ADDlNGTON BOY, who was partnered by Brian Harding when third to Challenger Du Luc in last month's Murphy's Gold Cup Chase at Cheltenham, will be ridden by Tony Dobbin in Saturday's Tripleprint Gold Cup on the same course.
Trainer Gordon Richards explained: "Brian did nothing wrong on him last time, but I cannot keep jocking off Tony. He rode the horse in a piece of work this morning, and he seems very well."
The Michael O'Brien-trained Anabatic, fourth in the Murphy's, and Belvederian, from the Mouse Morris stable, are probable runners in the big Cheltenham race.
Richards will also be represented on Saturday by the mighty One Man in the Tommy Whittle Chase at Haydock. Richard Dunwoody will continue his famous association with this springheeled gelding as he prepares for the King George VI Chase, which he won last year, at Kempton on St Stephen's Day.
A report issued yesterday states that Cheltenham's racing surface is as good as could be expected after difficult growing conditions earlier in the year.
Peter Winter, Turfgrass agronomist with the Sports Turf Research Unit, was invited to visit Cheltenham on November 25th following the criticism from some quarters over good to firm going and small fields at the November fixtures.
His report states that "difficulties experienced over the last two years, with poor spring growing conditions and the failure of growth to establish until the late spring or even early summer have created problems for many turf users which are used through the winter such as football pitches and golf greens.
Cheltenham's managing director Edward Gillespie said: "Mr Winter's observations reflect the very difficult conditions we have experienced for two years.
"The preparation of the racing surface is an absolute priority for Cheltenham and we shall be reconsidering all factors including the fixture list and irrigation methods.
"The clay soil makes this a challenging course to prepare for racing from October to April at the best of times. Recent conditions have put both the grass and the management under stress.
"In the 15 weeks since the beginning of September, we have had only 6.1 inches of rain. There has been less than half an inch over the past 10 days and, with little or no rain forecast, we started watering on Saturday for our meeting this weekend."
At the Gimcrack Dinner in York last night, top owner Wafic Said called for a new broom to sweep through British racing to stop the sport crumbling to what he described as "the real perils that will shortly befall the racing and breeding industries".
Speaking of the bookmaking industry, Said stated: "The colour and atmosphere of the English racecourse is enhanced by the array of bookies on their pitches.
"However, by bookies I refer to the family firms and one-man bands of Honest Joes" not to the big three, who are answerable to shareholders, and who are predominantly diversified into hotels, casinos and the like and who put so little back into the sport.
"Change has to come. There is no such word in the English language, nor for that matter in Arabic, as can't." He called for on course bookmakers and an off course Tote monopoly.
