Then we will keep an eye out for a maiden hurdle with a small field.”Air Marshall, who finished a place ahead of Chimes At Midnight in the Doncaster Classic, is being prepared for a hurdling career by Nicky Henderson.Noel Chance is leaning towards Wincanton’s John Bull Chase and away from Haydock’s Peter Marsh Chase for Looks Like Trouble’s eagerly anticipated return to action on Saturday An early decision would certainly help Channel 4. They are due to cover Kempton and Catterick on Saturday but are negotiating with Wincantons so that the John Bull can fit into their schedule.The 2000 Gold Cup winner, now a 10-year-old, has not raced through injury since an easy win at Down Royal in November of his Gold Cup year, but has emerged satisfactorily from a racecourse gallop at Huntingdon on Friday.”There’s a drop of rain forecast for Wincanton which should suit us just fine,” Chance said: “Looks Like Trouble is 100 per cent at the moment and I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”The old system of backing a jockey who has announced his final ride paid off tidily yesterday when Tim Reed ended his career aboard the 12-1 winner Kerry Lads at Carlisle. Reed had told the world the day before that he was waiting to go out on a winner and the starting-price was surprisingly generous.Backing horses that have been switched to Venetia Williams’s stable is not a bad system either, particularly with the Herefordshire trainer in such flying form. Yesterday, Mystere, having her first run for the yard and after more than a year off the racecourse, landed a touch at Folkestone.

Available at 7-1 off-course in the morning, she was backed down to 7-2.”We’ve had this race in mind for her for about three weeks and it’s very rare when everything comes together so successfully,” Williams said. “Her owners have had to be very patient and I’m pleased for them.”* The Champion Hurdle outsider Arctic Owl will work after racing at Huntingdon today. James Fanshawe’s Irish St Leger winner, who has not been out since a fifth in the Melbourne Cup in November 2000, is a best-priced 20-1 chance with the Tote for Cheltenham.* The leading German jockey Andrasch Starke has been banned from riding until July by the stewards of the Hong Kong Jockey Club after failing a drugs test taken at Sha Tin.TRIUMPH HURDLE (Cheltenham 14 March): Coral: 10-1 (from 12-1) Londoner, 14-1 Le Roi Miguel, Tempo D’Or, 20-1 Green Ideal, Turtleback, Sud Bleu, 25-1 others. Tote: 10-1 Londoner, 12-1 Tempo D’Or, 20-1 Le Roi Miguel, 25-1 others. William Hill: 10-1 Londoner, 12-1 Tempo D’Or, 16-1 Prizeman, 20-1 Green Ideal, Turtleback, 25-1 others..

The England cricketer abroad can be an insular fellow. Life for weeks on end can consist of room, team bus and ground Variety is when the hotel has more than one restaurant

The England cricketer abroad can be an insular fellow. Variety is when the hotel has more than one restaurant.
In the event of his hitting form on the pitch – not as unlikely as it once was – a standard criticism to fall back on is his lack of adventure. It only goes so far to be scoring runs and taking wickets, but what about embracing the wider world outside? Six of the tourists visited an orphanage in this city yesterday. It was a virtuous gesture and it also provided a lesson in how difficult it is here to embrace the local culture if you are a cricketer. What was intended to be an unfussy affair, albeit one which fulfilled part of their England contracts, turned into the habitual bedlam as scores upon scores of Calcutta reporters and cameramen besieged them.

(The English press had not been informed of the visit and therefore were, naturally, in their rooms).Nasser Hussain, the England captain, who led the contingent to the SOS Children’s Village, said: “We tried to keep it low key but doing that out here is almost impossible. The idea was to get a few of the boys down here and get our association with the village kicked off.”It’s important that we go out doing these things. All you see are hotels and cricket grounds and this has been a great experience.” Later in the day Hussain and his team at last gained access to Eden Gardens for practice. It was chaos there as well, a state which is quickly becoming customary on this tour.The row over entry to the stadium, the venue for Saturday’s opening one-day international, continues to simmer. The secretary of the Cricket Association of Bengal, Bablu Koley, joined the fray by calling England liars. Pranab Roy, the former Test player who was sent to investigate the CCFC ground with which England are unhappy, then further inflamed the situation by saying: “The pitch at CCFC is a batsman’s paradise.” Hussain was having none of it. It was disgraceful, he said, that an international side was given a club ground to train on.