Racing: McCoy takes title lead with Hereford treble

Tony McCoy regained the lead in the race for the jump jockeys' title with a treble at Hereford yesterday. The champion is now two ahead of Richard Johnson - 118 to 116 - after trailing his arch rival by one at the start of the day.

McCoy struck on Eric's Charm (4-7) for Oliver Sherwood in the opening novices' Hurdle, Magical Day (4-1) for Bill Turner in the selling hurdle, and Graphic Approach (5-4) for Charlie Egerton in the National Hunt Flat race.

Johnson drew a blank from his two mounts after switching to Hereford when Newton Abbot was abandoned. The Devon track was waterlogged.

* Sandown Park's two-day meeting later this week will be the first at which a new device is used to assess the official going. The TurfTrax "GoingStick", an electro-mechanical device, will have a phased introduction at 15 tracks, the Jockey Club said. It produces a numerical reading - the GoingIndex - which can be correlated to a recognised going description, such as good to firm.