Heavy rain at Punchestown played into the hands of Jim Dreaper's Notre Pere as he came home an eased 13 length winner of the Punchestown Guinness Gold Cup.

Schindlers Hunt was a staying on second but had too much to do to catch the leader. Cheltenham hero Imperial Commander, by contrast, was totally unhappy in the ground and was eventually pulled up.

1st 8 Notre Pere 15/8 fav
2nd 10 Schindlers Hunt 16/1
3rd 11 Scotsirish 12/1
12 Ran Nr 4
Distances 13 & 4
Fav winner
Tote
Win £2.90
Places £1.50 £2.90 £2.90
Exacta £39.40
CSF £35.62

Master Minded won the Kerrygold Champion Chase on day one of the Punchestown Festival.

Sent off the 30/100 favourite the dual Queen Mother Champion Chase winner only just held off a late challenge from Big Zeb, who arguably may have won the contest had he not blundered at the last.

1st 4 Master Minded 30/100 fav
2nd 1 Big Zeb 9/2
6 Ran
Distances head
Fav winner
Tote
Win £1.20
Places £1.10 £1.80
Exacta £2.20
CSF £2.23

Willie Mullins trained Hurricane Fly has ended a season beset by injury in the best possible way, by winning the Evening Herald Champion Hurdle on the opening day of the Punchestown Festival.

The 4/6 favourite came home seven lengths clear of his rivals, who were headed by stablemate Kempes.

Bookmakers have moved the winner to the head of the 2010 Champion Hurdle betting with quotes as diverse as 5/2 and 5/1.

1st 6 Hurricane Fly 4/6 fav
2nd 7 Kempes 12/1
3rd 8 Riverside Theatre 14/1
8 Ran
Distances 7 & 1/2
Fav winner
Tote
Win £1.50
Places £1.10 £2.80 £2.70
Exacta £8.80
CSF £10.00

Three times Ascot Gold Cup winner, Yeats, was extremely disappointing on his seasonal debut in the Vintage Crop Stakes at Navan.

Aidan O'Brien's stayer, finish sixth of eight runners in the listed contest, won by John Oxx's Alandi.

Ridden by Seamus Heffernan, Yeats was attempting to win the race for a third consecutive year but found nothing when asked to run on, eventually fading out of contention.

Vision D'Etat, winner of last years French Derby (Prix du Jockey Club) and fifth in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, has won the first European Group One of the season, in taking the Piix Ganay at Longchamp.

Trainer Eric Libaud says he now has Royal Ascot on the agenda after recording a three-quarters of a length victory ove Loup Breton and German raider Adlerflug.

In a fitting climax to the 2008 / 2009 National Hunt season, fourteen times champion jockey Tony McCoy produced one of the rides of the season to get Hennessy home to win the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown.

In  a race where the pace was set by Irish Grand National runner-up Church Island, McCoy settled Hennessy behind the leader along with Lacdoudal and Kilbeggan Blade.

Turning for home Church Island still had the lead with only Lacdoudal for company. Mark Bradburne produced a late run to bring the well backed Briery Fox into third place whilst Hennessy seemed to have run his race in fourth.

Three out Lacdoudal jumped into the lead but Briery Fox was soon on his quarters and in the lead by two out.

On the run in it looked as though the race was Briery Fox’s but McCoy, still in fourth, launched a final challenge, running on strongly to grab victory on the line by a neck.

Twist Magic, who has two ways of running, showed his better side to take Bet365.com Celebration Chase at Sandown.

In an impressive performance he beat 5/4 favourite Kalahari King by 10 lengths,

The administrators of Great Leighs will have to find a buyer and have the course licensed by 31st May in order to stage racing in 2010.

The fixture allocation process for 2010 has to be completed by 8th June and without any allocated fixtures then racing will not be possible.

Following his defection from Saturday's bet365.com Celebration Chase at Sandown, Master Minded has been supplemented for the Kerrygold Champion Chase at Punchestown on Tuesday.

Speaking to At The Races, trainer Paul Nicholls said, "We would have liked to have gone to Sandown but it doesn't look like there is going to be enough rain before the weekend so a Grade One at Punchestown suits him very well.

"He's a big, strong horse so you wouldn't want to run him on fast ground and his owner and I have been discussing it over the last fortnight on a daily basis.

"We said if there was plenty of rain forecast we would look at Punchestown and that is what we're doing."

Voy Por Ustedes is the winner of the 2008-2009 Order of Merit, picking up £200,000 in prize money. First place was confirmed when Master Minded was withdrawn from the bet365.com Celebration Chase at Sandown on Saturday.

Trained by Alan King and owned by Sir Robert Ogden, the eight-year-old won two of the races in the series - Ascot's Commercial First Chase and the John Smith's Melling Chase at Aintree. He also finished second in the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham.

Third in last season order of merit, he beat last years winner dual Champion Chase winner Master Minded and early trailblazer Snoopy Loopy.

John Gosden's Debussy won the Derby trial trial at Epsom on Wednesday afternoon.

Tracking the leaders in the early stages Jimmy Fortune produced Debussy with a well timed run, accompanied by Midday.

Karl Burke's Popmurphy was running well in the closing stages, closing on the leaders with the first three finishing well clear of the remainder.

Epsom's new grandstand has been opened by the Duchess Of Cornwall before their first 2009 meeting on Wednesday.

The new £27.6m stand will be a welcome replacement for the old stand which had seen better days and will house up to 11,000 customers.

The stand contains three restaurants in the first floor and corporate boxes in the second floor. In front there is a 31 step tiered viewing with some rows of seats behind.

In an impressive front running performance in the Ayr sunshine, Hello Bud came home the 12/1 winner of the Corals Scottish Grand National - just holding off a late challenge from champion jockey AP McCoy on Gone To Lunch.

Out The Black came home third with Chiaro fourth.

Ayr meeting report click here

Racehorse owner and Racing Post columnist Sir Clement Freud has died, just a week before his 85th birthday.

The grandson of psyco-analyst Sigmund Freud he was noted for his hang-dog expression.

A varied career included hotel management and a spell as an MP, during which he was responsible for the downfall of Jim Callaghan's government.

He is survived by Jill, his wife of 59 years, five children and seventeen grandchildren.

Technical problems have resulted in Totesports online betting service being unavailable since Sunday.

Malcolm Knowles, Customer Services Director at Totesport said, "We are working with our network partners at BT and other suppliers to resolve the problem as quickly as possible, but as yet cannot offer a definite timescale for service to be back to normal."

He went on to say, "The problem relates solely to the website and the high standard of security and protection applied to your customer information has been unaffected."

Customers who normally bet online can bet by phone on 0800 221 221.

The site seemed to have returned to normal service by Wednesday afternoon.

Irish rider Matt O'Connor has been moved from out of intensive care as he continues his recovery following a crashing fall at Thurles in March.

The conditional rider was knocked unconscious after Walkin Aisy fell at the fifth-last fence of the Templemore Beginners Chase.

He has been in hospital in Cork since then.

Jockey Hayley Turner has been stopped from riding for 12 months on medical grounds.

She suffered head injuries in March, following a stalls accident on the Newmarket gallops. A scan showed Turner suffered some bruising inside her skull.

Turner's ban follows a meeting with the BHA's chief medical officer, Dr Michael Turner.

Dr Turner said: "Having carefully studied the results of recent tests and consulted expert opinion, I was unable to recommend that her licence be renewed until 12 months from the date of the accident.

"Hayley has recovered well from her injuries but you cannot take any chances in cases like this.

"She remains under regular medical review and is due to see her own specialist at Addenbrookes (Hospital) in early June.

"Hayley is obviously disappointed but understands my decision."

British raider Niche Market was the surprise 33/1 winner of the Powers Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse on Monday afternoon. Ridden prominently by Harry Skelton he ran on well in the final stages to come home two lengths clear of 50/1 shot Church Island, who led until two out, with another 50/1 shot A New Story in third place.

The 8/1 favourite Rare Bob came home fourth with the second favourite Pomme Tiepy fifth.

Sadly the race was overshadowed by the deaths of two of the runners. Cheltenham hero Wichita Lineman died after falling at the first whilst Drumconvis who fell at the 12th (the final fence on the first circuit).

1st 13 Niche Market 33/1
2nd 15 Church Island 50/1
3rd 20 A New Story 50/1
4th 10 Rare Bob 8/1 fav
28 Ran NR's 1 & 29
Distances 2
Fav Fourth
Tote
Win £55.80
Places £11.50 £13.20 £9.00 £2.90
Exacta £2,994.60
CSF £1,207.07
Tricast £54,207.94

In a thrilling finish to the Powers Gold Cup at Fairyhouse, Aran Concerto grabbed victory in the dying stages. Beating the running-on Barker by a short head with the long time leader, not discredited, half-a-length further back in third place.

This was the victors second run following 20 months on the sidelines following injury.

Winning trainer Noel Meade said: "He's a hell of horse to do what he did on his second run back and after a long lay-off, but unfortunately he seems to have finished lame.

"It just goes to show the potential he has if we get a chance to train him. It was the plan to go to Punchestown but obviously we'll just have to wait and see now."

Trainer Nicky Henderson reached a career landmark at Towcester on Sunday.

Despite having been training for 31 years and twice being champion trainer, he has never before trained 100 winners in a season.

Until this season - Horseford Hill took the opening contest to give the Seven Barrows trainer the landmark victory.

ORS Racing understand Northern Racing have tabled a revised bid to purchase Great Leighs, which has not staged any races since going into administration in January.

The move is not wholly unexpected as it is an open secret that Northern have been looking to add an all weather track to their portfolio.

Last flat season we identified many future winners in our race reports. This season we have decided to keep a note of our "eyecatchers" in one place.

We will record our eyecatchers in the notebook section along with details of any entries they may hold. They will remain in the section for their next three runs or until we think they have reached their full potential.

They will then be moved to the archive for future reference.

To access the notebook section either click here or click the notebook on the right.

He may not be the greatest horse he has trained but Chapter And Verse will surely hold a special place in the memory of trainer Barry Hills as the colt was his 3,000th winner as a trainer.

The milestone came in the High-Rise Median Auction Stakes over 1m 2f at Pontefract.

To make the achievement all the more memorable the grey was ridden by son Michael and is co-owned by the trainers long time friend Jack Hanson. The other co-owner is Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

A trainer for 40 years Hills has saddled the winners of ten classics and 46 Group One’s, the most notable being Rhinegold who won the 1973 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Irish jockey Matt O'Connor who has been in Cork University Hospital since being knocked unconscious at Thurles back on March 26 is improving.

He has been weaned off the medically induced coma and is breathing under his own accord. He is also said to have full movement of both upper and lower limbs.

Punchestown racecourse have announced they will be putting back the race times for the first four days of the 2009 Festival of by hour. Which means race times on Tuesday – Friday will now be 3:45 to 7:15 and 3:45 to 7:45 on the Friday. The Festival begins on Tuesday 28th April.

They course say it is to adapt “to the current economic challenges .“

Having spoken to the race sponsors Punchestown announce “Punchestown can reveal that all are in favour of the alteration as it will increase brand exposure and facilitate the needs of their corporate guests and clients. Racing industry bodies such as Horse Racing Ireland, the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association and members of the racing press are all in support of the initiative based on the positive effects it will contribute to the industry.”

However the move has angered a number of UK visitors to the festival. many of whom have planned day trips based on the original race times and who will now either have to miss the final two races or cancel their trip.

One angry visitor said, "I have no problem with the logic behind the decision to change the race times, but it should be implemented from next year.

"Giving just over three weeks notice shows utter contempt for people who have already made travel arrangements."

Another added, "can you imagine the outcry if Cheltenham changed their race times three weeks before the Festival?"

We have asked Punchestown for a comment, as yet they have not replied.

Thursday's showpiece race at Aintree, the totesport Bowl will end up being remembered for all the wrong reasons. In an eventful race Madison Du Berlais beat Exotic Dancer but only after the winner had been left in front by the fall of Denman two out.

Denman was subsequently taken away in the horse ambulance, his injuries fortunately not serious.

However half an hour after the race the runner-up, one of the most popular horses in training, suffered a fatal heart attack in the racecourse stables.

Officials at Sandown Park have announced that Kauto Star, Big Buck's and Master Minded will be appearing in the Champions Parade on bet365 Gold Cup Day, Saturday 25 April.

The meeting which combines the ebst of jump and flat action is the finale of the National Hunt season. the parade will take place at 12:15, 45 minutes before the first race.