Racing: Racing journalist Graham Rock dies

Graham Rock, the first editor of the Racing Post and a leading racing journalist for 30 years, has died after a long illness. He was 56.

In addition to launching the Post into a fierce and ultimately successful battle with the long-established Sporting Life, Rock worked for publications including Timeform and the Sporting Chronicle, and was most recently the racing correspondent of The Observer. He was also a regular member of the BBC's racing team.

It had been announced this week that Rock was to receive the George Ennor Trophy for lifetime achievement at the Horserace Writers' and Photographers' Association lunch on 10 December, and his contribution to the sport was extensive.

He spent time in Hong Kong as a stipendiary steward and handicapper after the closure of the Sporting Chronicle in 1983, and was the agent to Michael Roberts when the South African won the British jockeys' championship in 1992 with 206 winners, and famously collected a £100 bet at 100-1 that his man would succeed.

The bet was a typically shrewd one by one of the few punters who made betting pay, and Rock also enjoyed major successes as an owner, notably with Pasternak, who won the Magnet Cup and the Cambridgeshire Handicap in 1997.

Track 'not to blame' for mare's death

Philip McEntee, trainer of a mare which was put down after running on Lingfield's newly-laid all-weather surface on Tuesday, emphasised yesterday that the fatal injury to Ahouod had nothing to do with the Polytrack surface.

Ahouod was quickly pulled up soon after the start of the third race by her jockey, Brian Reilly. A Jockey Club vet attended the scene and the mare was found to have fractured her pelvis. Ahouod was put down by the side of the track.

McEntee said at his Newmarket stables yesterday: "It was very sad and unfortunate. When she jumped from the stalls she landed awkwardly. Her head went up in the air and it was immediately obvious something was wrong. But it was nothing to do with the new surface, and I will race horses there again."

* Fantastic Light, the Godolphin five-year-old, was crowned horse of the year at the 11th annual Cartier Awards in London last night.