Godolphin's former No 1 Derby hope and sometime ante-post favourite Adair to

Godolphin's former No 1 Derby hope and sometime ante-post favourite Adair, to whom the adjective was applied after he missed the Dante Stakes at York last week, will have his own private trial for Epsom on Monday or Tuesday. It will be a fairly searching affair, not so much of the ex-American colts' ability but of his constitution."We noticed after he arrived in Newmarket that he did not seem to have the same sort of spirit that he had in Dubai," said Godolphin's racing manager Simon Crisford. "He'd never struck us as a physically frail individual, but some cope with travelling and acclimatisation better than others. The crucial question will be how he copes with it afterwards."The strains of "Bird On The Wire" at Moulton Paddocks would not be a good sign.. IF CHARLIE WHELAN is attempting to leave spin-doctoring behind and forge a new career as a media front man, his appearance on Leviathan (BBC2, Thursday) was the equivalent of phoning work from an Amsterdam brothel. In his history of the two Uniteds, Manchester and Newcastle, in the FA Cup final, Whelan, a lifelong Spurs supporter (they're always "lifelong", these professional football fans), attempted to convey the atmosphere by having himself filmed at the recent League Cup final, chanting along so limply it seemed like a parody. He sleepwalked his way through like a man who's just smoked a stiff joint.

He has surely already reached the end of his brief flirtation with the telly. The programme was redeemed by a couple of nice interviews, such as the one with Vic Keeble, who played for the Toon in 1955 and spoke of Jackie Milburn nipping off to the toilets for a pre-match fag while the trainer went round administering nips of whisky.Little has changed in half a century. Alfred Thornton was a Man Utd fan up in London for the first time in 1948 "It took us four hours to get to Notting Hill," he said "We ended up in a pub in Chelsea, I think. I went home skint, I know that."In the unreal world of satellite TV, Stretford's finest are not playing Newcastle United but Harchester United. On the morning of the final in the footy soap Dream Team (Sky One, Thursday), chairman Jerry Block (a comic-book villain who for all his wide boy demeanour should have a twirlable moustache) is up to something dodgy. His wife, who's what used to be known as a dolly bird, is planning to run away right after the game with sultry player-manager Luis Amor Rodriguez.Then reality is booted firmly into touch. With a few minutes to kick- off, bad boy Alex is shopped by his mum for spiking team-mate Leon's drinks with speed, so Alex is sent packing and Leon summoned to Wembley because captain Steve, who's risking his career by playing though an injury, needs him beside him in the back four.Half-time All square. As Luis is about to give his team talk, his embittered predecessor, who's turned to the bottle and has somehow infiltrated the stadium despite being drunker than an Arsenal defender, comes into the dressing-room, smashes his bottle of vodka against the wall and holds it to Luis's throat.

Someone has the gall to tell him: "Don't do it, Ian! It's not worth it!" In those actual words.Second half. As Mrs Block is telling Jerry about having it away with Luis, the lubricious Latino scores twice to overturn Man Utd's lead. She goes back to the Royal Box while Jerry takes out his mobile and the dodgy business becomes apparent. "Do it," he says.You don't imagine he means, "Open the shampoo, we've won the Cup." Oh no. Instead, a hit man slips on a steward's blouson in the lav, takes out his bits of rifle from an attache case then climbs to the top of the stadium. As Harchester do their lap of honour, he has Luis in his sights.Suddenly Jerry wants to take the missus on the pitch (you know, that bit of the stadium that only he and the hit man know is about to become a killing field).

Suddenly she's cuddling up to Luis, the hit man's finger twitches, Jerry looks a mite perturbed Credits. "Harchester are FA Cup winners in improbable circumstances," the commentator observes. You can say that again.If it goes to penalties today, those involved will do well to have watched On The Spot: The 12 Yard Club (BBC2, Wednesday). The secret to winning shoot-outs, as evinced by Jurgen Klinsmann, is obvious "Maybe it's part of the mentality of my country," he said. "We had to rebuild ourselves twice after two world wars."I was thinking of expatiating at length on the Reputations film about Matt Busby (BBC2, Monday). Suffice it to say that it highlighted the shortcomings of the "secret life of..." genre: once you've chosen your subjects, you've damn well got to make sure they fit the bill.There was nothing the film could pin on Busby that wasn't standard practice He operated in harsher times.

One example: Bill Foulkes blamed Busby for the fact that he and other Munich survivors received no redress. But that didn't happen in those days - the compensation culture came later.No, as far as I can see, the only thing Busby did wrong was selling Johnny Giles Other than that, lay off.. MAX DECUGIS, a founding father of French tennis who lived to the age of 97, remembered an early national women's doubles final played at Puteaux, an island site in the Seine near Paris. After an interminable match of high lobbing, the score reached 5-5 in the third set, at which point one of the players made her excuses and left "My carriage is here," she announced "My new consort awaits me at Maxims. In the name of Love I renounce my claim to the title." As the late Ted Tinling, court couturier and chef de protocol, observed when recounting the anecdote in his autobiography, Sixty Years in Tennis: "Ironically, the names of the team that won by virtue of this passionate default are immortalised in gold leaf on today's French honour-roll, with prestige identical to such household names as Lenglen, Wills, Navratilova and Evert." There may be times when the players of today wish they could arrange similar escapes. But riches have made the game too serious for that, which is why some of the women compete like Popeye and Bluto and several look more substantial than Olive Oyle.When the French Open starts on Monday, few players are likely to attract more attention than two of the home prospects, Amelie Mauresmo and Mary Pierce.