'For a good holiday, you need someone to hate'

After he teed up a record 13 winners in 2011, the Irish once again send their best National Hunt performer of recent seasons to lead the assault on the opening day of the Festival. Hurricane Fly appealed as a good bet for the Stan James Champion Hurdle last year; and, for any who heeded the counsel of his jockey, he briefly became good value when eased in the betting on account of a delayed reappearance. After that breathtaking resumption at Leopardstown in January, however, he is a short price to retain his crown today. Anyone having a bet must either be comfortable with those odds, then, or seek out some each-way value.

Spring’s big-hitters are around the corner. For now, it’s the turn of the mini marvels

The recent cold snap was a distant memory for parts of England today as temperatures reached more than 18C.

Profits tumbled at the Lloyd's of London insurer Beazley last year, but its chief executive Andrew Horton still reckons it was a "strong performance in the worst year on record for insured natural catastrophes".

On the day when British horseracing measured its resilience against recession, publishing record attendances in 2011, racegoers were given every incentive to get the turnstiles clicking again at Cheltenham on Saturday. Entries made yesterday for the Festival trials card appear to guarantee at least one new favourite for the real thing, in March, with the three horses sharing the top of the JCB Triumph Hurdle market all lined up for a dress rehearsal. Even so, no race will be more instructive than the Argento Chase, perhaps the last opportunity to prevent the Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup becoming another straight duel between Kauto Star and Long Run.

Following the excellent Isla and the replacement of their hang-player (looks like a wok, sounds like a steel drum) by keyboardist and new hang-man Keir Vine, Portico move even further away from conventional notions of jazz into full-on Ravey Davey Gravy-land.

A damp squib down on the bayou

If you're going to name your band after a Captain Beefheart album, you'd better make sure you're pretty damn good - or pretty damn weird, at least.

Heatwaves will be longer, hotter and occur more often, and rainfall will be heavier during the 21st century because of global warming, a new UN report on climatic "extreme events" said yesterday.

Heavy rains from Tropical Storm Lee were falling in southern Louisiana and pelting the US Gulf Coast yesterday as the storm's centre trudged slowly towards land, where businesses were already beginning to suffer on what would normally be a bustling holiday weekend. With floods from the storms of last weekend's Hurricane Irene still evident in New England, Lee could bring up to 20 inches of rain to some areas.

What neither advocates of banking reforms nor those that oppose them wanted, or needed, was for the detail of the next regulatory framework to be uncertain.

More than 100,000 people have been evacuated and hundreds have had their homes destroyed after Tropical Storm Nanmadol reached land in China early yesterday. Water surged past tidal barriers to bring the Qiantang River in Zhejiang province to its highest level in 10 years.