The highlight of Elliott's afternoon was a two-and-a-quarter length defeat of Dan Skelton's The New Lion in the Aintree Hurdle, a result which confirmed the form of the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham last month.
Derek Thompson was one of the best-known sports broadcasters in Britain and Ireland back in 1983 when he suddenly got a call in the middle of the night about the vanished wonder horse Shergar.
The Jukebox Man is one of three horses that were involved in a blanket finish to the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day. Jango Baie and Gaelic Warrior are the others that are currently vying for favouritism for the day's feature race.
The horse ranch, on nearly 20 acres about eight miles from Malibu, has a Mediterranean-style, 10,000-square-foot house, newly built when Arnold bought the property in April 1995 for $2.5 million. He has close to $4 million in the property, sources say. Among his additions is a full gym. Situated in a gate-guarded community, the ranch also has a tennis court, pool and long, private drive.
She had this very motherly energy, which is weird to say about a horse. I just always felt like she was going to take care of me. The two even had the same birthday, April 1, though Blumer was 8 and the horse - whom she called "Fancy" - was 12.
The money, they said, might not be there to continue operation. Payroll was in question, following months of uncertainty, and to make matters worse, they'd discovered two tax liens filed by the state of California against the restaurant for a total of $530,000, related to loans against the business taken out by the owner and principal investor, Stephen Light. A collections notice had arrived in December.
We've had a look at a fresh line of the hurdle track right out beside the chase track, Graffin said on Friday. In my opinion, this line is currently fit to race despite 22mm of rain last night. However, we do have the potential for a further 10-20mm of rain. We would like to get a bit of luck with that, but it is currently fit to race.
With pre-Cheltenham purdah fast approaching, the Ladbrokes Trophy Handicap Chase at Kempton on Saturday could well be the most competitive betting heat for the next two-and-a-half weeks and Emmet Mullins's decision to field two runners in the 13-strong field adds a further layer of complexity to the puzzle. Mullins has a well-earned reputation for sliding contenders into handicaps at Cheltenham and Aintree on very competitive marks, but his Kempton record three wins from five runners is not too shabby either.
