“I am favouring the County Hurdle rather than the Champion,” he said.At Lingfield, Summer Bounty gave Barry Hills the 2,000th domestic Flat success of his career. The Lambourn trainer, who took out a licence in 1969 on the back of a winning bet on Frankincense in the previous year’s Lincoln, has won a 1,000 Guineas (Enstone Spark), a 2,000 Guineas (Tap On Wood), a St Leger (Moonax), a Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Rheingold) and four Irish Classics along the way to hitting 2,000.Philip Mitchell yesterday confirmed that his Dubai World Cup hope Running Stag will bypass Saturday’s Winter Derby Trial at Lingfield in favour of a racecourse gallop.The jockey Mark Richards was taken to hospital for X-rays after a fall from Agift in the closing race at Huntingdon.. “When we pulled up, Adrian said my fellow was the winner of the Triumph,” Gallagher said. “That was impressive, he is real class and you can’t fault him – we could have won by 20 lengths.”
Egerton was delighted and said: “Some people don’t like the Triumph but while a lot of horses are not ready for it, this one is ideal – he takes his racing well.” Dangerus Precedent is a 10-1 chance for the Triumph with William Hill.Maguire observed; “The winner was very impressive and I think he could go all the way, Albrighton is no slouch, you know.” Albrighton is also in the Triumph but his trainer, Ferdy Murphy, said: “He definitely won’t go to Cheltenham, he will go for the four-year-old hurdle at Punchestown, he is a nice horse for the future.”Egerton warned punters that Decoupage, his Tote Gold Trophy winner, is not certain to go for the Champion Hurdle for which he is a 25-1 chance with Ladbrokes.

Dean Gallagher made most of the running on the gelding and easily shook off Albrighton to win by three and a half lengths. DANGERUS PRECEDENT is going to win the Triumph Hurdle according to Adrian Maguire who finished second on Albrighton to Charlie Egerton’s charge at Huntingdon yesterday. “He might have jumped better, and we’ll school him before Cheltenham, but he’s a different horse on the ground he really wants.” Grey Shot needs it fast – it was tacky here yesterday – and a positive thought for anyone looking to back an outsider is that it rarely comes up any softer than good at the Festival.On the other hand, they could probably stage the race over a two-mile stretch of the M4, and Grey Shot would still not get within a dozen lengths of Istabraq.. The Kingwell Hurdle has been one of the better Cheltenham trials in recent years, but Grey Shot’s two-and-a-half length success in yesterday’s running was not enough to bring him any closer to the top of the market than 25-1.”He couldn’t have done any more on this ground,” Andrew Balding, representing his father, Ian, said. Hills also trimmed his price for the Grand National, from 8-1 to 7-1. “The Gold Cup will take a lot of winning, and to be honest I think he’ll have a better chance in the National,” Nicholls said. “But we’ll put everything into the Gold Cup and give it our best shot.”Double Thriller could be one of three Gold Cup runners from the yard, along with See More Business and Earthmover, who runs in the Greenalls Grand National Trial at Haydock tomorrow Nicholls took his leave yesterday with a warning “Don’t forget See More Business,” he said.

Venetia [Williams] has obviously improved Teeton Mill a lot since last year, but I’d like to think that Double Thriller’s improved a lot too.”William Hill decided to take the opportunity to cut Double Thriller from 10-1 to 8-1 for Cheltenham, but otherwise his price was unchanged. Punters in Britain and Ireland must now sit down and ask themselves just how good they think he is. Gut feeling is all they have to go on.”We can keep on dreaming, and you lot can keep on guessing,” was how Paul Nicholls, Double Thriller’s trainer, put it. “When you’ve got to make the running all the time it’s not ideal, and Joe [Tizzard] said that he wasn’t doing a tap in front, and I think he’ll be much better in better company with a truly run race. Last April, he beat Teeton Mill, the joint-favourite for the Gold Cup, fair and square in a hunter chase at Cheltenham. The catch – and of course, there is always a catch – is that while Teeton Mill has clearly improved enormously this year, Double Thriller’s form so far amounts to two victories against opponents who were not fit to plait his tail.
Yesterday’s race added nothing new to the database, beyond the fact that Double Thriller is fit and well as the biggest race of his life draws near.

Yet even this was not enough to shift his odds for the Cheltenham Gold Cup by more than a fraction, and when he goes to post at the Festival in less than three weeks’ time, punters should still be able to back him at around 9-1. WHEN HE trotted past the post to win the Jim Ford Chase here yesterday, Double Thriller was so many lengths clear that the judge did not bother to count them, which is about as much as you can ask of any horse. “But we were able to deal with the pressure.”Italy, after a brilliant anchor leg by Stefania Belmondo, crossed 1:24.5 adrift to take the silver while Germany were surprise bronze medallists finishing a further 2:7.8 back on the winners.Finland’s victory in the Nordic team combined was set up in the morning’s ski jumping as the runners-up to Norway at both the 1998 Nagano Olympics and the 1997 Trondheim world championships took the lead and held on in the cross-country Bronze went to Russia.. Since the 4x5km relay became part of championship programme in 1972, Russians have snapped up 13 out of 18 Olympic and world gold medals.Their domination of the race in the 1990s has been even more complete, sweeping the five world championship and three Olympic titles on offer this decade. Extending her lead with every stride, the 32-year-old handed on a 30-second advantage to Larissa Lazutina, who piled on another 30 seconds before giving way to Anfisa Reztsova, who continued to add to the advantage, handing over 90 seconds to anchor Nina Gavriljuk, who coasted across the finish line, waving the Russian flag in 53min 05.9sec.”Obviously we were the favourites to win this event.” said Lazutina. Yesterday, the Russians, led off by double Olympic gold medallist Olga Danilova, shot to the front and were never challenged. I’m not going to pressure myself.”Sydney would give Ottey her last chance to win the Olympic gold that has always eluded her.