Imagine Liverpool for instance being required to field nine professionals and a couple of
Imagine Liverpool, for instance, being required to field nine professionals and a couple of those weedy kids from the playground who no one ever picked, or a club hacker going around Troon alongside Tiger Woods.
Yet that is one of the cornerstones of polo, and it has to be said that whoever slipped it into the rules 100-odd years ago was one of the most brilliant visionaries in sporting history. For if racing is the sport of kings, polo is the pastime of choice for international tycoons, since the average king these days does not have nearly enough disposable income to run a polo team, and its attraction for men with money to burn could be summed up in one word: vanity.Michael Knighton may have kicked the ball around on the pitch at Old Trafford before his abortive attempt at a takeover, but had he succeeded, even he would not have expected to lead the line the following week In polo, a patron would expect nothing else. No outsized cheque, no cash bonus, and in 12 months’ time, he will probably have to give it back. Say what you like about polo, it is certainly different, from the scenes on in the car park – a raucous cross between a car boot sale and the food hall at Harrods – to the game’s unique structure. The economics of many sports can be a little lop-sided, but when it comes to a thin rate of return, polo takes some beating Consider this. The Labegorce team which won yesterday’s Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup at Cowdray Park, the most important prize in the game, costs Herbert Perrodo, its patron, a minimum of around pounds 500,000 each year to run Perrodo’s prize was.. the Gold Cup.
Headingley is notable for producing results and, if the weather does not intervene, the visitors should have the last laugh.
Manchester United remain 5-4 favourites to retain their Premiership title with Ladbrokes who then go: 7-2 Newcastle, 4-1 Liverpool and 9-2 Arsenal. However, home counties punters wishing to avail themselves of better prices and avoid paying nine per cent tax to boot, could do worse than go horseracing and seek out boards bookmaker Rod Sapphire, who has been betting 6-4 Manchester United, 4-1 Newcastle, Liverpool, 5-1 Arsenal between races of late.FA CARLING PREMIERSHIPTeam William Hill LadbrokesManchester United 6-4 5-4Newcastle 7-2 7-2Liverpool 4-1 4-1Arsenal 9-2 9-2Chelsea 11-1 12-1Aston Villa 20-1 18-1Tottenham 33-1 33-1Blackburn 50-1 66-1Everton 66-1 50-1Leeds 50-1 80-1Sheffield Wednesday 50-1 100-1Wimbledon 100-1 150-1Bolton 150-1 200-1West Ham 200-1 200-1Coventry 250-1 200-1Derby 250-1 250-1Leicester 250-1 200-1Southampton 250-1 250-1Crystal Palace 250-1 350-1Barnsley 1,000-1 500-1Each-way a quarter the odds, places 1, 2, 3. The men from Down Under did not really look up for it when they first arrived in the spring. And, following a winter throughout which it was generally accepted that England were in for a hammering, three one-day successes and a nine- wicket victory in the first Test, false dawn prophets were temporarily in vogue. Confirmation that Atherton’s men are still deep in the big sleep came when, after only the weather deprived them in the second Test, Australia romped away with the third at Old Trafford by 265 runs. And, in their recent Tour game with Glamorgan, Australia’s gave further evidence of their renewed confidence by taking batting order experimentation to a point where the County Championship leaders could hardly be blamed for accusing their opponents of urine acquisition. Australia look good at 6-5 with William Hill to beat England (11-4, the draw is 6-4) in the fourth Test which starts at Headingley on Thursday.
It may be that his mind was somewhere else.KING GEORGE VI & QUEEN ELIZABETH STAKES (Ascot, Saturday): Ladbrokes: 13-8 Helissio, 2-1 Singspiel, 7-2 Pilsudski, 10-1 Kingfisher Mill, 12- 1 Shantou, 14-1 Predappio & Swain, 25-1 Strategic Choice; William Hill: 6-4 Helissio, 9-4 Singspiel, 7-2 Pilsudski, 12-1 Predappio, 12-1 Shantou, 14-1 Kingfisher Mill, 16-1 Swain, 25-1 Strategic Choice, 33-1 Dushyantor.. If anyone had suggested that a runner from that contest would go on to capture the Japan Cup and Dubai World Cup in their career, Celtic Swing would have been the majority vote as the future superstar.Singspiel was eased slightly by William Hill yesterday (from 2-1 to 9- 4) as the biggest fluctuation concerned Frankie Dettori’s mount, Shantou. Punters clearly do not see the end of the Italian’s bachelor days (he was married yesterday) as an enfeebling watershed and John Gosden’s colt is now 12-1 (from 16-1). Frankie mixed it up a little on Saturday, riding two winners at Headquarters but also collecting a suspension for careless riding that will absent him from the first two days of Glorious Goodwood. Both have been kept going into their sixth year and it is only latterly they have shown outstanding form. Interestingly they now return to a stage which they have been booed off in the past.It was two years ago that Pilsudski was 17th of 20 in the King George V Handicap at Royal Ascot off 8st 4lb; the sort of effort that suggested the winter was about to be spent levering the more sensitive parts of his body over the splinters of eight hurdles.The previous season Singspiel had rounded off his juvenile campaign by receiving an eight-length humiliation in the Hyperion Stakes.
