Football: Nightmare for Newnes

A SPARE ride often brings a jockey unexpected reward, but not hapless Billy Newnes here yesterday. Drafted in to replace injured Tony McGlone on the fancied Sea-Deer in the Sunley Foundation Handicap, his race lasted less than a stride as the gelding stumbled leaving the stalls and pitched him to the ground.

Newnes was only shaken, though he gave up his later rides. McGlone, who had been enjoying his best season, was not so lucky, having been hospitalised after breaking three ribs and puncturing a lung in a fall at the Newmarket gallops in the morning.

The finish of the Sandown race, over five furlongs, involved the two market leaders, with bottom-weight Jayannpee giving Ian Balding some compensation for the defeats of two of the yard's more talented sprinters at York.

It was Variety Club day at the Esher course, which meant that professionals from the entertainment world mixed with racegoers and the quality of racing was less suited to the the purist than the punter.

But, apart from pandering to the egos of the great and the good, the fixture did raise pounds 100,000 for the charity.

John Dunlop has undoubtedly picked up more notable prizes than the Copacabana Conditions Sweepstakes, but the win of Indian Light in the mile contest provided a landmark in the trainer's distinguished career, his 1,900th British winner. The colt is likely to add to that total in the future: he picked up well after looking beaten two furlongs out to catch New Century inside the final 150 yards and looks a useful staying prospect.

He holds an entry in the Racing Post Trophy over a mile at Doncaster in October, a race which his sire, Be My Chief, won six years ago.

At Ripon, Frankie Dettori, running away with the jockey's title, passed an extraordinary landmark of his own when he rode Osato in the Boroughbridge Maiden Stakes. It was his 1,000th domestic ride of the season, and though he could not make it a winning one he scored on Scotsky (for Dunlop) and Halling.

The prodigious feat of riding 1,000 horses in anger (and the figure does not include his rides abroad) in a season has only been achieved before by Gordon Richards in 1936 and Michael Roberts two years ago, but never as early as August.

Dunlop is almost as well-known for his successful foreign raids as his success in Britain, but yesterday his contender at Deauville, Scribe, was out of luck behind last year's French Derby winner, Hernando, who made a successful seasonal debut in the Prix Gontaut-Biron.

There are high hopes today of the two-year-old fillies Flowerdrum, taken out of the Lowther Stakes at York because of the firm ground, and Hoh Magic in the Group One Prix Morny for two-year-olds over six furlongs, though they will be bidding to become the first British winner of the prestigious French race since My Swallow 24 years ago. The easy ground will suit the Molecomb Stakes heroine, Hoh Magic, whose trainer, Michael Bell, was bullish about her prospects at Sandown yesterday.

The big, strong filly, a daughter of Cadeaux Genereux, has sparkled in recent gallops with subsequent winner Cim Bom Bom and One In A Million, on target for the valuable Tattersalls race in Ireland next weekend. Bell said: 'The extra furlong should be no problem, and she is in tremendous nick. She has a good draw and we are very hopeful.'

They face stern opposition from a French-trained trio plus an Italian raider. The Andre Fabre-trained Tereshkova, who recently won the Prix de Cabourg, looks a threat along with four-times winner Bruttina from Italy.