Horse racing tips: Back this 33-1 shot in Ayr Gold Cup plus a surprising appearance from Oisin Murphy

OISIN MURPHY has plenty of spare time on his hands at the moment.

Instead of twiddling his thumbs and ticking himself over on the gallops, the banned champion jockey has starred in the new series of Ultimate Hell Week back home in Ireland.

The show is a copycat version of SAS Who Dares Wins and Murphy obviously felt a bootcamp was the kick up the arse he needed before his comeback next season.

One of 20 ‘celebs’ on the show, Murphy is put through the ringer by a crack team of former military aces.

The 27-year-old is dubbed ‘Mr Attitude’ throughout and one clip of the programme I’ve seen shows Murphy being screamed at by one ex-military man for continuing to stare at him when asked not to.

Murphy admits on the show that he “doesn’t like being told what to do” and has said he found the swimming parts of the challenge the toughest.

That’s no surprise given the jockey has previously said he can’t swim!

Murphy struggled in the first episode which was shown on RTE last week. The selection panel took a liking, or unliking, to the two-time champ.

They seemed keen to knock Murphy down a peg or two thinking he was a tad on the cheeky side.

Murphy must have been fuming with his agent for signing him up to this one.

Then again the Irishman has always been easily led.

Back in his apprentice days when he was travelling across the Severn Bridge to Chepstow Racecourse in Wales, a bunch of jockeys convinced him to get his passport out.

A video of the prank can still be found online and it’s worth looking up.

Murphy is due back from his 14-month ban, for failing a drugs test and lying to the BHA,  in February and new light will also be shed on his tortuous campaign with the release of ‘Horsepower’ at the end of the month.

The four-part documentary shadows Murphy and his boss Andrew Balding through the highs and lows of last summer.

Murphy’s mum and many of his close allies and friends in the game are all featured in the revealing show which will be released by Amazon later this month.

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ROGER TEAL prays his nightmare season is now a fading memory.

Teal’s team have suffered from a mystery bug for much of the spring and summer.

But now his Lambourn string are flying and the trainer hopes he can make up for lost time.

Stable star Oxted has been on the sidelines through injury all year, but in his place his younger brother Chipstead has started to step into his shoes.

PA

Teal is hoping Chipstead can follow the same path as his stable star Oxted[/caption]

At Doncaster on Sunday he won the same Portland Handicap Oxted used as a stepping stone to brilliant July Cup and Diamond Jubilee successes.

Larger than life Teal said: “I won’t lie, this year has had me pulling any of the hair I have left out!

“For whatever reason we just couldn’t get them right early on. We did all the tests in the world, but couldn’t find anything.

“They were all flying in the morning, then wouldn’t do a thing when we took them to the races.

“It was a nightmare and made doubly worse by not knowing what was going on.

“Thankfully we’re flying now and you can make up for a bit of lost time. A few are probably on good marks but you just have to hope the ground doesn’t completely go and you do run out of bullets a bit.”

Teal only managed two winners in the whole of April and May but thanks to the likes of Chipstead, he has been a regular in the winners’ enclosure again.

Smart juvenile Dancing Magic looks the best of the next generation but Teal was dealt another blow when maiden winner Aldeenaary was flogged to Australia.

Teal laughed: “I went away on holiday, came back and his owner told me he’d been sold!

“Every time we have a winner now I always have a bloodstock agent straight on the phone.

“It’s sad and sums up the state of our game at the moment, but sadly we can’t say no and neither can the owners a lot of the time.

“I picked this horse out myself for just twelve grand and now he’s run once and he’s been sold. It can be a bit of a revolving door.”

With Oxted on the sidelines, it was always going to be tricky for Teal to match last year’s career best campaign.

He said: “We’ll try our best but it’s looking like that tally might get away from us.

“Oxted is on the mend and his rehab has gone well. He should be back next season, touch wood, and that sprinting division is still a funny one apart from Highfield Princess.”

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GOOD WORK

CLIVE COX knows a good sprinter from a duff one. He’s lined up debutant winner HEROISM for Saturday’s Group 2 Mill Reef at Newbury, a race he’s won with stars Harry Angel and Wings Of War. Clever Cox has a glint in his eye when you ask him about this chap.

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