Sport in '98: Another saga of sorry squabbles
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Your support makes all the difference.Forecasting results, as my mother and loyal followers (one and the same) will vouch, is a tricky business in racing. Predicting squabbles within the sport less taxing. The end-of-term lament about prize money on the Turf will continue during 1998, but the horns will remain locked.
Government must find it hard to shed tears over the money-bloated owners seeking increased returns. The bookmakers, meanwhile, have now tightened their hands around the throat so much that the golden goose has passed out. Sheikh Mohammed and his brothers, though, are more likely to withdraw from the sport than the munificent boys with the corporate satchels are prepared to pay their way.
The proposed takeover of Coral by Ladbrokes further darkens the sport's future, while the real losers remain the real workers, the stable staff who could probably improve take-home pay if they became paperboys.
On the events front, the Cheltenham Festival will once again be the most expensive maul in the calendar. The Prestbury Park executive will almost certainly have to follow the leads of Royal Ascot and Kempton's King George VI Chase meeting and bring down the crowd limit.
On the Flat, the contest will be to keep Britain's premier prizes at home. France's Xaar could be the new superstar, with options primarily in the 2,000 Guineas, but also a consideration in the Derby.
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