Sporting players astride fine horses (8)

I believe the answer is:

palfreys

'horses' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'sporting players astride fine' is the wordplay.
'sporting' indicates anagramming the letters.
'astride' is an insertion indicator.
'fine' becomes 'f' (abbreviation).
'players' with letters rearranged gives 'palreys'.
'palreys' placed around 'f' is 'PALFREYS'.

(Another definition for palfreys that I've seen is " horses".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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