Seven-year-old Arko had been Skelton’s hope for the 2004 Olympics, until he was forced to retire from riding in February after breaking the top vertebra in his neck.”We thought it would be good for Robert to see things from a different angle and have a chance of riding some good young horses,” John Whitaker said yesterday. He has a high regard for Skelton as a trainer – “We always worked well together in the past Nick helped me and I helped him. He talks a lot of sense and he’s strict, which is a good thing.”Robert Whitaker is eager to succeed in the sport and will not balk at working long hours with the horses in Skelton’s Warwickshire yard as well as those he takes with him from Yorkshire. Robert competed in his first Nations Cup teams this year, riding Lord Liberty at La Baule in France and Randi at Drammen in Norway, where he and Louise did better than their father and their uncle, Michael, who were also part of the all-Whitaker team. Lord Liberty has been off work with a cracked foot, but Robert is hoping to ride him in another Nations Cup later this year..

Mihaela Melinte, the world-record holder in the women’s hammer throw, has been found guilty of taking the banned steroid nandrolone by an International Amateur Athletics Federation arbitration panel. Mihaela Melinte, the world-record holder in the women’s hammer throw, has been found guilty of taking the banned steroid nandrolone by an International Amateur Athletics Federation arbitration panel.
The Romanian athlete has been suspended for two years after testing positive at the Notturno di Milano event in Italy in June last year and will be unable to defend her World Championship title next month. The nine-times national champion has not competed since officials escorted her from the Olympic Stadium in Sydney last September, just moments before the start of the Olympic women’s hammer competition.The German javelin thrower Carolin Soboll, who also tested positive for nandrolone in June last year, is also waiting to discover her fate. Soboll claims the test results were caused by contaminated supplements but did not attend yesterday’s hearing.

Arbitrators decided that the thrower should have the chance to present her evidence and adjourned proceedings until 22 September.Wilson Kipketer may not be able to defend his 800m World Championship title in Edmonton next month because of a foot injury. Denmark’s Kenyan-born world record holder won gold in the two-lap discipline at the Seville championships two years ago but has been suffering from the injury since May.”It’s been getting better the whole time, but Wilson will know if it’s still not good enough,” the Danish national coach, Lars Nielsen, said. “He’ll make a final decision this week about the World Championships.”The 28-year-old secured his place in athletics history when he first equalled and then twice bettered Sebastian Coe’s 16-year-old 800m world record in the summer of 1997. His mark of 1min 41.11secs in Cologne is one of 20 occasions that he has dipped under 1:43.Glory Alozie, Nigeria’s 100 metres hurdles silver medallist at last year’s Sydney Olympics, has switched her allegiance to Spain. Her decision to compete in Sydney attracted worldwide sympathy because her fianc?as killed in a car accident in the Olympic city just prior to the Games.. The Jockey Club should consider banning trainers from betting, according to the report of Sir Alan Budd’s Betting Review Body, which was published yesterday.

The report also recommends the creation of a Gambling Commission, to regulate all betting in Britain, including bookmakers both on and off the course, that gambling debts should be recoverable at law and that British bookmakers should be allowed to accept bets on the National Lottery. The Jockey Club should consider banning trainers from betting, according to the report of Sir Alan Budd’s Betting Review Body, which was published yesterday. The report also recommends the creation of a Gambling Commission, to regulate all betting in Britain, including bookmakers both on and off the course, that gambling debts should be recoverable at law and that British bookmakers should be allowed to accept bets on the National Lottery.
The Budd report is the most extensive investigation ever conducted into gambling in Britain, and while many of its recommendations relate to areas such as casinos, bingo and fruit machines, it also considers racing and betting with bookmakers at great length. Some of its recommendations, such as allowing betting on the Lottery and the introduction of Jackpot fruit machines with a £500 first prize to betting shops, read like a bookies’ wish list, and many industry figures welcomed the report last night. The Review Body’s thoughts on betting by trainers, though, will cause surprise and concern in many racing stables.The Budd report insists that close links between trainers and bookmakers, with trainers often receiving preferential prices in return for information, can be compared to insider trading in the City.

“If punters wish to bet by sticking a pin into the list of runners, that is up to them,” the report says, “but those who rely on information should be confident that information is accurate and available to all. That does not appear to be the case in a number of sports, most notably horse racing.”The report goes on to recommend that “the Gambling Commission work closely with the Jockey Club, and others, to ensure betting is conducted in a fair manner and that there is not unfair access to information”. It adds: “Areas they may wish jointly to consider might include whether the ban on betting should be extended to more people (for example, trainers)”.Toby Balding, a leading figure in the National Trainers’ Federation, was surprised to hear of the recommendation last night. “Obviously, this will have to be discussed within the NTF,” he said, “but I think that a lot of our members might see it as a slur on their reputation.