“Just like last year before the Hennessy she’s worked well and she will go for the race as long as the ground isn’t firm,” the trainer said.Ever Blessed, trained by Mark Pitman, put himself on target for the Hennessy after working satisfactorily with his stablemate Canasta in another post- racing Kempton gallop. At the end of last season he had two hocks drained and that is what put us back by a fortnight.”In contrast, Fiddling The Facts, last year’s Hennessy third, who finished upsides Bacchanal, delighted Henderson. It did, however, condemn Stormyfairweather to the sidelines on Saturday week.
“It looks I’m not going to get Stormy there,” Henderson said. “The race is going to come a fortnight too soon for him.” “Mick said he was going to run all over the other two coming into the straight but he was the first one to get tired. Before the workout Henderson had emphasised that this was just a sharpening exercise and not a trial.

Nicky Henderson’s chaser, partnered by Mick Fitzgerald, trailed in about eight lengths behind his stablemates Bacchanal and Fiddling The Facts at the end of the two-mile work-out and will miss the Hennessy for which he had been 7-1 favourite. FOLLOWERS OF the Hennessy Gold Cup favourite, Stormyfairweather, who stayed behind after racing at Kempton last night to watch their hope limber up for Saturday week’s Newbury feature, were able to warm themselves on a big bonfire of ante-post betting slips as darkness descended on the Sunbury course. The committee will seek to establish whether bin Suroor has committed a breach of the rule concerning the horse’s medication record.Thornton will find out whether he must suffer a lengthy suspension for his ride on Stormy Passage in Saturday’s Murphy’s Gold Cup.The Cheltenham stewards adjudged Thornton to have used his whip with excessive force aboard the Philip Hobbs-trained gelding who was beaten a neck by The Outback Way.. The training environment is totally different here but we have been learning on a day-to-day basis.”A busy day for the Jockey Club’s Disciplinary Committee at Portman Square today will see the jockey Andrew Thornton and the trainer Saeed bin Suroor paying a visit to the Jockey Club’s central London headquarters.Suroor faces an inquiry into a positive sample given by Royal Line after the colt won the Bahrain Trophy at Newmarket on 7 July. However, Lyphard’s Lad, ridden by the Frenchman Eric Legrix, ended his wait when easily justifying 5-2 favouritism in the one mile handicap.
A delighted Chapple-Hyam said: “It is great to get that first winner behind us. Chapple-Hyam, who has taken over from the suspended Patrick Biancone, had saddled 18 losers since his arrival in the former colony last month. PETER CHAPPLE-HYAM, who was forced to leave the luxurious Manton training complex last month when sacked by Robert Sangster, had his first success as a trainer in Hong Kong when Lyphard’s Lad won at Sha Tin yesterday.

“That needs to be addressed.”The report will be featured on Radio 5 Live’s `On The Line’ tonight, at 7.30pm.. His team doctor told the player, who had had an injury: “If you’re thinking of leaving the club and we made [your injury] common knowledge then no one would buy you.” The incident happened several years ago and the player stayed at the club.”Uniquely in medicine in football, there is no good practice model and no attempt at a code of conduct,” Professor Ivan Waddington, the author, said. “He’d suffered a major ankle fracture at some stage, the whole thing had fallen half and inch,” the doctor said, adding that the player should not be playing “The physio said `Don’t tell him. Don’t tell the player that he’s gone and broken his ankle otherwise he’ll start being off’.”Another player wanted to leave his club when his contract expired at the end of the season. You never say `No, I’m not doing it’.”One club doctor admitted that he kept news of a serious injury from a player in case the player decided to take time off. Only one doctor surveyed had been recruited via a medical journal. “Only nine of the 58 doctors who completed the questionnaire currently have a specialist qualification in sports medicine,” the report adds.

It concludes: “The day-to-day management of injuries is in the hands of physios who are not qualified to work as physiotherapists within the NHS. This should be regarded as a matter of concern.”There are many instances in the report of footballers being encouraged to play with bad injuries and in pain. One international with a Premiership club said: “You get used to the shit, and that’s what I was doing. “Almost all aspects of the process of appointing club doctors and physiotherapists give rise to concern,” concludes the report, `Managing Football: the Roles of the Club Doctor and Physiotherapist’, which was compiled by the Centre for Research into Sport and Society at Leicester University.

“At the moment these processes constitute a catalogue of poor employment practices.”
The report – which is based on questionnaires and interviews with more than 100 club doctors, physios and players from the Premiership to the Third Division – highlights how players are regularly asked to play when unfit, how some are lied to about their conditions to keep them playing and how, in one case, a player was blackmailed with his medical history so he would not leave his club.The report, which was compiled confidentially over 18 months, also shows football’s amateurish approach to medicine. PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLERS in England are routinely being given sub-standard treatment and being badly advised about their health by club medical staff, according to a new report commissioned by the Professional Footballers’ Association. Bulgaria’s Zdravko Zdravkov and his Greek counterpart Andonis Nikopolidis each made a series of decisive saves.In addition, Stanimir Stoilov and Stilyan Petrov both cleared off the line in the 17th and 45th minutes respectively.Greece launched one attack after the other in the second half, but the Bulgarian resistance held out. In the 61st minute, the Ajax forward Nikos Machlas passed to Kyparissis, whose ground-hugging right-footed shot from the edge of the box was saved by by Zdravkov.Four minutes before the final whistle, Fanis Katergiannakis, who replaced Nikopolidis in the goal, dived to save a shot from point-blank range by Ivailo Petkov.Ukraine: Shovkovskyi, Luzhnyi, Fyodorov, Holovko, Vashchuk, Dmytrulin, Kandaurov (Kovalyov, h-t), Skachenko (Moroz, 58), Kossovskyi (Popov, 74), Rebrov, Shevchenko.Slovenia: Dabanovic, Karic (Osterc, 74), Rudonja, Milanic, Galic, Milinovic, Novak, Ceh, Udovic (Acimovic, 57), Pavlin, Zahovic..