Off Track ..... Russian horse goes from cop to fop

HONG KONG: For years, Russian rider Alexandra Korelova quietly observed a particular police horse that lived at her riding club's stables and decided that he was a champion.

Balagur, a grey stallion so pale that he appears to have been daubed pink in places, made such an impression on Korelova between his shifts with the local police that she decided to speak to her trainer about the horse.

"I saw him for a long time, for years, and I spoke with my trainer, who said 'take him now quickly and come to me,'" said the 31-year-old from Nizhny Novgorod, in Russia's north-west.