Yesterday was a day of near misses, but the horses ran well. I couldn’t have asked more of Melon, who just ran into a better one in the Supreme. 

Harry Fry is a trainer of immense talent and the confident expectation is Neon Wolf will give him cause for celebration after today’s opening race, the Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle.

The JLT just got a whole lot more competitive. That was the consensus after Douvan, the horse which trainer Willie Mullins describes as ‘a different species’, gave an exhibition of jumping when routing two smart rivals in the Frank Ward Solicitors Irish Arkle.

Each passing festival provides a window into the burgeoning talents of trainer Gordon Elliott, and the Co Meath handler capped another fine week by taking the Grade 1 Neville Hotels Novice Chase with top-class prospect No More Heroes.

OVER the past 70 years a serious body of art has been amassed by the Butler Gallery at Kilkenny Castle.

A US Catholic priest who supports ordination for women has been detained by police after marching to the Vatican to press the Holy See to lift its ban on women priests.

Richard Fahey has his dual-purpose string in top form and to prove the point the Malton trainer was on the mark with a double over jumps at Catterick and with a dead-heat on the flat at Southwell yesterday.

WETHERBY has reaped the rewards of being the only cross-channel jumps meeting today with bumper fields in five of their seven races.

Contraband and crack Irish jockey Johnny Murtagh look a formidable partnership in the £190,000 Tote Ebor at York.

Punters have latched on to Martin Pipe’s Don Fernando as they look towards the big betting race of the weekend, the John Smith’s Northumberland Plate at Newcastle.

Ante-post favourite Fortune Island has made the line-up for tomorrow’s Tote Chester Cup, which has attracted a maximum field of 18.