THE Evening Press Racing Partnership is to be scaled down after the three-year-old filly it leases showed no improvement in her latest race.

A number of partners have expressed discontent at the form of the North Yorkshire racehorse and Partnership chief Paul Clarkson said they are now free to leave the alliance, with the horse's trainer, Tim Etherington, likely to take on the extra cost.

The filly, named Evening Press, has been leased by readers of this newspaper but has had no success on the track. In her latest race, at Ripon on Saturday, she finished 11th of 18 in a lowest grade selling handicap.

Clarkson said: "She's been very disappointing. Tim said she had been working very well in training and that she definitely works better at home than on the track, but for some reason she's just not producing in races.

"After eight races a number of partners were getting disillusioned with it."

Under the terms of the lease, the partnership can be cancelled at 24 hours' notice and, if any number of partners decide to pull out, the only way it would continue is if the remaining partners and/or Etherington agreed to cover the extra cost.

Under the new arrangement, Etherington will take on that additional cost, and will therefore take the relevant share of prize-money. All the partners who have now left will claim their share of the cash in the pot up until the end of August.

Clarkson added: "Some of the partners are wanting to stay in, some are not. Those who want to leave can and those who want to stay can. Tim Etherington would take up the shares that people don't want."

As for the run on Saturday, he said: "There were a couple of minor things -- Ripon is very undulating and doesn't suit every horse. The jockey said Evening Press was unbalanced in the straight.

"She was also blowing harder than you would normally expect when she came back."

Norton-based Etherington agrees that the form of Evening Press on the course has been below-par.

Clarkson added: "Tim understands and has been very good about it. We're all disappointed but that's horses for you. Only one in ten ever wins a race."

Updated: 12:08 Tuesday, September 03, 2002