The most valuable race in the world is run in Dubai today, but British punters will be focused on the first day of the turf Flat season, with Swop fancied to land the William Hill Lincoln Heritage Handicap (3.55) at Doncaster.
Trained by Luca Cumani, Swop has spent the winter in Dubai and showed his wellbeing with a tidy success at Nad Al Sheba last month, producing a sharp turn of foot to lead in the closing stages. Swop was unfortunate not to win a valuable handicap last season, finishing second at Goodwood, just failing to last home when third over an extra quarter-mile at Sandown Park and then again shaping as though his stamina was stretched when third in the Cambridgeshire.
A strongly-run mile here should be ideal and, lightly raced for a six-year-old, Swop is a fair bet at 8-1 with the sponsor to gain a deserved big-race success.
The William Hill Spring Mile Handicap (2.45) - a consolation race for those that missed the cut in the Lincoln - can go to Fireside. Highly regarded when trained by Peter Chapple-Hyam, he ran in the 2,000 Guineas on just his third career start, but struck into himself during the race. Subsequently switched to Michael Jarvis's yard, he has been off the track for 11 months but remains a colt of enormous potential and could well have been let in lightly.
Frank Sheridan has done well since switching his training operation from Italy to Shropshire last season and Icelandic can provide him with a sixth win this year in the williamhill.com - Play Live Casino Cammidge Trophy (3.20).
The best bet of the day is Kandidate, who is fancied to repeat last year's success in the williamhill.com Magnolia Stakes (3.35) at Kempton Park. He has been below par on his past two starts at Lingfield Park, but front-running tactics are much harder to execute there and Kandidate can make it four wins from five starts back on this more suitable track.
Sweet Lightning is another with a good course record and looks too big at 25-1 with Ladbrokes for the williamhill.com Rosebery Heritage Handicap (3.00).
Muhannak provides the only British-trained interest in the Dubai World Cup (5.30) at Nad Al Sheba, but preference is for the Japanese raider, Casino Drive. The Japanese can underline their growing bloodstock strength through Vodka, their 2008 Horse of the Year, in the Dubai Duty Free (3.55), while Doctor Dino, the consistent French runner, can take the Dubai Sheema Classic (4.40).
Source:the times
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Colin Montgomerie leads the way in Seville
Colin Montgomerie was right where he wanted to be today on his 500th European Tour appearance as a professional - at the top of the leaderboard.
Europe's new Ryder Cup captain, with only three top-10 finishes to his name since the start of last season, raced to five under par after 12 holes of the Andalucian Open in Seville.
It put Montgomerie, now a lowly 137th in the world and with no hope of qualifying for The Masters in two weeks, two strokes ahead of England's John Mellor and John E Morgan, Spaniard Jose Manuel Lara and Frenchman Jean-Francois Lucquin, winner of last year's European Masters.The 45-year-old Scot was presented with a cake yesterday to celebrate his landmark appearance, and he was optimistic about the state of his game.
Montgomerie went on to birdie four of the first six holes on the back nine and after going in the lake for a bogey six at the long 16th, responded by picking up further strokes at the 18th and first.
Putts of 15 and 30 feet found the target there and an 18-footer was needed for par on the next before he bogeyed the 436-yard fourth to slip back to four under.
Montgomerie is the 18th player to reach 500 tournament appearances and has notched top 10 finishes in 182 of them.
His last top 10 finish was his second place to Pablo Larrazabal at last June’s French Open, but he is hungry for more.
“I’d like to get to 200. I’m busier than ever, but I’m still competitive enough to be able to contend,” Montgomerie said.
Source:the times
Europe's new Ryder Cup captain, with only three top-10 finishes to his name since the start of last season, raced to five under par after 12 holes of the Andalucian Open in Seville.
It put Montgomerie, now a lowly 137th in the world and with no hope of qualifying for The Masters in two weeks, two strokes ahead of England's John Mellor and John E Morgan, Spaniard Jose Manuel Lara and Frenchman Jean-Francois Lucquin, winner of last year's European Masters.The 45-year-old Scot was presented with a cake yesterday to celebrate his landmark appearance, and he was optimistic about the state of his game.
Montgomerie went on to birdie four of the first six holes on the back nine and after going in the lake for a bogey six at the long 16th, responded by picking up further strokes at the 18th and first.
Putts of 15 and 30 feet found the target there and an 18-footer was needed for par on the next before he bogeyed the 436-yard fourth to slip back to four under.
Montgomerie is the 18th player to reach 500 tournament appearances and has notched top 10 finishes in 182 of them.
His last top 10 finish was his second place to Pablo Larrazabal at last June’s French Open, but he is hungry for more.
“I’d like to get to 200. I’m busier than ever, but I’m still competitive enough to be able to contend,” Montgomerie said.
Source:the times
Lewis Hamilton starts from 18th place
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton will start from 18th place in his first race as Formula One world champion after suffering a gearbox failure in Australian Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday.
The 24-year-old Briton, who won from pole position in Melbourne last year, did not take part in Saturday's second stage of qualifying after finishing 15th in the first session.
"A gear catastrophically failed," McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh told reporters.
"We will be changing the box so we're going to take the hit of a gearbox change so Lewis will start from 20th place tomorrow." Since then, Toyota's Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli have been sent to the back of the grid, bumping Hamilton up the order by two. Normally, under Formula One regulations, gearboxes must last four successive races with a five-place penalty on the starting grid for any unscheduled changes.
Hamilton sounded calm in the face of his worst Formula One qualifying performance.
"I don't really have a game plan, just go for it," he said. "It can't really get worse than last place so we'll do the best job from there.
"We are a bit quicker than some of the other guys in front of us and we have to make sure that we extract the best from our strategy...it's a challenge and I'm looking forward to it."
Source:the times
The 24-year-old Briton, who won from pole position in Melbourne last year, did not take part in Saturday's second stage of qualifying after finishing 15th in the first session.
"A gear catastrophically failed," McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh told reporters.
"We will be changing the box so we're going to take the hit of a gearbox change so Lewis will start from 20th place tomorrow." Since then, Toyota's Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli have been sent to the back of the grid, bumping Hamilton up the order by two. Normally, under Formula One regulations, gearboxes must last four successive races with a five-place penalty on the starting grid for any unscheduled changes.
Hamilton sounded calm in the face of his worst Formula One qualifying performance.
"I don't really have a game plan, just go for it," he said. "It can't really get worse than last place so we'll do the best job from there.
"We are a bit quicker than some of the other guys in front of us and we have to make sure that we extract the best from our strategy...it's a challenge and I'm looking forward to it."
Source:the times
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
