Dante under microscope but not the telescope

Dante Stakes
York
TIME: 2.45pm
TV: C4/RUK

Good grief. Call the stewards in…. a late goal that went in favour of this column last night in Amsterdam when Branislav Ivanovic’s injury time header sealed the 2-1 win for Chelsea and more importantly the Europa League Cup.

We head racing today at York for the feature race of the week – the Dante Stakes at 2.45.

The original favourite, Telescope, misses this race and is still a considerable doubt for the Derby itself at the beginning of June, or, if you prefer just 16 days time.

The plan now for Telescope (pictured) is for him to have a racecourse gallop and owners Highclere tweeted yesterday: “Telescope is responding well to the antibiotics. Positive news, but next few days are critical if he is to work next week.”

Whatever connections say, as a punter you can’t be happy if you are clutching an ante-post ticket with his name on it. Along with the industry, Star Sports have taken a negative line on the news and pushed Telescope out in our ante-post book.

With Telescope out, let’s put the ‘new’ race under the microscope.

One thing his defection has done is to make the race a lot more open and, for once, we have a classic trial without an odds-on favourite which also looks an appealing betting heat.

Aidan O’Brien, is the obvious starting point, if not the default selection. He mopped up four Derby trials last week and relies solely on Indian Chief here who, excuse the cliche, could be anything !!! He won a maiden well at Leopardstown and O’Brien sounds confident, unless the ground becomes soft. The stable won this most recently in 2009 and 2010.

Greatwood by-passed the Lingfield Derby trial on Saturday because of the rain softened ground and is closely matched on the formbook with Windhoek and Ghurair. Luca Cumani has headed north in search of better ground for Greatwood but it will only be marginally better and that might still be a concern.

The surprise package could be Trading Leather for Jim Bolger and catching him fresh might be the key. He progressed to win a Group 3 last season and the ground was probably too soft for his final start when only fifth in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster won by Kingsbarns.

He is a front runner who could prove very hard to peg back and we’ll play win and place.

STAR FORECAST
(stake between 0.5 and 10 points)
3 points each way TRADING LEATHER

(+10 Wednesday)

Agree OR disagree? Call Star Sports on 08000 521 321 to place your bet.

Houston, we have a problem……

An American Airlines jet was forced to make an emergency detour after a passenger refused to stop singing the Whitney Houston hit I Will Always Love You.

The flight left Los Angeles last Thursday afternoon and was meant to fly non-stop to JFK in New York.

But the pilot made the unscheduled stop two and half hours into the journey at Kansas City International Airport.

“The woman was being disruptive and was removed from the plane for interfering with the flight crew,” airport spokesman Joe McBride told KCTV.

“There was a federal air marshal on the aircraft, who subdued the woman and put her in cuffs and removed her from the plane.”

The ejected woman won no plaudits for her singing from fellow passengers, who endured a long delay in Kansas and arrived late in New York.

Airport police are seen in the video posted on YouTube escorting the passenger off the plane.

Quite right too.