Racing: Racing prop for the pits

TITLES of horse races are frequently superficial but the names given to the six contests at Southwell this afternoon carry a high significance well understood by the record crowd expected at the Nottinghamshire track.

Fourteen pits threatened with closure give their names to the Racing For The Mines card and the day promises to provide an unprecedented basis for spreading the anti-closure campaign.

Jeremy Glover, a trainer whose Worksop stables are in the middle of a coalfield and who runs Sweet Revival in the last race today, said last night: 'I'm right on the side of the miners. It's emerged that there was no proper survey into the viability of pits being closed. What happened was too harsh and too hasty.'