Mick Fitzgerald looked assured of victory on the 5-6 favourite, Kyper Disco, but Marcus William rallied strongly under Barry Fenton to score by a short head. Despite the winner’s odds, his trainer, Brendan Powell, was not surprised “It wasn’t a shock,” he said. Skippers Cleuch, trained in Scotland by Len Lungo, is another from that category.Skippers Cleuch is a 66-1 chance with Ladbrokes in Gold Cup betting and those seeking a tilt could take inspiration from the success at those odds from the victory of Marcus William at Fontwell yesterday. All four are trained by Yannick Fertillet for the Kent-based Fergus Wilson.Mark Pitman is also responsible for a couple of unknown quantities – not that the names are unfamiliar, rather that it is impossible to be sure whether they have retained their ability after long injury breaks. Foremost of the pair is Monsignor, impressive winner of the Royal & SunAlliance Novices’ Hurdle on his last outing in March 2000, but yet to start over fences, while Pitman’s Goodtime George has not been seen out since falling in a novice chase at Cheltenham over two years ago.The dual Gold Cup-winning trainer Noel Chance has entered Right To Reply, who landed his only chasing start in a novices’ event at Warwick last season, while Jonjo O’Neill has two entries, both novices, in Joss Naylor and Keen Leader. Henrietta Knight, the trainer of Best Mate, has deemed the Welsh National runner-up Chives, Lord Noelie and, more surprisingly, the two-and-a-half miler Foly Pleasant, worthy of taking on their stablemate.Martin Pipe, as usual, points his scattergun with nine entries, the highest number for any trainer, but among those with four entries is Nick Henderson, who includes Fondmort, favourite for this Saturday’s two-mile Victor Chandler Chase at Ascot, as he tries to correct a terrible omission on his record by winning his first Gold Cup.There are five entries from France: First Gold, familiar to British racegoers as the winner of the 2000 King George VI Chase, and Gailoorn De Mee, Kapatchi, Modulor and ScoutMaster, familiar only to those who tour the racetracks of the French provinces.
The bookmakers quote Best Mate at odds as low as 6-4 for steeplechasing’s Blue Riband, but the representatives of 48 other horses – a record entry – believe it is worth paying the entry fee to take him on.
As ever, a perusal of the list of entries is instructive. As to which yacht is fastest, that will take another month to decide yet, but the Cup will definitely be lifted by a Kiwi; TNZ is skippered by Dean Barker, Alinghi by Russell Coutts and Oracle BMW by Dickson.. Yet to be agreed is the use of umpires on board, rather than just in chase boats, and the use of electronic performance measuring equipment, some of which has been common practice for many years, but only in late December was ruled illegal by the jury.That rare commodity, common consent, can unravel that. Their opponents, Oracle BMW, of San Francisco, also announced that they would continue with a yacht that they hope they have considerably improved since they lost 0-4 to Alinghi in their best-of-seven semi-final.Fortunately, the structure of the Louis Vuitton Cup allowed Oracle a second chance at a place in the final in a rep?age against OneWorld, of Seattle. There were no surprises there, as the Alinghi team, from Switzerland, said they would continue with the yacht that has served them so well so far, SUI 64. What they have done is legeal, but the America’s Cup design rule is dead.The two finalists in the Louis Vuitton Cup elimination trials, Alinghi and Oracle BMW, who on Saturday begin their best-of-nine race series, yesterday had to name the yachts they will use in both the Louis Vuitton Cup final and the match itself.
The question mark over whether Team New Zealand will use their secret weapon, underwater hull appendages, on the yacht they will use to defend the America’s Cup next month was removed overnight as both their yachts were unveiled with underbody hull extensions, both forward and aft of the keel.
If they deliver the performance gains which have been predicted, then it will not matter which of the two they bring to the start line of America’s Cup XXXI on 15 February. No rest for the 49ers, however: their next step on the road to the Super Bowl is a daunting trip to Tampa Bay.. “I don’t know the reason why, but I’m not getting over this one for a while.”Fassel will have until September to soothe his shattered psyche. Then, without warning, the visitors suffered a complete meltdown.The San Francisco quarterback, Jeff Garcia, threw a pair of touchdowns and ran for another himself to give the home side a one-point lead with a minute on the clock.Somehow, the Giants managed to get themselves in position for a 41-yard field goal with six seconds remaining, but they then contrived to botch the effort to seal victory for the 49ers and the second-biggest comeback in play-off history.”It got away from us today,” the bewildered Giants coach, Jim Fassel, said. He was out of football for a few years and has taken a long road back. The former Denver Bronco had not started a game since 1992, when the struggling Steelers turned to him early in the current campaign.With the momentum on his side, Maddox silenced the jeers of the home fans by firing touchdown passes to Jerame Tuman and Hines Ward to bring his side to within five points with under three minutes to go.Cleveland collapsed, and when Chris Fuamatu Ma’afala scored on a three-yard run with 50 seconds left, the Comeback Kid had engineered the Steelers’ greatest-ever comeback, earning a trip to Tennessee next week.”The boos were coming after he threw a couple of bad passes, but Tommy doesn’t care about that,” the wide receiver, Terance Mathis, said “You have to understand where he is coming from. Maddox, seizing the moment, took advantage of the turnover with a touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress and Pittsburgh had hope at last.Last week Maddox had been named the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year for the way he has returned following a decade in the wilderness, which included three years out of the game selling insurance.
Unable to stop Holcomb, Pittsburgh’s own quarterback, Tommy Maddox, was having a hard time, having thrown a pair of interceptions.The reeling Steelers needed inspiration, and it came when Mike Logan intercepted one of the few bad passes attempted by Holcomb. Cleveland were without their starting quarterback, Tim Couch, who had broken his leg a week earlier. In stepped the untested Kelly Holcomb, who proved himself with a flawless display.Holcomb finished the game with 429 passing yards and three touchdowns, and when he tossed a 15-yard scoring pass to Dennis Northcutt to make the score 24-7 early in the third quarter, Pittsburgh’s hopes seemed to be dashed.Nothing had gone right for the Steelers up to that point, other than Antwaan Randle El’s sizzling 66-yard punt return. The 49ers managed to top that for heroics, trailing the New York Giants by 24 points in the second half, only to pinch it by a single point.The Steelers have made a habit of losing home post-season contests in recent years, and the trend looked set to continue as the visiting Browns cruised smoothly to a 17-point lead.