. Pickett is an undefeated 2-year-old by Goldencents coming off a nine-length win in a division of the D.S. “Shine” Young Memorial Futurity. “He’s going to get much better,” Thornton said. “He’s a nice, nice colt. He does everything so easily. In the stakes, he set fast fractions and was completely within himself. He made the lead and was just playing around. I think he’s only going to improve, and I don’t think it’s going to be a problem going the distance.” For Thornton, going the distance from Illinois to California to Louisiana has proven to be the right move.