RSS Feed
Twitter
It puts into horrible perspective their sole, uplifting victory against Zimbabwe as recently as January, when they won by an enormous 226 runs.England did what they had to do. Only in the event of bad weather were the tourists ever to avoid a 2-0 Test defeat and, in all probability, a 6-0 reversal in the triangular one-day tournament.This, however, was worse than feared. This defeat by an innings and 261 runs was the 10th heaviest in Test history, the second heaviest at Lord's and Bangladesh's third heaviest, which is going some since they have now lost 22 matches (from 37) by an innings. And should Dubawi prevail, he will step from the pages of history into legend.
On Saturday at Epsom, one man's obsession is set to come to glorious fruition. Six years after Dubai Millennium, the brilliant, ill-starred favourite of Sheikh Mohammed, suffered his only defeat in the Derby, one of the horse's limited edition sons will carry his flag high in the 226th running of the world's most famous race. Both his racing career and life were cut short, the first by a broken hind leg and the second by a rare fatal disease. "I could hardly have expected a Derby ride, and I'm thrilled," said the jockey. "He's an impressive horse, quite aggressive, but well-mannered and mature." Winning would be good, and Walk In The Park is not the most forlorn of outsiders.
But the most important thing for this dark-haired man with the piercingly aware brown eyes is being there Being Alan Munro.. The Jockey Club are currently investigating an alleged fight between Munro and Quinn in the weighing room at Newmarket eight days ago.It was a considered decision to come back here, rather than elsewhere. "England still is the most prestigious place to be riding," he said "And I want to be close to my mum. She's not been well and I'd been away too long."That Munro is still stylish after all these years was not lost on Walk In The Park's owner, Michael Tabor. He had not sat on a horse for four years but if karate doesn't keep a body hard, nothing does. A scheduled return to race-riding over six weeks in New Zealand, starting in humble trials with apprentices, was completed in three.He returned to Britain with a bang and a whisper and a bang. His first ride back, on Rod Millman-trained Phantom Whisper in the first two-year-old race of the year at Lingfield in March, was a winning one, the first of 19 victories so far But ghosts may have stuck as well as his class.
