RACING: Mick Fitzgerald reached his century for the season when winning on First Love at Sandown yesterday.
His all-the-way victory aboard the Nicky Henderson-trained odds-on favourite in the Bushy Park Novices Hurdle marked the fourth occasion on which the Cork-born rider has passed the 100-winner mark.
He had been stuck on 99 since recording a double at Newbury last Saturday.
"I don't believe in all this nervous 90s carry-on", he said, "but I think Nicky was beginning to stutter. Now all we've got to do is get him to 100 - piece of cake, we'll do it next week, 17 winners!"
At Sandown today, Adelphi Theatre can become the latest surprise winner of the Sunderlands Imperial Cup Hurdle.
The recent history of this valuable two-mile handicap is littered with upsets. Carlito Brigante, Magic Combination, Moody Man and Precious Boy (twice) all scored at double-figure odds in the 1990s and Ibal sprang a 16 to 1 shock last year.
Adelphi Theatre has the potential to defy ante-post odds of 25 to 1 off bottom weight this time.
He was a classy horse on the Flat with Aidan O'Brien and won off an official mark of 82 in Britain last summer after joining Sussex trainer Richard Rowe.
And the gelding has quickly made a mark in his first season over hurdles, winning twice in good style at Fontwell - including an open handicap there in December.
But, as on the Flat, he looks to have more speed than stamina - he was beaten in a good two-and-a-half-mile novice event at Ascot where he was cruising on the home turn only to be outstayed close home.
That trip was certainly beyond him in the Sidney Banks Novices' Hurdle at Huntingdon on his first run for 10 weeks last month, and in hindsight Rowe believes a racecourse workout just three days earlier did not help.
He is certainly a good deal better than the heavy defeat he suffered that day might suggest and is reported back in top form now.
Biggest danger may be Tarasco. He has been taking on top novices since his debut victory at Bangor and looks to have been laid out for this race by Paul Webber.
But he is a third of the price of Adelphi Theatre, who is the value bet to give Rowe another big pay-day on a course where he has landed the Whitbread Gold Cup (with Eulogy) and EBF Hurdle Final (with Montroe) in recent years.
The latter event looks booked for the Jonjo O'Neill-trained Intersky Falcon this time.
He has improved with every race over hurdles and he has defied progressively stiffer tasks to win at Market Rasen, Sedgefield (twice) and Doncaster this season.
Elsewhere over jumps, A Piece Of Cake can collect the Lanson Champagne Handicap Chase at Chepstow and Marche Militaire may prove best in the Spring In Ayrshire Juvenile Novices' Hurdle at Ayr.
But the biggest prize of the day is on the Flat, with £50,000 up for grabs in the Littlewoods Bet Direct Lincoln Trial Handicap at Wolverhampton.
Attache and Dayglow Dancer are both worth watching on their seasonal debut as they are each potentially well treated in the Doncaster Lincoln.
However, neither is likely to be straight enough first time out to cope with track specialist Nose The Trade.
