Racing: Clovis bets in clover

ON THE premise that Andre Fabre can do no wrong at the moment it was perhaps a little ambitious of John Gosden to send Clovis Point for yesterday's Prix de la Cochere at Longchamp against the Fabre-trained Garza. Sure enough, the Chantilly trainer, who monopolised the Group races at Longchamp on Sunday, was on the mark again.

Nevertheless, punters who backed Clovis Point did not lose out even though she finished only fifth. She, in common with Garza, is owned by Sheikh Mohammed and was thus coupled with the 15.3-1 winner on the pari-mutuel.

Fabre announced that, after last weekend's trials, he will be running five horses in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on 2 October: Richard Of York, Intrepidity, Carnegie, Northern Spur and Bright Moon.

Also heading for Longchamp, and the Prix de l'Abbaye, is Lochsong, despite coughing yesterday morning. 'She's still on target for the Abbaye,' Andrew Balding, son of the mare's trainer, Ian, said.

The conditional jockey Denis Leahy was banned for four days at Plumpton yesterday for using his whip with unreasonable force and frequency on Tel E Thon in the handicap hurdle.