Killian Moore to stand trial after pleading not guilty to drink driving

Jump jockey Killian Moore on Thursday pleaded not guilty to driving with excess alcohol on his breath in the Cotswolds and will stand trial on June 26.

At Cheltenham Magistrates Court, Moore, 26, who lives at trainer Jonjo O'Neill's Jackdaws Castle yard at Temple Guiting, near Stow on the Wold denied driving an Audi A4 on the B4078 at Dumbleton with 59 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath on February 2 this year. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

The jockey told the court he had crashed his Audi and then walked to a nearby house where he was “plied” with copious amounts of Captain Morgan rum to cope with the shock of the accident.

Moore said this was the explanation for why the alcohol on his breath was above the limit when he was breathalysed.

Henderson to the rescue at Lambourn open day

It will be a case of quality over quantity at the Peter O'Sullevan open day at Lambourn on Friday when champion trainer Nicky Henderson keeps the show on the road after heavy rain wiped out all the other attractions.

With all car parks bar Henderson's unusable, none of the other Lambourn yards will be able to welcome visitors and the afternoon activities have also been cancelled.

However, it will be business as usual at Henderson's star-studded Seven Barrows base with Altior, Buveur D'Air, Might Bite, My Tent Or Yours and Bobs Worth parading every hour from 9am.

Nico de Boinville is set to be in attendance all morning and Sir Anthony McCoy will be making an appearance from 11am. The yard will be open from 8.30am to 1pm.

Colourful trainer Brian Pearce dies at the age of 75

Former trainer Brian Pearce has died after a short illness. He was 75.

He was last licensed in 2005, when he saddled three winners from his base near Lingfield. He had sent out around 50 winners in his own name, most of them on the Flat and many of them at his local track or down the road at now defunct Folkestone. None of them made the headlines, but the stable did well with limited material and landed a touch or two.

Pearce's best horses included Anzio, who got off the mark in a Folkestone seller and later won a Listed race for Gay Kelleway, and Doctored, who gained the first of a string of victories in 2004 in a Folkestone seller with Frankie Dettori on board. Fraamtastic and Slumbering were also multiple winners for the stable, albeit at a modest level.

John Long, who knew Pearce well, recalled: "Brian was quite a colourful character, but we got on well. I trained for him for quite a few years and we had quite a few winners, including one at Cheltenham called Celtic Hamlet. He then assisted me before he got his own licence.

"The first place he trained from was the Churchill Stud, which once belonged to Sir Winston Churchill, and latterly he was at Newchapel, near Lingfield. It's a great loss."

Pearce is survived by his wife Catherine, son Christopher, and daughters Melissa and Selena from a previous marriage.

Redcar race revision

The BHA has announced a change to Redcar's April 2 card, with the round track deemed unraceable in a joint decision made by clerk of the course Jonjo Sanderson and the BHA's Racecourse Inspectorate, resulting in a mile handicap replacing the 2m event that was originally scheduled for race six.

The Robyn Durdan Designed Today's Racecard Cover Handicap Stakes (Class 6), for three-year-olds rated 46-65, will take the place of the staying contest. Entries will close at noon on Friday March 30, with declarations the following day.

Town Plate entries opened

Newmarket Racecourses have announced that they are now accepting entries for the historic Newmarket Town Plate, which has been run since 1666 and was instigated by King Charles II.

Won last year by former international showjumper Tim Gredley aboard the James Owen-trained Bivouac, the Town Plate takes place after racing on the July Course on Saturday August 25 and will be followed by a live performance from The Vamps.

Entries for the contest close on May 11 with an entry fee of £30. Further information can be found at
http://newmarket.thejockeyclub

Guineas Ball revived

After ten years on the sidelines, the Guineas Ball has been brought back to raise funds for the Sir Peter O'Sullevan rehabilitation centre in Newmarket.

The event, which is held at the National Stud on April 28 and is almost sold out, has been popular with celebrities, with bookings from Frankie Dettori, ex-England rugby player Ben Cohen, Coronation Street's Mikey North and England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow among others.

Among the prizes to be won are a morning and breakfast with Paul Nicholls, two holidays to the Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mansour festival and VIP tickets to a Manchester United game before drinks with Sir Alex Ferguson.

For further information email Juliethompson1204@gmail.com.

Rule amendment

The BHA has agreed to amend schedule (B)1 of the rules of racing by extending the ability to bring forward suspensions so that it now it applies to bans of four days, instead of just one or two days.

The decision, which has been years in the making, will apply to suspensions incurred from Monday April 2, 2018 and will be of significant benefit to all members.

To bring a suspension forward, a jockey or agent would need to make the request before the jockey declarations are released for the date they want to move the ban to.

If a change is requested over the weekend to a date when no racing of that code is due to take place, the ban will not be changed and the rider will remain suspended on the original dates allocated.