Two goals inside a minute just before the interval from Jerome Goudie and Mark Pearn completed a satisfactory first-half performance.England kept up the pressure in the second half with Tom Bertram and Ben Sharpe putting their names on the score sheet with Mathews collecting his second. While the coach, Malcolm Wood, expressed his satisfaction with his team’s performance it must be disappointing that England scored from only three of 10 penalty corner awards.England’s next game is today against India who came here as one of the favourites but so far have collected only one point.In a highly explosive, exciting match before a large crowd, Malaysia hung on to a 3-2 victory against India after leading 3-0. After 24 minutes the game, which started with a third-minute goal to ignite the home crowd, was delayed for 39 minutes because of torrential rain, thunder and lightening with Malaysia leading 2-0.England: J Lewis; B Garrard, J Wyatt, T Bertram, C Parnham Capt.; J Goudie, M Johnson, G Fordham; J Wallis; D Hall, B Sharpe. Substitutes used: M Pearn, D Mathews, M Jones, A Humphrey, B Waugh, R Todd.Cuba: Y Gomez; Y Blanco; Y Oliva, R Larrinaga, A Bardaji Capt.; J Benavides, J Rodriguez, Y Rodriguez; J Hernandez, Y Perez, A Abreu.

Substitutes used: E Aroche, Y Villaneueva, D Garcia, B Sayas, D Garces, Y Mosquera, R Lemus.Umpires: J Wright (SA) & D Gentles (Aus).. Bookmakers took a beating here yesterday as Octane landed a monumental gamble. The Mark Brisbourne-trained gelding, who had been 25-1 in the betting shops in the morning, opened on the course at 7-1 and was backed again at all rates down to 9-2. “Me and the owners were wondering where all the money has come from,” he said. Octane, ridden by Martin Dwyer, had been off the track since being withdrawn when refusing to enter the stalls in last year’s John Smith’s Cup at York.”This horse used to be with Henry Cecil,” said Brisbourne, whose stables are near Shrewsbury.”He only cost about 10,000 guineas, which is quite a lot for me. We had our best season ever in terms of prize money last year and things are looking good but it has taken me 12 years of hard graft with some moderate horses to get to where we are.”Destination uncertainDubai destination was taken out of the betting for the 2000 Guineas by Coral yesterday after the firm of bookmakers received reports that he was unlikely to run in the Classic.The Godolphin colt had been a 9-2 second-favourite for the Guineas. Coral have trimmed Aidan O’Brien’s Hawk Wing to 3-1 clear favourite, from 7-2.Officials at Kelso will inspect the track at 2.30pm today following recent storms.

The ground improved yesterday after a dry day but more rain was forecast last night.. The search for trainers using the banned drug EPO was a hunt for a non-existent quarry, it was confirmed by the Jockey Club yesterday. The analysis of blood samples taken from over 400 horses on Tuesday morning, including those from Britain’s leading yards, proved blank. Martin Pipe, the most significant name among the five trainers visited unannounced, believes the dawn raids, and in particular their timing two weeks before the Cheltenham Festival, has been detrimental to the National Hunt sport.”We never had anything to fear as we always knew all our horses were in the clear,” the champion trainer said yesterday. “What was annoying was having our work morning interrupted.”The Jockey Club have now admitted they were looking for EPO, which as far as I’m aware no-one really knows how to detect in any case. As far as we are concerned they can come down to Pond House from now until kingdom come, but they will never find anything wrong here. All we do is try and get horses fit and get them to enjoy life.”Pipe apart, there were swoops on the premises of Paul Nicholls, Venetia Williams, Len Lungo and Alan Jones.

Despite initial denials, it was confirmed yesterday that the main target was erythropoietin (EPO), a drug identified earlier in the season by the Lambourn trainer Charlie Mann as prevalent in racing.”This was principally an exercise to deal with the well publicised allegations of the use of EPO in racehorses,” Peter Webbon, the Jockey Club veterinary director, said. “Samples from 408 horses were collected – and, following the use of well proven screening techniques, HFL [the Horseracing Forensic Laboratory in Newmarket] have informed us that all the samples tested negative for EPO. I hope that these results will serve to reassure the racing public.”We have spoken to the five trainers concerned and told them that the tests were all negative. We have thanked them for their co-operation during the collecting of the samples and apologised if we caused any disruption to their training programmes.”In keeping with normal practice in the laboratory, the negative samples will be retained and may be used for routine research purposes only.”The Jockey Club will continue its programme of unannounced visits to trainers’ yards, both large and small, for the purposes of testing horses in training and we shall continue to monitor samples for the presence of EPO.”On Tuesday, the Jockey Club announced that the five trainers concerned had been chosen either at random or on information received. Len Lungo at least among those cleared continues to feel a sense of victimisation.