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The Champion Hurdle has been retained 16 times the Gold Cup 11 the

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The Champion Hurdle has been retained 16 times, the Gold Cup 11, the Champion Chase eight and the Stayers Hurdle twice. The 10-year-old has a set of statistics to disprove, too; in 74 runnings, only two horses as old as he have won Champion Hurdles.But, on the other hand, one, Hatton's Grace, did so as the second leg of his hat-trick and the other, Sea Pigeon, went on to a double. Terry Warner's admirable Philip Hobbs-trained grey is universal favourite to score again, the best price available being 13-8 with Blue Square.The calm before this week's storm was purely metaphorical at Cheltenham yesterday, when the course was beset by driving rain and a lashing wind, with traces of snow still atop Cleeve Hill. "There is a bit more cut on the Old track [which will be used tomorrow and Wednesday] than the New [reserved for Gold Cup day]," he said. The ground was still described as good yesterday, with cloud and a south-west wind forecast today.The former champion jockey, who won the Gold Cup on Woodland Venture 37 years ago, liked what he prodded. The first equine arrivals - Willie Mullins' team, with Davenport Milenium among them, - braved the conditions to take the air, as did Terry Biddlecombe, walking the track on behalf of Best Mate.

Whether it is lucky or unlucky will not be known until tomorrow, but Rooster Booster will face 13 rivals in his quest to keep his Champion Hurdle crown. All the leading fancies stood their ground at yesterday's final declaration stage for the Cheltenham Festival's first-day Grade 1 feature, including three others from the field of 12 months ago, the 11-length runner-up Westender, fourth-placed Self Defense and fifth Intersky Falcon. In addition to that quartet, the home side is represented by the likeliest pretender, Rigmarole, plus Limerick Boy, Geos, Hasty Prince and Australian import Specular. Istabraq apart, the Irish do not have a great recent record in the contest; before the triple champion the last to cross the water successfully was Dawn Run 20 years ago.Tomorrow the Hibernian challenge is four-strong, from Davenport Milenium, Fota Island, Golden Cross and Hardy Eustace, who may wait for Wednesday's Coral Cup. The Premier leaders, Reading, recorded a 3-0 win at Teddington. The race for the men's Division One title took another twist as previous leaders Belper lost 4-2 to Beeston, while Firebrands beat Chelmsford 4-1 to take over at the top.Chelmsford's shock 3-1 defeat in the women's Premier away at Olton gave Hightown the lead at the top with a 5-2 victory over third-placed Clifton, the player-coach, Tina Cullen, scoring another hat-trick.

Hightown completed a useful weekend's work with a 4-2 cup semi-final victory against Olton and will play Fyffes Leicester, 7-0 winners over Liverpool Quilter, in this year's final.. In the final the Dutch Olympic champions came from behind to beat Spain 2-1, with the golden goal coming straight from the push back at the beginning of extra time from Ronald Brouwer.Domestically, the day's biggest surprise was Cannock's 5-0 defeat of Surbiton, who last Sunday knocked the Staffordshire side out in the semi-final of the cup. South Africa, however, must nowwait for the verdict of the Court of Arbitration for Sport following Greece's appeal against the International Federation.In another goal feast between two great Asian hockey rivals, Pakistan beat India 4-2 to take the bronze medal. Great Britain's men, having earlier qualified for the Athens Olympics, completed their programme with a narrow 3-2 win against New Zealand on Friday evening and on Saturday watched the final stages of the qualifying tournament in the saddened city of Madrid. South Africa overcame a two-goal deficit to draw 2-2 with Belgium and then win a penalty shoot-out 4-3 for what is probably the last qualifying place. Not only have Chester equalled the Bracknell-Thames Valley franchise in winning the Trophy four times, they have all come in consecutive seasons.Robbie Peers coached them to the first three - their victory in 2001 earning the club's first ever piece of silverware - and now his successor, Paul Smith, has built on that heritage.Smith said: "I am so proud of my players, particularly for the way they played with injuries They showed great character. The BBL Trophy final defied the form book and went the way of history at Sheffield Arena on Saturday, when Chester Jets defeated the BBL Championship leaders, Brighton Bears, 68-66 in a tense encounter with a controversial ending. Chester's fourth consecutive Trophy win stood only after the officials disallowed Rico Alderson's attempt to force overtime, ruling that he had launched his game-tying shot after the clock ran out.While Alderson, his team-mates and the coach, Nick Nurse, raged at the table officials, Jets players leapt into the crowd to join their fans in celebrating a remarkable sequence of success.

To set a record with four straight wins means a lot to this club and to me personally." John McCord, one of several Jets playing with injuries, won the Most Valuable Player award to become the first player to take the accolade in every major BBL competition.In English Basketball Division One, the leaders, Plymouth Raiders, maintained a two-point lead over the chasing pack with a 108-74 win at the bottom club, Bath Romans, on Saturday night.Second-placed Reading Rockets had all 10 players on the scoresheet in a 115-72 win over Kingston Wildcats, but third-placed Teesside Mohawks lost 88-78 at Worthing Thunder.The former NBA player John Amaechi, with 23 points, led the scorers for fourth-placed Manchester Magic as they defeated Ware Rebels 99-82.. "We want to try to safeguard the endemic species that the Overseas Territories have. In Britain, we only have a few endemics, such as the Scottish primrose [Primula scotica] and the Isle of Man cabbage [a subspecies of Coincya monensis], and a lot of obscure brambles that are hard to identify, but the Overseas Territories have many We would really like to extend the project further.". In each of the four territories chosen so far, Kew has identified a partner organisation to work with, and Mr Alton and his colleagues have been teaching local botanists seed collection and conservation techniques."It seems a natural extension of our work with the UK flora," he said.

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