At Churchill, we thought enough of her to send her to Saratoga. | Forum

Royal Challengers Bangalores batting line-up contains Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and Shane Watson – but Sky Sports IPL presenter, Matt Floyd, reckons they WON’T make the play-offs… Caught your breath back after that stunning finish to the World T20?Its going to be hard to top that but the IPL is probably the only tournament that might be able to - it was, after all, this giant of T20 entertainment that helped mould some of the stars who shone for their national sides in India. Cheap Adidas NHL Jerseys . A large number of them have stayed on for IPL 9, an edition that will have a slightly different feel to it.Firstly, IPL wouldnt be IPL without some sort of front-page controversy in the off-season. To cut a long story short, Gurunath Meiyappan (ex-team principal of Chennai Super Kings) and Raj Kundra (former co-owner of Rajasthan Royals) were found to have been involved in betting activity and their teams have been suspended for two years.Obviously this came as a huge shock to many and it will seem a little odd not to see MS Dhoni masterminding another tight win in yellow or the Royals unearthing another local star from nowhere, but the show must go on and we have two new franchises.Dhoni will captain in a mixture of pink, purple and blue this time (think Harlequins rugby) as he was snapped up by the Rising Pune Supergiants. I know what you are thinking: What on earth is a Supergiant? No idea, but it sounds big.Anyway, Dhoni took CSK stalwarts Ravi Ashwin and Faf Du Plessis with him, and many are intrigued to see how he will handle Kevin Pietersen. Kevin Pietersen will play for Rising Pune Supergiants in 2016 Gujarat Lions are the other new team and arguably theyve done even better in the draft - captain Suresh Raina could have some hard decisions to make with a squad containing the likes of Brendon McCullum, Aaron Finch, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, James Faulkner, Dwayne Smith and Dale Steyn.Looking a little deeper at the two new squads, though, it suggests they may have been hampered by a lack of options overall, with the six other teams having already retained the players they wanted. How Pune and Gujarats unproven local players perform could be vital to their success. The IPL returns on Saturday with Mumbai Indians versus Rising Pune Supergiants. KP and Eoin Morgan are back but the ex-England international might get more game time than the current limited-overs skipper. The Supergiants look a little short on batting firepower so I expect KP to play an important role. Morgans Sunrisers, though, dont have the same issues.Only four overseas can play from Kane Williamson, Morgan, David Warner, Moises Henriques, Ben Cutting, Trent Boult and Mustafizur Rahman, and it may be that the Hyderabad franchise feel they need to go for a bowler or all-rounder ahead of the England captain. Hopefully not! Will Eoin Morgan get regular game time at Sunrisers? The other two Englishmen in the competition will have plenty of intrigued fans keeping an eye on their scores. but will Jos Buttler and Sam Billings see much game time? I reckon they will, especially Buttler.Reigning champions Mumbai are a very strong outfit but a) hes got an X factor rarely seen around the world and b) there is an injury cloud over Lasith Malinga. He couldnt have picked a tougher side to break into for a foreigner (barring RCB perhaps) but his stock is high after the World T20 and IPL 9 could be the time when he fully announces himself on the big stage.Billings will find it harder, especially as Delhi have two excellent keeper/batsmen in their squad in Quinton De Kock and Sanju Samson, but he could play as a specialist batsman as that is an area where the Daredevils look a little thin.So, whos going to take home the trophy? Looking at the squads it seems a bit of a lottery (every side has a few match-winners!), so Ill go with the usual tactic of favouring the best bowling attacks as stats will tell you they generally win tournaments. AB de Villiers adds to a powerful Bangalore batting line-up Royal Challengers undoubtedly have the best top three with Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers and theyve signed Shane Watson, but with no Mitchell Starc their bowling could potentially be toothless, so, at the risk of looking extremely stupid, I dont think theyll win it and may not even make the play-offs.Kolkata finished fifth last year and theyve hardly changed their squad but I fancy them to improve on that. Even if Sunil Narine isnt the force he once was they still have an impressive array of spinners to prosper on a pitch that usually takes turn - step forward Brad Hogg, Shakib Al Hasan, Piyush Chawla and Yusuf Pathan.Its hard to look past Mumbai as well and I reckon Sunrisers could spring a surprise - new signings Yuvraj Singh, Deepak Hooda, Ashish Nehra and Mustafizur could well drive them into the knock-out stage for the first time since 2013. Ill go for the Gujarat Lions as the final team to go through as theyve got some great all-round options.It all kicks off with a bang on Saturday as Mumbai Indians take on Rising Pune Supergiants at the Wankhede Stadium. Champs v Newbies, Buttler v KP, Rohit v Dhoni. Well see you then!Sky Sports is the only place you can watch all the action from the 2016 IPL, starting on Saturday as Kevin Pietersen and the Rising Pune Supergiants face defending chapions Mumbai Indians, including Englands Jos Buttler, live on Sky Sports 3 from 3pm. Or watch live without a contract, on NOW TV. Also See: Best of Buttler Kevin Pietersens year IPL: How to watch Johnson pumped for IPL Cheap Devils Jerseys China . The FA rejected Wilsheres appeal that the length of his punishment was "clearly excessive" and said Thursday his suspension begins with immediate effect. He will miss league matches against Chelsea on Monday and West Ham on Dec. Cheap Devils Jerseys . On Mar. 16, coming off a "fight of the year" performance at UFC 154 the previous November, St-Pierre faced Nick Diaz at UFC 158 in what would be his eighth defence of the welterweight title. Using his superior athleticism, St-Pierre cruised to a five round, unanimous decision victory setting up a much-anticipated title defence against number one contender Johny Hendricks. http://www.cheapdevilsjerseys.com/ . Datsyuk will miss Tuesdays game against New Jersey and could be sidelined longer, while Cleary will likely miss at least the next three games. Its been an injury-plagued season for Datsyuk, who has suited up for just 39 games. ETOBICOKE, Ontario -- Victory to Victory punched her ticket to the Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with a determined come-from-behind score under Florent Geroux in the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes at Woodbine on Sunday.A hot pace, set by Will She, materialized in the one-mile turf event. With blinkers added, Victory to Victory ($17.70) raced in sixth on the outside for much of the way, and then made up ground to hit the front around the three-sixteenths pole.Stormy Perfection closed strongly on the outside from 11th to take dead aim at Victory to Victory in midstretch, but Victory to Victory repelled the bid and went on to prevail by 2-1/2 lengths, in a time of 1:35.24 over the firm ground.Beat the Benchmark finished third, and Thora Barber was fourth. Red Lodge, the 7-2 favorite, stalked in second before fading to 12th, and 4-1 second choice Enstone trailed the 14-horse field.Geroux won last years Natalma on the future Canadian champion Catch a Glimpse for trainer Mark Casse, and Victory to Victory gave Casse a record seventh win in the event.It helps to know when your horse is pretty much push-button, said Geroux. She broke vvery sharply from the gate. Cheap Devils Jerseys Authentic. From there, I took a nice position, without taking any bumping. She settled very nicely, and turning for home, she gave me a very nice kick. The blinkers helped today. It made the difference. She [ran] spotty in her first two races.Assistant trainer Norm Casse said Victory to Victory would likely run back in the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf in November at Santa Anita, since she earned a paid trip to the race in the Natalma.Well have to see how she comes out of the race, but Id have to think thats what the goal is, said Casse. We think shes a really talented horse. She was well-meant from the very beginning. At Churchill, we thought enough of her to send her to Saratoga. As Florent alluded to, she was spotty early on, and I think the blinkers made a big difference. We knew she was a talented horse, and shes finally starting to figure things out.Victory to Victory, a daughter of the late Exchange Rate, earned $150,000 of the $253,400 purse for Live Oak Plantation. ' ' '