Irish outsider a decent bet to replace Tiara with Champion crown March 11, 2014 Bill Esdaile PREVIEWS THE CHAMPION CHASE AND THE CHAMPION BUMPER SPRINTER Sacre’s defection from today’s BetVictor Queen Mother Champion Chase (3.20pm) because of injury has robbed the Cheltenham Festival of one of its real stars. Nicky Henderson’s charge was breathtaking in this race last year and would have been impossible to oppose had he turned [...]
Our Kaempfer value pick against Mullins raiding party in the Bumper March 11, 2014 THE WEATHERBYS Champion Bumper (5.15pm) is arguably the toughest race for punters to solve this week. The fact almost every horse is unexposed and often coming here on the back of just a couple of runs, means form is almost impossible to evaluate and helps explain why the last four winners have gone off at [...]
Elliott is set for more Cheltenham glory with Bayan and Clarcam March 11, 2014 BILL ESDAILE PREVIEWS THE HANDICAPS GORDON Elliott has an excellent record in handicap hurdles at the Festival in his relatively short training career. He won the Coral Cup in 2011 with Carlito Brigante and then landed the Fred Winter 12 months ago with Flaxen Flare. He has just the one runner in this afternoon’s Coral [...]
Labour readies raid on the city March 10, 2014 CRITICS yesterday lashed out at Labour’s latest raid on bank bonuses and taxpayers’ pension pots, warning that the plans could undermine confidence in the City. Ed Miliband claims that his plan to cut pension tax relief for high earners will provide £900m to fund temporary guaranteed jobs for young people and the long-term unemployed. But [...]
No signs of let up in London’s flotation flurry March 10, 2014 INVESTORS will intensify their love affair with the new issues market today as high street stalwarts Pets at Home and Poundland close the books on their multi-million pound London floats. Yesterday foreign exchange business Travelex became the latest UK firm to say it was exploring an initial public offering (IPO) while Israeli digital advertising firm Matomy [...]
Going Bananas: Fyffes seals £1bn fruity deal March 10, 2014 IRISH banana distributor Fyffes yesterday inked a deal with US rival Chiquita to create a $1.1bn banana behemoth. Chiquita and Fyffes sell 180m boxes of bananas a year between them in a market dominated by just four players, raising antitrust concerns.
British jobs boom spreads as firms go on hiring spree March 10, 2014 EVERY region in Great Britain and every sector of the economy is expecting to see another spike in hiring during the second quarter of the year. Across the UK, 10 per cent of employers plan to expand their workforce between April and June, while only three per cent expect that they will reduce staffing levels. [...]
Venezuela’s mad socialist experiment is destroying a nation March 10, 2014 IF you want to see how to destroy an economy and a society, look no further than Venezuela. One year after the death of Hugo Chavez, its disastrous communist president, the country is on the verge of total collapse under his equally appalling successor Nicolas Maduro. Food is running out, as are other essentials, even [...]
London the top world city for 2014 bonuses March 10, 2014 LONDON’S City workers won the highest bonuses this year compared to those based in the world’s other major financial markets, a new pay survey reveals. A global survey, conducted early this year by eFinancialCareers, found that on average bonuses are up by 29 per cent on last year, with finance professionals here faring better than [...]
Fidelity slams Barclays over £2.4bn payout March 10, 2014 INVESTOR group Fidelity has become the first City firm to criticise Barclays’ £2.4bn bonus pool for 2013 – an increase of 10 per cent on the previous year, despite a 32 per cent drop in profits. Fidelity’s global chief investment officer Dominic Rossi told Sky News last night: “It is disappointing that a year after [...]
