Grand National-winning trainer Gordon Elliott carted off with the first major jumps race at Ffos Las as Backstage romped to a 10-length success in the £50,000 freebets.co.uk Handicap Chase.

Newmarket's Lester Piggott Day appears to have been enjoyed as much by the peerless jockey's legion of fans and contemporaries as it was by the great man himself.

LEADING figures from the world of horseracing gathered yesterday for the funeral of legendary owner and breeder Robert Sangster.

A half a century ago, a swashbuckling playboy, the 17th Marquis de Portago, rode Garde Toi to third in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. But that was only one chapter in a remarkable sporting life. Simon Lewis reports.