Racing: Floyd dies on gallops

FLOYD, the 13-year-old hurdler who controversially came back into training with Reg Akehurst this season after spending most of his career with David Elsworth, has died while doing light exercise on the gallops at Epsom.

The gelding won 16 races over jumps, including the Fighting Fifth Hurdle twice and the Long Walk Hurdle, and three on the Flat, earning almost pounds 200,000. Elsworth, who guided him to those successes, had been dismayed at the decision of Floyd's owner, Mike Walsh, to put the horse back into training.

The trainer Becky Brackenbury and her husband, John, have narrowly escaped death after their horsebox turned over in a motorway accident. The couple were cut out of the crushed cab by firemen. Mrs Brackenbury has internal injuries and her husband a broken arm.

A spectacular gamble was landed at Punchestown yesterday when Big Ben Dun, backed in places at 100-1, romped home as 3-1 favourite. The seven-year-old, trained by Co Clare farmer John O'Neill, was a maiden under every code.

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