Form Book 17

Here's a bombshell (if correct) for those considering a punt on the BBC 2012 DG Stakes - and for the insiders who have been so far leading the betting.

Miles Goslett in the Mail On Sunday backs up a story from the Evening Standard earlier this week that FT Editor Lionel Barber is in the frame, quoting "a source" thus: ‘Chris Patten would almost certainly regard it as a personal failing if he simply hired one of Mark Thompson’s deputies such as [BBC chief operating officer] Caroline Thomson. He wants someone new working at the BBC who is not associated with the current regime and he is known to be a devoted reader of the FT. It is fair to say he would like Lionel Barber to apply.’