If you bet with your heart instead of your head, the 132nd Kentucky Derby is an embarrassment of schmaltzy riches, a tear-jerker in the making at every turn. When the annual Run for the Roses begins at 5:04 p.m. today before more than 150,000 bewitched, bedazzled and, in many cases, besotted fans at Churchill Downs, the full field of 20 thoroughbreds offers a plethora of sentimental favorites because of the people schooling them, riding them and paying for their oats

Nobody will be dismissing the possibility of Wigan being relegated this morning, least of all their coach Brian Noble. Castleford had remained the favourites to go down despite the Warriors' position at the bottom of the Super League table, but this win lifted the Tigers six points clear of Noble's team, who with only four points from their first 13 matches are in danger of being cut adrift. Castleford had not won in Wigan since their first visit to the JJB Stadium in 1999

If Wayne Rooney was watching this on television from his oxygen tent he will have been heartened by David Nugent's impact on a night when Preston took a small step towards the Premiership

David Graveney said he wanted England A to give touring sides as hard a time as possible - yesterday they obliged their chairman of selectors. Their run-making was perhaps more a case of attrition than exhibition, but at least Robert Key's men scratched their way to an 80-run first-innings lead. The bowlers then really turned the screw on the sorry Sri Lankans. Once again, Jon Lewis, the tourists' tormentor, was at the forefront of their demise

Whether the prize is a European Cup final in Paris or fourth place in the Premiership, Arsenal have developed a fixation with testing the nerve of their Champions' League rivals at the death this season. Today, Tottenham know exactly how Juan Roman Riquelme felt

Having long since lost the war, Sunderland finally mustered enough to win a battle, and they can now say that still no club in the history of English professional football has navigated an entire season without a home win. Amid a campaign littered with unwanted records, goals from Anthony Le Tallec and Chris Brown ensured that particular albatross does not accompany the Black Cats into the Championship

Reigning champions China, both men and women, waltzed into the semi-finals on Wednesday in Tokyo at 2006 Thomas Cup and Uber Cup badminton championships when the Chinese knocked out the English men and Singaporean women with an identical easy scores of 3-0. But the day belongs to the debutants German women, who stunned the favourites Hong Kong, China 3-2. It's the first time for them to enter the top four in the world women's team event

Eight teams on Wednesday went on action in Luxembourg eying the UEFA European Under-17 Championship. The Tournament hosts, however, endured a torrid evening in Hesperange. The super Spain threw down the gauntlet in Group A as they got a recorded 7-1 win against Luxembourg. The Russian also opened their Group A account with a 1-0 victory against Hungary. In Group B, German began their campaign in impressive style with a 4-0 victory against Belgium in Ettelbruck

The final meaningful act of the SPL season was played out last night, fittingly at Tynecastle, where Heart of Midlothian have supplied such drama, excitement and controversy to fuel what was previously regarded as a stagnant competition. This now famous Hearts side will finish second in the domestic championship for the first time in 14 seasons and enter the Champions League qualifying stages for the first time in their history next season

The rivalry between two candidates for a certain high-profile appointment failed to produce much of a sense of urgency or a clear-cut result at the Reebok Stadium last night. Apart from a brief flurry of excitement immediately after half-time when Adam Johnson opened the scoring for Middlesbrough and Bolton's Ricardo Vaz Te equalised, this was a game that smacked of two teams with their minds elsewhere