48 NT NEWS. Saturday, January 25, 2014. www.ntnews.com.au

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Waterhouse decision reserved

GAIWaterhouse has continued her bid to have chargesin theMore Joyous affair dropped, appearing beforethe Racing Appeals Tribunal yesterday. Waterhousewas convicted of two charges relating to a trainer’sobligation to report any condition of a horse in thelead-up to a racewhichmay affect its performance.After the Racing NSWAppeal panel dismissed herappeal against the charges, she took it to the higherlevel. Judge David Armati has reserved his decision.

Trainermaps out his targets

DANNYO’Brien’s Cox Plate winner Shamus Award andhis Newmarket Handicap-winning stablemateShamexpress have taken the next step towards Group1 targetswith jump-outs at Flemington yesterday.Shamus Award returns in the CF Orr Stakes (1400m) atCaulfield on February 8 before the Australian Guineas(1600m) at Flemington onMarch 1. Shamexpress willrun in the Lightning Stakes at Flemington on February15 before the Newmarket Handicap onMarch 8.

Term changes by degrees

PROPOSED new track ratings would retain thenumerical system but change the language, replacingthe terms fast, dead and slowwith degrees of firm andsoft. The Australian Racing Board released theproposed new terms yesterday. The revision comesafter ameeting in Sydney of officials fromNSW,Victoria and Queensland. ‘‘Wewant to take the revisioninto themarketplace and get the feedback of racing’scustomers,’’ ARB chief executive Peter McGauran said

Shifting to a slower LaneChief steward Lindsay Lanepresides at his final meeting atFannie Bay this afternoon

Picture: KATRINA BRIDGEFORD

THE Darwin Turf Club willofficially recognise the finalworking day of chief stewardLindsay Lane this afternoon.

The final race at today’s six-race Fannie Bay meeting hasbeen named after Lane and hiswife Sharon to mark his almo-st two decades in the position.

Reluctantly, Lane, a no-fusschief steward, has acceptedthe honour of having thesixth race, over 1200 metres,named the Farewell Lindsayand Sharon Lane Handicap.

‘‘I want to thank the Dar-win Turf Club for their sup-port over the past 19 years,’’Lane said.

‘‘I hope to have a drink withthe committee after the last.’’

Lane and Sharon plan tosail around south-east Asialater this year but the DarwinTurf Club will always be closeto his heart. ‘‘I enjoy the jobbut I want to go sailing so Ihave to leave,’’ he said.

Lane will be getting in somepractice on the harbour to-morrow morning.

o o o o

TRAINER Greg Connor isconfident Planet King cancontinue to show his provenability on his Alice debut.

Planet King is having hisfirst start on the Pioneer Parksand track after campaigningin Adelaide.

‘‘He was prepped in Aliceand went well for us in Ade-laide but this is his firststart,’’ Connor said of the five-year-old gelding.

Extraceed is Connor’s otherrunner on Sunday, competingin the first race, the BMNT 73Handicap over 1000m.

Connor already has oneeye on the Alice carnival,even though it is threemonths away.

He is hopeful he could haveup to 20 runners, includingseveral new additions.

Connor, who has had somerecent success with horses ac-quired from NSW trainerGerald Ryan, has boughtFully Hectic Bro, who he ho-pes could be a Darwin Guin-eas or Derby horse.

‘‘I am also hopeful for excit-ing things from RandomSighting,’’ he said.

The four-year-old geldingcollected his second win of hiscareer at Pioneer Park, andhis first for the Connor team,two weeks ago and the traineris hopeful he can build onthat performance.

o o o o

THE Australian ExecutorTrustees Limited has been ap-pointed to manage donationsto the Simone MontgomerieTrust Fund.

The champion jockey diedafter a horseracing accident onDarwin Cup Day last August.

Initially, an advisory panel

consisting of a representativefrom the Darwin Turf Club,the Australian Jockeys As-sociation, and Simone’s moth-er, Lee-Anne Montgomerie,was formed.

DTC chairman Brett Dixonsaid the Montgomerie Fundwas established to providefor Simone’s five-year-olddaughter, Kodah.

‘‘At this time, Peter andLee-Anne Montgomerie, theirfamily and the Darwin TurfClub would like to expressour sincere appreciation forthe kindness and supportshown by so many people,’’Dixon said.

o o o o

JOCKEY Stephen Ridler ishappy to be back in the TopEnd after spending late 2013down south.

Ridler, the 2009 DarwinCup-winning jockey on boardthe Michael Hickmott-trainedActivation, has five rides atFannie Bay today.

‘‘I rode here until Octoberthen I headed south,’’ Ridlersaid. ‘‘I was only going to beaway a few weeks but I endedup staying down south for acouple of months,’’ said theveteran, who started race rid-ing in 1976.

Ridler thinks the DickLeech-trained Mossadina hasan each-way chance in racefour, the Darwin HarbourCruises Handicap, while hisrace five mount, Emvoss(Gary Clarke), can also runa place.

Gerrans moves closerCRUISING THE ROADSDOWNSOUTH

Tour DownUnder - Unley to Victor Harbor (148.5km)Stage 4: Andre Greipel (LTB, Ger) 3hrs 33min 7sec 1, Jurgen Roelandts (LTB, Bel)same time 2, Elia Viviani (CAN, Ita) st 3, Simon Gerrans (GEC, Aus) st 4, Nathan Haas(GRM, Aus) st 5.General Classification: Cadel Evans (BMC, Aus) 14hrs 19min 46sec 1, SimonGerrans (GEC, Aus) at 7sec 2, Diego Ulissi (LAM, Ita) at 14sec 3, Nathan Haas (GRM,Aus) at 23sec 4, Robert Gesink (BPC, Ned) at 29sec 5.King of theMountain: AdamHansen (LTB, Aus) 24pts 1, Axel Domont (ALM, Fra)22 2, William Clarke (DRA, Aus) 20 3, Cadel Evans (BMC, Aus) 16 4, Simon Gerrans(GEC, Aus) 12 5.Sprint Classification: Simon Gerrans (GEC, Aus) 62pts 1, Diego Ulissi (LAM, Ita)42 2, Cadel Evans (BMC, Aus) 35 3, Nathan Haas (GRM, Aus) 32 4, Andre Greipel(LTB, Ger) 29 5, Francesco Gavazzi (AST, Ita) 28 6.Team Classification: BMC Racing Team 43hrs 38sec 1, Orica Greenedge at 1min24sec 2, Garmin-Sharp at 1:45 3, SKY Pro Cycling at 2:19 4, Drapac ProfessionalCycling at 3:42 5.

Andre Greipel

SIMON Gerrans has rampedup the pressure on TourDown Under leader CadelEvans ahead of the week-end’s decisive stages.

Second-placed Gerranspicked up five invaluableseconds through time bonu-ses during stage four to re-duce Evans’ lead to sevenseconds in the cycling tour.

Evans (BMC) must puttime into Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) in today’sQueen stage at Willunga,south of Adelaide.

If his lead isstill only sevenseconds tomor-row, Gerranscould well over-come that defi-cit by picking

up more time bonuses in theAdelaide CBD street race.

‘‘Cadel really has to get ridof me tomorrow because Idon’t think he’s going towant to go into the finalstage with only a seven-second advantage,’’ Gerranssaid. ‘‘If Cadel goes, I justhave to try to get by him onthe line and grab anothercouple of bonus seconds.

‘‘It can definitely be lost onWillunga Hill, but not

necessarily won. It coulddefinitely come down to thefinal stage on Sunday.’’

After Evans’ stage-threeclimbing masterclass, wherehe soloed to the win and tookthe overall lead from Ger-rans, yesterday was frustrat-ing and nerve-racking forthe Tour de France winner.

Gerrans won the first in-termediate sprint in the148.5km stage from Unley toVictor Harbor, picking upthree seconds as Evans didnot feature.

Evans tried to be a part ofthe second intermediatesprint, but he had a mech-anical problem as Gerrans

was runner-up to gain twomore seconds. The BMC staralso had to change bikes,briefly losing touch with thepeloton, but he finished withthe front group.

‘‘A nervous day — the first(day) one didn’t go favour-ably and the second one waseven worse,’’ Evans said.

German Andre Greipelwon his 15th Tour stage.

Gerrans was fourth and, ifhe had finished third, hewould have picked up an-other four bonus seconds.

‘‘Put it this way — I’m feel-ing five seconds more confid-ent after today’s stage than Iwas before,’’ Gerrans said.

Desperate Mundine takes Gunnar fight option

Anthony Mundine

IT was a case of third timelucky for Anthony Mundineafter he was finally able toconfirm his opponent six daysahead of his WBA internat-ional middleweight title fightin Brisbane.

And it was hardly worththe wait — Mundine will takeon New Zealand journeymanGunnar Jackson.

But Mundine insisted yes-terday a much more impress-ive name would be announcedby April — Ghanian lightmiddleweight Joshua Clottey,who has gone the distance

with MannyPacquiao andMiguel Cotto.

Cynics wouldhave taken theclaim with agrain of salt after

a chaotic build-up to Wednes-day night’s fight.

The same week he revealedhe would consider becoming apolitical heavyweight and runfor Prime Minister one day,Mundine was flat out findinga middleweight to challenge.

Initial opponent CarsonJones this week pulled out

due to the ’flu and his replace-ment — American journey-man Billy Lyell — failed tosign his contract on time.

Mundine’s manager KhoderNasser was forced to look ac-ross the ditch for a last-gaspopponent for a card that willalso feature Wallabies starand good mate Quade Cooper.

Mundine admitted thebuild-up had been a distrac-tion ‘‘a little bit’’ but insistedhe was still on track to fightWBA junior middleweight‘‘super’’ champion Floyd May-weather by year’s end.

Aussie pair get off to flying start in California

Jason Day

JASON Day wasted no timein his quest to prove he’s be-come a winner while MarcLeishman kept pace with hiscountryman in a hot start atTorrey Pines.

The Australian duo firedsix-under rounds of 66 on Tor-rey Pines north yesterday toopen the PGA Tour event inCalifornia in a tie for third,just two shots off the lead.

Only former British Openchampion American StewartCink, who wound back theclock with an eight-under 64,and fellow American Gary

Woodland (65)bested the Aus-sie pair.

Players alter-nate between themuch easiernorth and south

courses over the opening twodays before playing the southover the weekend.

South African Tyrone VanAswegen (north course) andAmerican Jim Herman(north) joined the Aussies atsix-under, while AmericansPat Perez (south) and DAPoints (north) plus Korean

Sang-Moon Bae (north) sharedseventh at five-under. Seven-time champ Tiger Woods bat-tled to an even par 72 on thesouth course to be mid-field.

After failing to grab a titlefor over three years Day clai-med the World Cup last Nov-ember and says the victoryhas him primed to notch upmultiple wins in the US.

‘‘I’m very satisfied with thenumber (today). I had goodprep work coming into theweek and the game feelslike it is in a good spot rightnow,’’ Day said.