s responsible for their brain damage. As well, Pel

Willie Mullins may have one eye on a first British champion trainers title but he has no intention of relinquishing his crown as King of Punchestown, when next weeks Festival gets underway. At last years Punchestown Festival, Mullins won an incredible 16 of the 37 races (43.2%) and he looks set to be well-represented throughout this years five-day meeting, running from Tuesday April 26 to Saturday April 30.The Punchestown Festival has been a happy hunting ground for us in the past and it produces some memorable races every year. Its a great opportunity for the public to see the cream of the crop from Cheltenham and Aintree go head-to-head on Irish soil, said Mullins. Punchestown always produce lovely, safe ground for the end of the season and the prize money is top-class, hence we always try to send as good a team as we can assemble each year.While Mullins is still finalising plans for some of his big guns, one thing is for certain - he has his eyes set on being leading trainer once again next week, something he has achieved at 13 of the last 15 Punchestown Festivals.The most exciting young chaser in training, Douvan, will not be taking up an entry at Sandown this weekend and instead heads to Punchestown next Thursday, April 28, for the Grade 1 Ryanair Novice Chase. The six-time Grade 1 winner was successful at both Cheltenham and Aintree.Douvan looks the most likely of mine to go for the Ryanair Novice Chase. Hes in great nick, said Mullins.Annie Power, for many the best mare since the great Dawn Run, is set to appear in Fridays Grade 1 BETDAQ Punchestown Champion Hurdle on the back of her breathtaking victories in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham and Aintree Hurdle at Liverpool. Ruby Walsh celebrates victory in the Champion Hurdle on Annie Power Although she holds other entries, the BETDAQ Champion Hurdle is Annie Powers main target, said Mullins. Itll be just over three weeks since her win at Aintree so that falls nicely and she came out of the Aintree race well. She has won the Grade 1 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mares Champion Hurdle at the Festival for the last two years. Sempre Medici will go for the Champion Hurdle as well.Meanwhile, another potential mare out of the ordinary could be on show in Saturdays Grade 1 AES Champion 4YO Hurdle. Apples Jade, a 41-length winner at Aintree, is more likely to go for that contest than the Grade 1 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mares Champion Hurdle the same day.Apples Jade is in the Mares Champion too but this race is probably the best option for her. She has come out of Aintree well. Voix Du Reve could go as welll, said Mullins.Mullins has won all three runnings of the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mares Champion Hurdle and he hopes that Cheltenham winner Limini can enhance that record.Limini looks to be the obvious one for this race - shes well but there are others with chances in this too like Lets Dance and Myska.Theres also a possibility that Vroum Vroum Mag might go there, depending on what happens with her this weekend, added Mullins.Next Tuesday, Mullins confirmed that Yorkhill will bid to complete a Cheltenham/Aintree/Punchestown treble when lining up in the Grade 1 Herald Champion Novice Hurdle.Yorkhill would look to be my best chance in this race. He seems fine after what might have appeared to have been a hard race at Aintree, and hell head my team. We have a number of others engaged but hes the number one, he said. Yorkhill will bid for a big-race treble at Punchestown Those at the moment likely to start in Tuesdays Grade 1 BoyleSports Champion Chase include last years winner Felix Yonger and Twinlight.Twinlight is very well and will definitely run - it will be his fifth run at the Punchestown Festival - but well have to see after that. Felix Yonger won this race last year so he could return to defend his title, said Mullins.In Tuesdays Grade 1 Growise Champion Novice Chase, Mullins is hopeful that Outlander can make amends for a fall at Cheltenham and subsequent defeat at Fairyhouse.Outlander will probably run in the Growise Champion Novice Chase, added Mullins. He was going well at Cheltenham before falling and was a close second at Fairyhouse. Prior to that he was unbeaten in three runs this season and finished third to Nichols Canyon in a Grade 1 hurdle at Punchestown last year. He could well be joined by Roi Des Francs. Shaneshill is not out of it either but it depends whether we decide to stick to hurdles with him or go back over fences.Mullins is likely to have at least a couple of runners in the sensational Grade 1 Bibby Financial Services Ireland Punchestown Gold Cup on Wednesday.The Cheltenham Gold Cup second and third, Djakadam and Don Poli, look set for a rematch with the winner Don Cossack. Ryanair Chase winner Vautour is a likely starter if not travelling to Sandown on Saturday.Djakadam and Don Poli are being lined up for the Gold Cup as things stand. Vautour and Sir Des Champs are possibles for Sandown but if they dont go there they could come into this race as well, he said.Mullins will field a strong team in Wednesdays Grade 1 Irish Daily Mirror Novice Hurdle.Bellshill, who won the Attheraces.com Champion Bumper at Punchestown last year for us, will probably lead the team in the three- mile novice hurdle, he added. Looking down thorough my entries Arkwrisht, Stone Hard and Burgas are all possibles, as are previous course winners Thomas Hobson and Balko Des Flos so well have a few in that race.Stable stalwart Thousand Stars, a Grade 1 winner at Auteuil in November, is set to run in the Grade 1 Ladbrokes Champion Stayers Hurdle on Thursday, April 28.Thousand Stars is a definite runner, all going to plan, said Mullins. This will be his seventh Punchestown Festival and hes been a tremendous servant. He would have two Champion Hurdle wins there only for Hurricane Fly and he was third in another two Champion Hurdles won by The Fly. He won another Grade 1 for us on his last start and were looking forward to running him. Annie Power is in here but shes more likely to run in the Champion Hurdle. Nichols Canyon is a possible as are Shaneshill and So Young.Mullins has no less than 16 entries for the Tattersalls Ireland Champion Novice Hurdle on Friday, April 29.He said: Petit Mouchoir, who was only beaten a neck in an Aintree Grade 1, has come out of that race well and he might move up to two and a half miles in this contest. We have a lot of good choices for this race and well really have to wait until closer to the day. Noel Fehily (L) riding Buveur DAir clears the last on his way to victory from David Mullins (R) riding Petit Mouchoir at Aintree Few victories last year brought Mullins more pleasure than when his son Patrick partnered Uncle Junior to win the FBD Chase for the La Touche Cup. The now 15-year-old, who also won the race in 2012, is set to bow out next week over Punchestowns famous banks course.Were really looking forward to bringing Uncle Junior again, continued Mullins. The La Touche Cup will be his swansong - hes going to be retired afterwards - but hes won two of them already and wed love to see him go out on a high.Looking at the rest of the week, Mullins added: Between the various handicaps and bumpers at the Festival we hope to have a formidable team next week. Sky Tickets Fast, secure racing tickets: Exclusive racing offers near you Also See: Live results service Full racecards Get Sky Sports Joe Flacco Jersey . - A lot of scenarios ran through Terrell Suggs head when the Baltimore linebacker prepared to face the Pittsburgh Steelers. Wholesale Ravens Jerseys . On Wednesday, Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas hit back. 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Justice Hill Jersey . -- Coyotes coach Dave Tippett thinks of one thing when he watches Eastern Conference teams struggle against Western opponents before they get to Phoenix: His team must keep pace.First, it was Gary Leeman and friends who filed a concussion class action lawsuit against the NHL. On Thursday, I broke the story that a second concussion lawsuit was filed against the NHL. A copy of the lawsuit can be found here. There are nine plaintiffs in this latest lawsuit against the league: Dan LaCouture, Dan Keczmer, Jack Carlson, Richard Brennan, Brad Maxwell, Michael Peluso, Tom Younghans, Allan Rourke and Scott Bailey. These are not household or brand names, and for casual fans, the only recognizable names may be Peluso, and to a lesser extent, LaCouture. The lawsuit alleges fraudulent concealment. In particular, the players complain that the league knew of the long-term neurological impact of repeated headshots and elected not to share that information with the players. By not revealing that information, players did not have an opportunity to make an informed decision about playing in the NHL. As was the case with the over 200 NFL concussion lawsuits filed, concealment is a critical component of this lawsuit. The players are also alleging that the NHL was negligent in the way it handled the welfare of players. The lawsuit states that the NHL fostered and promoted a culture of violence with a view to generating revenue. In doing so, the league failed to institute reasonable safeguards and protocols to protect its players from head trauma. By failing to protect the players from the risks and consequences of headshots, the league failed to discharge a legal duty owed to its players. Like concussion lawsuits generally, this one faces challenges. The first is causation. In order to get paid, the plaintiffs are going to have to show that the brain damage they suffered was caused at the NHL level. On the flip side, the NHL will point out that no one can say for sure what caused a players neurological condition, and even if it was caused by repeated headshots while playing hockey, how much of that damage was sustained while in the NHL and not in places like the AHL, CHL or Europe. So what caused the damage and when it was caused become critically important issues. Brennan played 50 NHL games, while Rourke and Bailey played 55 and 19 NHL games respectively. With so few NHL games played, its going to be tough for these plaintiffs to show that the NHL is responsible for their brain damage. As well, Peluso played 458 NHL games. He also played over 250 games outside the NHL during his professional career. Can you say definitively that the damage was sustained at the NHL level? Not easy. The league will also take the position that it didnt conceal any information. They will say that there wasnt any conclusive science at the time and they had the same information the players had. Basically, they wiill say we knew what you knew.dddddddddddd That being the case, the league will then maintain that the players were aware of the risk associated with playing hockey based on the science at that time, and agreed to those risks each time they stepped onto the ice. This legal principle is called informed consent. The NHL could also maintain that this lawsuit doesnt belong in court in the first place, but rather should go to arbitration. The collective bargaining agreement provides that issues of player health and safety go to arbitration and not court. On the flip side, the players would take the position that since this case involves fraud, it properly falls outside of arbitration and within the jurisdiction of the courts. So the bottom line is this: the players will need to provide good evidence showing that the league concealed the harmful impact of repeated headshots. If they dont have that evidence, they will have a very difficult time. On top of that, they will need to deal with the very tricky issue of causation. The way the lawsuit itself was drafted is a bit unusual. It provides that Gordie Howe is dead (hes not) and misspells Sidney Crosbys name (Sydney). It also makes reference to movies, including Gladiator, Youngblood and Friday the 13th. This is atypical. The lawsuit also relies on the concussion history of other players as support for the position that the game inflicts permanent neurological damage. In part, the lawyers point to players like Marc Savard, Nick Kypreos, Geoff Courtnall, Petr Svoboda, Keith Primeau, Pat LaFontaine, Tony Granato and Paul Kariya as having suffered long-term damage. However, this doesnt necessarily belong in this type of document. It looks more like evidence that needs to be presented at trial. So the lawsuit is perhaps atypical in the way it was drafted. From a legal standpoint, these inaccuracies may not ultimately hurt the merits of the lawsuit. These things can be corrected. However, it may undermine the credibility of the claims being made. As well, and perhaps more importantly, the whole idea with a class action lawsuit is to recruit other players. Its possible that other players may not feel entirely comfortable with this particular lawsuit given the oversights in the document. Still, there is time to right the ship and this lawsuit has some good lawyers associated with it. As far as next steps, the NHL will do what the NFL has done in the past: go to court and ask a judge to punt this lawsuit. Assuming the lawsuit is not dismissed, we are still years away from a resolution. One more thing: while this is the second NHL concussion lawsuit filed to date, it likely wont be the last. Expect to see more of them filed. 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