Western Morning News (Saturday)
History is in the making in the day’s big Imperial Cup race at Sandown
WHILE it may not win any prizes for originality, Gary Moore’s Natural History really does look a blot on the handicap in the Paddy Power Imperial Cup at Sandown.
Moore made his name winning these valuable prizes with unexposed young hurdlers, and Natural History really fits the bill.
Although in truth, we know far more about him than many of the handicappers Moore has worked his magic with, given he was a very capable Flat performer for Andrew Balding and sported the Queen’s silks.
He actually only ran seven times on the level for Balding, but showed plenty of ability - despite missing two years of his career.
Last sighted finishing second to a rejuvenated Euchen Glen in the St Simon Stakes at Newbury, it was disappointing he only finished second on his first two outings over hurdles.
However, the key factor there was the ground. Soft on his hurdling debut when narrowly beaten at Plumpton and heavy at Wincanton when the smart Lucky One beat him by 20 lengths.
Allotted a mark of 116 following those runs, he returned to Plumpton, crucially on good ground, and fairly bolted up, making a mockery of his rating and it is no surprise he has been put up 16lb.
As he was rated 101 on the Flat, though, there should still be more to come and the evidence of past runnings tells us we should be looking at the lower end of the weights in this race.
The EBF Paddy Power “National Hunt” Novices’ Handicap Final has a fairly rich history and the last two winners, Rendlesham victor Third Wind and Relkeel winner McFabulous, are certainly doing its reputation no harm.
In contrast to the Imperial Cup, though, a big weight is certainly no barrier to success in this and Martinhal fits the bill.
David Pipe is having a good season and this six-year-old has won twice since a wind operation.
He beat Karl Phillipe when looking beaten on more than one occasion and then defied a penalty to beat the highly regarded Solwara One.
FOLLOWING their superb victory at home to Saracens last weekend, for round 2 of this season’s Greene King IPA Championship, the Cornish Pirates travel to Richmond today where the kick-off is at 2pm.
Relegated at the end of the 2018/19 season, Richmond have quickly bounced back to the Championship having last season being crowned Champions of National One.
For their visit to the RAG (Richmond Athletic Ground), the Cornish Pirates have made just the one change to last week’s starting XV. Antonio Kiri Kiri is selected to wear the number 7 shirt in place of last week’s bloodied man-ofthe-match John Stevens, and it is Paddy Ryan who is named on the bench.
Cornish Pirates’ joint-head coach Alan Paver is looking forward to this afternoon’s game, to be played against a team that demands respect.
Looking ahead to the game, he said: “I know the Championship all too well, and although we we must take confidence from our performance at the Mennaye last Saturday we also fully understand that every team in this league can beat you on any given day.
“Respecting everything Richmond have done this year to put a squad together at short notice, we know too that they have good players and are going to be well coached.
“In short, if we don’t go up there in the correct frame of mind and be ready to battle and endure as we normally do, then I think they are more than capable of spoiling the party, therefore it is important for us to make sure we are in the best prepared shape possible and then take the game on as positively as we can.”
Antonio Kiri Kiri starts after scoring this try against Saracens
CHELTENHAM may well be hosting its annual horse racing festival next week, but it is their football team that is leading the way in the race for promotion from Sky Bet League Two.
The Robins have had a fantastic season so far and head a congested league table that sees only six points separate the league leaders and Exeter City, who are in eighth, but have two games in hand on the Robins.
A win for Exeter would certainly make things interesting in what is a thrilling race and one that’s now heading towards the final straight and where the lead continues to constantly change hands.
In midweek, City closed the gap on Cheltenham with a handsome 2-0 win at Scunthorpe United, while Michael Duff’s men slipped to a 3-1 defeat at Mansfield, where former Grecian Jamie Reid was amongst the scorers.
“Cheltenham were ahead and on top and Mansfield scored three in ten minutes, which can happen. We know how goals change games and this league changes with each game,” Exeter manager Matt Taylor said. “There is no team that dominates week in, week out and is almost unbeatable and it comes as a real shock when they get beaten.
“The results every Saturday, or every Tuesday, just show that nothing should be taken for granted in this league, from the top to the bottom. Teams will keep picking up points against each other.
“We just have to remain consistent and level. We have had a good points return recently, but we will haven’t got into the play-offs with 14 games left but we know there are a lot of points up for grabs.
“We just know that we are playing against a good team and you want to play well against the good teams and give yourself a chance. If we come away with something this weekend, then it is another shot in the arm in terms of confidence to know we can go up against the best teams in the league.
“They are top of the league because they’ve been the most consistent team up to this point, but we feel we can more than match them on our day, which is why we are looking forward to this weekend.”
The two sides played out an eight-goal thriller earlier in the season, although City came out on the wrong end of a 5-3 scoreline. Taylor has learnt much from that game, but knows his side will face another tough game today.
GARY Johnson says Torquay United want to win the league as much as the club’s supporters do - and while social media critics are entitled to their opinion, no-one should ‘mess up their life by being miserable all the time’.
Torquay dropped off the top of the National League table in midweek and could be six points behind new leaders Sutton United by the time they play at Boreham Wood on TV on tonight.
There have been a few critical messages on social media in recent weeks, but Johnson isn’t bothered by that and is focusing on getting back to the top by the time Torquay meet Sutton on April 13 - in nine games time.
The manager said: “It doesn’t matter who you are - Liverpool, Man City - if Man City get beaten next week everybody is moaning about it, that’s par for the course.
“I felt they overran us that day, overpowered us, but we scored three good goals that day,” he said. “We couldn’t handle their direct approach, their physicality, their balls in and around our box and they got us deep and punished us in those moments.
“We have learnt a lot from playing them in the past few seasons. The manager has done a fantastic job there and they have a serious group of players. Anyone who fin
“That’s fine and they are entitled to all that, but what you mustn’t do is mess up your life by being miserable all the time and seeing the worst of everything. We only need one more point to beat last year’s points tally - and we want to win the league as much as our supporters want to win the league.
“And if we do, you want to be looking back thinking ‘I as a supporter supported them all the way through, I didn’t get down, I didn’t get upset, I didn’t throw my cup of tea, and if I had have done it would have been a bit stupid because my team has won the league’.
“Now, we don’t know that yet, but that might happen, so it’s quality of life - that’s my thought for the day. Ninety-nine per cent of anything you worry about they reckon never happens.”
Torquay’s form since Christmas hasn’t been great but it is fair to say it has coincided with one of the worst injury crises in the club’s history. Had Johnson had all the playishes above Cheltenham this season will be there or thereabouts .”
There or thereabouts is exactly where both teams were a year ago when the played their last matches of the 2019/20 season, which ended as the coronavirus spread across the UK and throughout the world.
Both contested the play-offs later that year, but both were beaten by Northampton Town who were the team that gained most and went on ers in the squad fit in the last month he would have been able to play two pretty fine teams in an 11 v 11. Still, he doesn’t want the injuries to be an excuse for the 2021 form that has seen them win just twice in the league with four defeats and three draws.
Johnson said: “Injuries are frustrating for all the clubs and we won’t use that as an excuse but what we know is that in a few weeks time we are going to have another squad if you like.
“At the moment, because so many have been out, sometimes you have to play people that might not be quite 100% fit. When things were going well, everybody was fine and everybody had sprints and high-speed runs in them, powerplays, and we have just dropped short of that. But each week we will get there and we will see how it goes in the next few weeks.
“There are some good games coming up before we play Sutton again and we can focus on that a little to win promotion from League One.
The decision to end the season and decide promotion places on a points-per-game average stung both teams, who were more than in with a fighting chance of automatic promotion when the campaign was curtailed.
“It was almost a year to the day when the season was cancelled and the brutal reality is that we were a week away from being promoted bit - and make sure that we’re ahead of them when it comes around to playing them.”
Torquay have already beaten Boreham Wood on the road this season - they won 4-0 in the FA Trophy in February. Goalscorers on that day were Asa Hall, Adam Randell, Billy Waters and Connor Lemonheigh-Evans. All of those players are expected to be fit for tonight’s game.
Ben Wynter and Armani Little have made returns from injuries in recent games, and a couple more players are close - but the manager won’t be name-checking any of them. Instead, he is hoping the BT Sport cameras bring the best out of the players at Meadow Park.
He said: “That’s always quite nice for the boys and it is something we don’t seem to have a big problem with. We had a good game at Hartlepool and then a poor one at home so we are one-all at the moment. So hopefully this one puts us 2-1 up.”
‘We never had the chance of a run-in last season. We have 14 games left, so let’s give it a real go’
(on points-per-game) and that’s the stage we are at again now,” Taylor said.
“It’s the run-in we are looking forward to. We never had that chance of a run-in last season and we have to see it as an opportunity for what is to come and it is up to us. If we want to be successful, then we have the opportunity.
“We have 14 games left, so let’s give it a real go and see where we get to.”