The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
The cry of ‘come on Eileendover’ will have to wait until Aintree
Thorney-based trainer Pam Sly’s exciting filly Eileendover will miss next week’s Cheltenham National Hunt Festival in favour of a run at April’s Aintree Grand National meeting.
Eileendover, a granddaughter of Sly’s 2006 1,000 Guineas heroine Speciosa, is rated one of the best ‘bumper’ horses in training.
A ‘bumper’ is a flat race (no hurdles) run under National Hunt rules and Eileendover has won all three of her races this season to make her one of the favourites for all the big end-of-season races.
But Sly won’t race her in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham next Wednesday (March 17), preferring to hold her back for the Goffs UK Nickel Coin Mares’ Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race at Aintree on April 8.
The Cheltenham race has a £31k first prize compared to the £25k on offer at Aintree, but money is not the motivation for Sly.
Sly said: “I know I should probably go for the Grade One at Cheltenham, but I just think it’s too early. I wouldn’t have her fit enough for that.
“She had a month’s holiday after her win at Market Rasen which is a long time.”
Eileendover has won her
three races this season at Huntingdon, Wetherby and Market Rasen by a combined total of 61.5 lengths for total prize money winnings of £16.5k
Paul O’Brien, who has ridden her in two of those wins, is expected to be in the saddle at Aintree.
After winning on her at Market Rasen O’Brien said: “She just motors through the ground. She just travels so easily. I’m sure she can step up again.”
Eileendover’s odds for the Cheltenham Bumper were halved to 10/1 after that Market Rasen success.
She could be a shorter price on the flatter Aintree track.
Sly has trained seven National Hunt winners this season and has picked up over £54,000 in prize money.
Peterborough Panthers will now start the 2021 British Premiership season with four straight away matches.
The first meetings of the new season will start a fortnight later than orginally planned on May 17 as that’s the date from which the UK Government will allow spectators back into sporting events.
The 2020 season was wiped out completely as the first lockdown took place just before the scheduled late March start.
Panthers held a pre-season press day with only four riders present!
Panthers had been scheduled to open their season at Ipswich on May 3 before hosting Belle Vue on May 10.
Club bosses are working on new dates for those meetings.
Instead the city side will open their Premiership campaign at Wolverhampton Wolves on Monday, May 17.
Panthers will then travel to Sheffield Tigers on Thursday May 20, to Belle Vue Aces on Monday, May 31 and King’s Lynn Star on Thursday, June 3.
Panthers’ first competitive action at the Showground is not until Monday, June 7 when King’s Lynn are scheduled to be the visitors. Home fixtures with Ipswich (21st) and Wolverhampton (28th) currently complete the June fixtures.
There is no League Cup or Fours event scheduled for Premiership clubs.
Ambitious Netherton United first-team manager Jon Harrison declined to comment on the club’s decision to withdraw their application for pormotion at the end of the current season and stick with the Peterborough League for the the foreseeable future.
Harrison was believed to be a big supporter of carrying the city club into the United Counties League or equivelant level competition. Promotion places were expected to become available because of a football pyramid restructure even though step six divisions have already been declared null and void.
What happens to Harrison, who led the club to an unprecedented trophy quad in the 2017-18 season, and his first-team squad is unclear, although Netherton chairman Steve Quinney has invited his manager to carry on.
“Jon understands our reasoning,” Quinney insisted. “I hope he will carry on and manage the side for the rest of this season and beyond. “He’s done a great job.” In a recent clubs’ vote Netherton declared in favour of halting the Peterborough League and instead taking part in a cup competition once grassroots football is back on the agenda from the end of this month.
Harrison had reacted angrily on social media when the League announced they were proposing a null and void season.
But Quinney added: “Declaring the current league season null and void was the right decision. Teams hadn’t played enough games to justify promotions and relegations so well-run cup competitions seem to me to be a good idea.
“There would need to be a senior, intermediate and junior cup and it should be run like a Champions League with group stages before knockout rounds to ensure every teams gets plenty of games.
“The League gets plenty of stick, but I believe they have done a great job in very difficult circumstances. With votes going 55-45% recently they were always going to annoy about half their membership so they had an impossible job.
“But it’s a very well-run league that we want to be a part of for many more years.
“We can enjoy a good standard of competitive football against other good local sides with the added mix of friendly and spirited rivalries - all of which is socially rewarding and should be what football is about regardless of the level.
“If others want to come in and change things again then that’s fine, but the chances of that happening are actually pretty remote.”
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