The quality of football chanteurs is the one reliable element in the global game

The quality of football chanteurs is the one reliable element in the global game.The approaches to Wembley were mercifully civilised, free of jostling or aggravation. Those who witnessed Arsenal’s ill-tempered barging match with Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday would have been happy to observe that, in this instance at least, life was not imitating art.Congestion on the way to the ground meant that kick-off was put back incrementally until either 8.10pm was reached or it was deemed that the attendance was sufficient. Some day all grounds will be filled this way.Ray Parlour, the announcer told us repeatedly as he filled in time, had failed his fitness fight but, by God, he was given every chance to recover.The entertainers finally emerged to Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff”, by which hour it was getting dangerously close to hot chocolate time. This, though, is one of betting’s highest crimes, particularly when the animal in question is likely to start at odds-on, and it is vital to ask whether today’s race is anything like the one-horse contest which the betting suggests.The factors in Lujain’s favour are clear, but he is also taking a considerable step up in class this afternoon, straight from a novice stakes event at York into a Group One.

Lined up against him are several horses with previous experience in Pattern events, not to mention another talented and progressive colt in the shape of John Dunlop’s Vision Of Night. A cosy winner at Doncaster last time, it would be no surprise to see him find enough improvement to win.On a simple point of betting value, however, it is impossible to resist a small interest in one of the outsiders for a race which has produced several shock results in recent years. Wannabe Grand progressed from second place in one of York’s feature races to win Tuesday’s Cheveley Park Stakes, which makes it all the more difficult to understand why Richard Hannon’s SAILING SHOES (nap 3.10) can be a 16-1 chance (Ladbrokes) this morning.Sailing Shoes too finished second in a Group Two at York’s Ebor meeting, in this case the Gimcrack Stakes. Six furlongs seems to be his trip, although he ran a fair race over five in the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot, when the soft ground may also have been against him.

A faster surface would probably be ideal today, but at that sort of price, it is a chance worth taking.There are positive and negative factors in equal measure about most of the runners in the Joel Stakes, and some very unpredictable sprinters will contest the Rous Stakes. Inca Tern (next best 2.05), who returns to handicap company after some fair efforts in better company, may be overpriced at 20-1 (Tote), but otherwise there is little to quicken the betting pulse.. THE WORLD of National Hunt racing paid rich tribute yesterday to Gordon Richards, one of the finest trainers of steeplechasers of recent years, who died on Tuesday after a long illness He was 68. Known for his forthright manner, rich West Country accent and formidable work-rate, Richards was supervising his stable’s entries until he was admitted to the Cumberland Infirmary at the weekend.
His son, Nicky, has received a temporary trainer’s licence from the Jockey Club and will take charge of his yard at Greystoke in Cumbria for the time being.

“It’s had to be business as usual today although it’s been a shock to everybody,” he said yesterday, “and as you can imagine it’s been a very sombre yard First lot was very quiet. But we’ve got a good staff here and we’ll be soldiering on.”Gordon Richards saddled more than 2,000 winners, having taken out a licence to train in 1964 after a heavy fall brought a premature end to his career as a jump jockey. In recent years, he was most closely associated with the brilliant grey chaser One Man, who won the King George VI Chase twice and, less than seven months ago, the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. Just weeks later, though, One Man was killed in a race at Aintree.The loss was a severe blow to Richards, who rode the grey on the gallops every day. He lost other fine chasers in action too, including Noddy’s Ryde and Playlord, but also savoured jump racing’s greatest pleasure, a Grand National winner, on two occasions, with Hallo Dandy and Lucius.Several leading jockeys, including Jonjo O’Neill, Tony Dobbin and Ron Barry, rose to prominence thanks to their association with Richards, and another of their number, Neale Doughty, was among the many to pay tribute to him yesterday.”I used to feel 10ft tall when I went out to ride one of his,” Doughty said. “His horses were always so well prepared often it was just a question of steering them home.

He was a great bloke to work for, hard but fair, and his friends and family should be proud of him.”He took the loss of his horses hard. I remember especially the deaths of Playlord, Full Strength, Noddy’s Ryde and One Man. Trudging back at Devon after Noddy’s Ryde was killed you could tell he was upset but he simply put his arm round me and said: ‘Don’t worry son, we’ll try to find another one’.”David Nicholson said yesterday that Richards was “a great friend and a great trainer who you could always go to for advice,” while Jenny Pitman recalled that “he had many setbacks over the years but he always came out fighting”.It was another former colleague, Nick Henderson, though, who perhaps best summed up the master of Greystoke. Richards was, said Henderson, “a real winter man”.Richards’s funeral will take place at St Andrew’s Church, Greystoke, on Monday at 2pm.Obituary, Review, page 6RICHARDS’ ROLL OF HONOURBorn: 7 September, 1930.Riding career: 1943-1959.Apprenticed to J C Waugh and Ivor Anthony.