The colt moved with more alarm in the market being pushed from odds-on to 11-10

The colt moved with more alarm in the market, being pushed from odds-on to 11-10.As the field splayed out it was Royal Applause who appeared to be taking command on the stands side, before Compton Place’s decisive intervention. He was a tall, imposing presence with a melancholy look in his eye and bandages bunched on his hind legs like granny with her stockings rolled down.Royal Applause does not possess the explosive chassis associated with sprinters, but nevertheless swung along pleasingly. The most taking was Coastal Bluff, who pulls out for action each season only at about the time they pull down the sculls for the Henley Regatta. If it hadn’t have been a Group One race I’d have had a right good bet on him at 50-1, but I’m happy with my percentage as it is.”The condition of the July Cup touchpaper horses under a flattering sun had been a credit to their respective trainers. Compton Place quickened thrillingly to take command of the Group One sprint a furlong out and comfortably beat off the challenge of the favourite, Royal Applause. “It wasn’t a fluke because this is definitely a good horse,” James Toller, whose previous training Everest was Nagida’s Wokingham Stakes victory, said.
“Everyone’s been telling us all year that the sprinters aren’t that great a bunch and I’ve always felt we haven’t really got the best out of this horse.

But locate it he did, and there seemed little material with which to construct a quirk theory. One of the trade newspapers had informed us that the three-year-old had “plenty to find at this level”. Anyone who claimed to have backed Compton Place was either lying, living at that address or holding the form book upside down This was reflected in his starting price of 50-1. “I hope I can bring the team their 100th win on the track where they won their first.”. There was a strange noise here yesterday as the chestnut blur of Compton Place flashed past the post in the July Cup It was the sound of nothing There followed a collective snapping of satchels. “It is a good compromise between speed and safety and I expect our car to go well there,” said Villeneuve’s team-mate, Heinz-Harald Frentzen. For me, it would be something special to win at Silverstone, but of course it would also be another big boost to my championship chances.”Schumacher said he did not expect to lead by 14 points at the half-way stage this season, but admitted: “The team has made fantastic progress with the car in recent weeks, both in reliability and performance.”This year’s race is on a revised 5.14-kilometre (3.19-mile) track and should be the fastest race of the season so far.

“It meant the team started to concentrate on next year’s car, the 1998 one with the new regulations, instead of working on developing the new one.”Maybe we got caught out because it allowed Ferrari in particular to catch up. Now we have got our work cut out to stay in the fight and it is important we do well at Silverstone.”While Villeneuve plots a comeback on Williams’ “home” track, the closest to their Grove base in Oxfordshire, Schumacher goes for a third successive victory in his challenge for a third world title in four years.”I have never won at Silverstone,” Schumacher said “That is something I would like to correct as soon as I can. We need one as we have to cut the gap.
“We went very well at the start of the year, perhaps too well,” the Canadian added. We went well in testing at Silverstone and I feel sure we can achieve a good result. Villeneuve has fallen off the pace in recent weeks, allowing Michael Schumacher to steal a 14-point advantage in his Ferrari. “This is obviously a very important race for us,” Villeneuve said “But I am reasonably confident.

Jacques Villeneuve, the pre-season favourite for the Formula One world championship, believes complacency has cost his Williams team dearly and that he now must work harder to revive his title challenge in the British Grand Prix on Sunday. King of the mountains: 1 L Brochard (Fr) FES 36pts; 2 C Saugrain (Fr) COF 11; 3 A Kasputis (Lit) CSO 10, 4 F Simon (Fr) GAN 6, 5 C Vasseur (Fr) GAN 5, 6 T Gouvenou (Fr) BIG 5, 7 L Colombo (It) BAT 4, 8 S Knaven (Neth) TVM 4, 9 R Virenque (Fr) FES 3, 10 G Bortolami (It) FES 3.Teams: 1 GAN 84hr 49min 25sec, 2 Telekom 03:38, 3 US Postal Service 03:42, 4 Mapei 04:20, 5 Casino 04:29, 6 Rabobank 05:29, 7 ONCE 06:17, 8 Cofidis 06:20, 9 Festina 06:20, 10 Batik 06:25.. Points standings: 1 E Zabel (Ger) TEL 148pts, 2 M Cipollini (It) SAE 135, 3 F Moncassin (Fr) GAN 103, 4 J Blijlevens (Neth) TVM 72, 5 R McEwen (Aus) RAB 56, 6 A Baffi (It) USP 56, 7 F Simon (Fr) GAN 56, 8 M Traversoni (It) MER 56, 9 N Minali (It) BAT 53, 10 C Vasseur (Fra) GAN 53. Selected: 23 B Riis (Den) TEL +3:59, 57 M Sciandri (GB) FDJ 5:39, 68 M Pantani (It) MER +6:27, 102 I Gotti (It) SAE +8:26. Overall standings: 1 C Vasseur (Fr) GAN 28hr 14min 35sec, 2 M Cipollini (It) SAE +2:17, 3 E Zabel (Ger) TEL +2:19, 4 C Boardman (GB) GAN +2:54, 5 J Ullrich (Ger) TEL +2:56, 6 F Vandenbroucke (Bel) MAP +3:00, 7 A Olano (Sp) BAN +3:04, 8 S O’Grady (Aus) GAN +3:05, 9 F Moncassin (Fr) GAN +3:06, 10 L Jalabert (Fr) ONCE +3:06.

Selected: 36 C Boardman (GB) GAN, 38 J Ullrich (Ger) TEL, 48 B Riis (Den) TEL, 61 M Pantani (It) MER, 179 M Sciandri (GB) FDJ all s/t Did not start: A Zulle (Swit) ONCE. “Every stage is dangerous and there are too many risks in these flat races when the pack is riding close together.”So Zulle flew to Barcelona to have his shoulder checked by his surgeon before joining teammate Johan Bruyneel for training at Alicante less than three weeks after his Tour of Switzerland crash.TOUR DE FRANCE Fifth stage (Chantonnay to La Chatre, 261.50km): 1 C Vasseur (Fr) GAN 6hr 16min 44sec (average 41.647 kmh): 2 S O’Grady (Aus) GAN 2:32, 3 F Cabello (Sp) KEL, 4 M Artunghi (It) MER, 5 P Meinert (Den) USP, 6 T Bourguignon (Fr) BIG, 7 F Gougot (Fr) CSO, 8 S Cueff (Fr) MUT, 9 M Zen (It) ROS, 10 B Hamburger (Den) TVM, 11 C Agnolutto (Fr) CSO all s/t, 12 M Cipollini (It) SAE 3:24, 13 E Zabel (Ger) TEL, 14 G Fagnini (It) SAE, 15 F Moncassin (Fr) GAN, 16 A Baffi (It) USP, 17 R Virenque (Fr) FES, 18 G Fraser (Can) MUT, 19 M Traversoni (It) MER, 20 M Tosatto (It) MAG all s/t. Optimism turned to commonsense as the Swiss, with 12 pins in a shattered collar-bone, agreed with his team manager, Manolo Saiz, that the risks were too great.”If there was a mountain stage tomorrow he would have continued, but he cannot afford to fall again,” Saiz said. They opened a new offensive yesterday as the Italian edged out the German in his opening gambit to regain the green jersey of top points scorer.Alex Zulle stepped out of the fray yesterday.