Racing: NAPOLITAIN IS REAL McCOY..!

Byline: By WILLIAM HAYLER

NAPOLITAIN and Tony McCoy just held on to take an incident-packed renewal of the Grade One totesport.com Scilly Isles Novices' Chase at Sandown.

The champion jockey had made the Paul Nicholls-trained gelding the best of his rides in his newspaper column, and set out to make it a test on the five-year-old against three opponents, which included stablemate and 6-5 favourite Albuhera.

But Napolitain made a mistake at the Pond fence, three out and had been headed by Turpin Green approaching the final fence.

Even McCoy would have struggled to bridge an increasing gap with his rival, but without any warning Turpin Green pricked his ears and tried to refuse at the fence with his rider Tony Dobbin only just managing to negotiate it.

This left the 3-1 chance in control and despite a renewed effort by Turpin Green, McCoy had the situation under control and scored by a neck.

Nicholls will take the winner to Fontwell next and is not against letting him take his chance in the Royal & Sun Alliance Chase, for which he was cut to 33-1 from 50-1 by William Hill.

"I wasn't going to run him until I realised there would be so few runners and the plan to go to Fontwell in a fortnight stands," he said.

"He's a horse who needs plenty of work and there's a good chance that he could also turn up at Cheltenham."

The trainer accepted Turpin Green would have won and added: "We got lucky there - it's as simple as that."

Turpin Green's trainer Nicky Richards took the defeat on the chin, but Dobbin found himself in hot water with the stewards after he was seen to have struck his horse when returning to unsaddle.

Richards said: "The horse is still green and babyish and basically thought he had won but then lost all concentration."

The stewards found Dobbin guilty of improper riding in that he had used his whip with excessive frequency. For that he escaped with a caution, but for the incident on the horsewalk he was found guilty of the same offence and suspended for one day on Wednesday, February 15.

There was an element of deja vu to the triumph of Royal Shakespeare over Alph in the Agfa UK Hurdle.

At this course last season Royal Shakespeare came down at the last when looking sure to take Rooster Booster in the Concept Hurdle, while this time around it was Royal Shakespeare and Tom Scudamore who benefited from the exit at the last of German raider Fiepes Shuffle.

The latter led from the start and was still in control under Robert Thornton when he came down to gift the contest to Royal Shakespeare, the 9-4 favourite, who scored by a length and a quarter from Alph with Mister McGoldrick two lengths back.

Trainer Steve Gollings confirmed that Royal Shakespeare will now go for the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton later this month.

CAPTION(S):

WINNING NAP: Tony McCoy and Napolitain, left, get the better of Tony Dobbin and Turpin Green to land the totesport.com Scilly Isles Novices Chase at Sandown

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Title Annotation:	Sport
Publication:	Sunday Mercury (Birmingham, England)
Date:	Feb 5, 2006
Words:	520
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