Morphine cases not to lose out

Racing: Connolly Red Mills, the seed company at the centre of the long-running morphine controversy, which sees close on 50 horses facing disqualification, have decided to make up any loss of prize-money to the connections of those horses.

Managing director Joe Connolly announced the decision last night in the wake of the Jockey Club verdict to disqualify Be My Royal from the 2002 Hennessy Gold Cup at a hearing last week.

The company point to the length of time that has elapsed since the controversy first broke and they are keen that the connections of the horses affected should not lose out.

The Turf Club are about to hold inquiries into nine horses affected in Ireland while a total of 37 runners were hit in Britain.

Xenophon has been cut to 16 to 1 from 33 to 1 for the Royal & SunAlliance Chase by Coral after the gelding was the subject of substantial support yesterday. The Tony Martin-trained eight-year-old, who won the Coral Cup at Cheltenham last season, takes part in the Dr PJ Moriarty Novice Chase at Leopardstown tomorrow but punters have been wading in ahead of that outing.

"This horse cost us a fortune when winning the Coral Cup at last year's festival and if today's support is correct, he should run a big race on Sunday," said Coral's David Stevens.