Racing: Elite lifts Scudamore's title chase

MARTIN PIPE continued his disappointing season with a double at Warwick yesterday, following a four-timer on Saturday, and provided two-thirds of the ammunition that brought Peter Scudamore a treble and his half-century for the season.

Those successes, on Catch The Cross and Elite Reg for Pipe and Dakyns Boy for Nigel Twiston-Davies, put the champion 14 winners behind Richard Dunwoody in the title race. 'Our horses are starting to run again,' Chester Barnes, Pipe's assistant, said ominously.

Although 24 winners behind Pipe on 31 for the season, Twiston- Davies was marking a milestone with Dakyns Boy as it equalled his total for all last season, which had thus far been his best.

Dakyns Boy, previously with John Edwards, was having his first outing for Twiston-Davies. 'There was no falling out and the owner, Alan Parker, still has horses with John,' Twiston-Davies said. 'He just thought there is less chance of getting bugs and beetles if he split them up.'

Today's cards at Plumpton and Sedgefield face inspections this morning. 'Rain is forecast and it would not take much more to have the meeting cancelled,' Plumpton's clerk, Cliff Griggs, said yesterday. Tomorrow's card at Worcester, where there is 4ft of water on the track, has been abandoned.