The winner here was Spinning World who supplied a sixth victory in
The winner here was Spinning World, who supplied a sixth victory in the last 10 years in the Group One event for the Niarchos family, the sponsors of the race. He held off the challenge of Vetheuil and Shaanxi.Charnwood Forest, a Godolphin-owned horse, was ridden by Lanfranco Dettori, who reported: “The ground was a little slower than he would have liked and he just ran out of gas.” Britain’s other representative, Mark Johnston’s Gothenburg, set the pace for much of the journey but was furthest behind at the point that mattered most.First Island gets a lift from Deauville as his stablemate at Geoff Wragg’s Newmarket yard, Sasuru, won the Prix Guillaume d’Ornano. Sasuru captured the Group Two contest by a short-head from Android.INTERNATIONAL STAKES (York, Tuesday): Coral: 5-2 Halling, 11-4 First Island, 7-2 Bijou D’Inde, 7-1 Grape Tree Road, Valanour, 10-1 Spectrum, 12-1 Even Top, Tamayaz, 25-1 Glory Of Dancer, 100-1 Punishment.Ladbrokes : 9-4 Halling, 100-30 First Island, 7-2 Bijou D’Inde, 6-1 Spectrum, 7-1 Valanour, 10-1 Grape Tree Road, 14-1 Definite Article, Even Top, 20- 1 Glory Of Dancer, 100-1 Punishment.William Hill: 5-2 First Island, 11-4 Halling, 3-1 Bijou D’Inde, 8-1 Spectrum, Valanour, 11-1 Even Top, Grape Tree Road, 14-1 Definite Article, 25-1 Glory Of Dancer, 100-1 Punishment.. The Elite Racing Club has warned its 6,000 members not to take the 16-1 Champion Hurdle ante-post odds available on Mysilv. The club’s Matthew Budden said yesterday: “Trainer Charles Egerton, in conjunction with us, hasn’t made any firm plans for her, but I can say the Champion Hurdle is very unlikely if she stays over hurdles
“The Stayers’ Hurdle is likely to be the main target.
And in the newsletter to our members that went to press yesterday I said that nobody should be taking odds on the Champion Hurdle.”
Mysilv failed to make the frame in the past two runnings of the Champion Hurdle despite gallant displays.Yesterday’s results, page 25. Arthur Appleton chose the title “Hotbed of Soccer” when he wrote the story of North-east football in 1960. After three decades in cold storage, the epithet is rolling hot off the nation’s presses once again. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that the region is a hotbed again,” Appleton, now an octogenarian, said recently. “It’s difficult to think back to a time when there was so much interest in North-east football.”
It is not merely the fact that Newcastle United, Middlesbrough and Sunderland will kick off as fellow top-flighters for only the second season since 1954.
Neither is it because some 78,000 North-easterners have invested in Premiership season tickets.
Rather it is the fact that a global spotlight will be trained upon Tyneside, where the world’s most expensive footballer will be in the Newcastle team, and upon Teesside, where Middlesbrough will parade a Brazilian who scored from the penalty spot in the most recent World Cup final and an Italian who was on the mark in the European Cup final three months ago.For a region which became synonymous with the description “sleeping giant”, it is an astonishing transformation.It is only five years since Joe Allon of Hartlepool was voted the North- east’s best player by the region’s football writers; only four since Newcastle stood on the brink of financial collapse and the old Third Division; and little more than two seasons since Middlesbrough were attracting gates of 6,000.Two weeks ago 2,000 fans queued down by the Riverside to pay pounds 40 each for the privilege of wearing Middlesbrough’s new strip. Bernie Slaven laughed when he recalled how the Boro players of 1986 collected wages paid by the PFA at the Town Hall because the club was under liquidation and the gates to Ayresome Park padlocked “It’s a different world up here now,” he said. The retired Republic of Ireland striker cost pounds 25,000 when he joined Middlesbrough from Albion Rovers in 1984. “It’s staggering,” he said, “when you think some players are getting that much each week.”In Middlesbrough’s case, Fabrizio Ravanelli and the boys from Brazil – Branco, Juninho and Emerson – are being paid their weekly fortunes to earn the club the kind of tradition their neighbours can boast.