Great Dane’s flying start to his Eagles career

BUT JUKIC MISSES NEXT TWO MATCHES AFTER INTERNATIONAL CALL-UP

GORGEOUS Noora should reap handsome dividends by stepping back up to six furlongs at Lingfield.

The lightly-raced filly is a nice horse, and produced an uplifting performance at Chelmsford at the beginning of the month.

Gorgeous Noora did not win, but she could not have got much closer.

The daughter of Raven’s Pass flew home in a fivefurlong handicap but the line came too soon and she went down by a short head to You’re Cool.

Luca Cumani’s inmate has gone up 3lb for the Betway Sprint Handicap but she has only raced five times in her career and is clearly still progressing nicely.

And after having broken her maiden over this trip at Wolverhampton a year ago, this ascent in distance should work its proverbial oracle.

There are good races to be won with Middle Kingdom, who can shrug off the burden of top weight in the Betway Handicap over a mile and a quarter.

John Gosden’s colt did the business on his first two career starts, which included a no-nonsense debut success on the Newcastle all-weather 12 months ago, and hardly lost much in defeat at Chelmsford on November 9.

Forth Bridge can take advantage of a drop in class to open his account over fences in the Porto Racing Saddlery Novices’ Chase at Southwell.

Bardd shaped well on his first run for six months and now looks ready to strike in the East Rudham Amateur Riders’ Novices’ Handicap Hurdle at Fakenham. ZARKO Jukic sets his sights on international glory this week after a dream start to life in a Newcastle Eagles vest.

The dependable Dane already leads the BBL in blocked shots and is fourth in steals.

And getting the jump on Jukic has proved beyond the majority of the flexible forward’s nonplussed rivals this season.

“My Eagles career couldn’t have gone much better,” admitted the 24-year-old as he joined Denmark’s senior squad ahead of Sunday’s Eurobasket 2021 pre-qualifier.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better start. We’ve lost one game but we’ve come back strongly. That’s the important thing.”

Jukic will miss this weekend’s away-day double header at Bristol and Plymouth as Denmark tackle Armenia on Sunday.

But the versatile forward signed off in style with another stellar display against Sheffield as Newcastle held off a late charge by the Sharks.

“Linking up with Denmark on the back of a loss would have been tough,” he added. “It would have hurt.

“But to join my international team-mates on the back of an 8-0 start to the league season is fantastic.

“I’ll be telling my team-mates all about Newcastle and the BBL. It’s been a great start to my season and of course I want to shout about it!”

Jukic’s call-up to the Danish senior squad was fully expected by Eagles’ bosses and it is no coincidence that Jamal Williams joined Newcastle last week.

The veteran forward is ideally placed to take his chance this weekend after an impressive debut against Sheffield.

And with competition for BBL minutes increasingly intense Jukic added: “In an ideal world I wouldn’t be missing this weekend’s games.

“But there’s a new format as teams look to Eurobasket 2021.

“It’s unusual to play international matches in the middle of the season but I knew it was coming.

“We had a camp in the summer and I’m looking forward to getting back together with the majority of the same guys.

“We have another fiveday camp this week before we travel to Armenia to play on Sunday. We’re in a group of three with Albania.

“We should win the group with the talent that we have at our disposal.”

Jukic’s form will be a huge qualify for boost to the Danes and the Newcastle starter will be pushing for serious minutes on the international stage. Five blocks against a physical Sheffield side underlined his importance to Fabulous Flournoy’s new-look roster. But Jukic admitted the Eagles dodged a bullet as Atiba Lyons’ men ate into a 19-point Newcastle lead and almost produced the comeback of the season. “It was very close,” he added. “I thought we came out more aggressively than we had done in the two previous games but we lost our intensity late on. “It’s been the opposite for most of the season where we’ve finished games strongly. “But we stuck together and it was a good win in the end.” Newcastle face Bristol on Saturday (7.30pm tip) before a trip to Plymouth on Sunday (4pm tip). Zarko Jukic