Sports News – Page 870 – Worldwide Sports News

July 6, 2023

‘We don’t stop horses’: trainer Chris Honour hits back over Hillsin’s ban

Horse suspended for performance at Worcester on Wednesday
Trainer claims jockey Dylan Kitts went ‘to an extreme’ in race

Chris Honour said he would “never tell someone not to win” and revealed his family have been caught up in the fallout from Hillsin’s controversial performance at Worcester on Wednesday evening.

Hillsin was making his first start for trainer Honour in the two-and-a-half mile conditional riders’ handicap hurdle and looked to have a fine chance of notching his first career victory, in the hands of conditional jockey Dylan Kitts, when moving into contention up the home straight.

June 3, 2023

England’s Ben Stokes insists he’s ‘on course to bowl’ in first Ashes Test

Captain ‘happy’ with fitness despite not bowling against Ireland
‘Very impressed’: Stokes hails Josh Tongue after fine showing

A week ago, Ben Stokes had never met Josh Tongue. But as the England captain heads into the Ashes series with questions over his own fitness, he fancies an additional fast bowler has been found to augment his attack.

Tongue was already in the 16-man squad for the first two Tests against Australia before completing a maiden five-wicket haul on debut at Lord’s, with England, a team in a hurry, naming the group at lunch on the third and final day against Ireland.

May 18, 2023

South African teams are happy post-divorce but has Super Rugby lost its bite? | Daniel Gallan

The flavour of the competition will never be the same and it remains to be seen if Australia and New Zealand teams can fill the gap

For 26 years club rugby in the southern hemisphere had a distinctive flavour profile. There have been some interesting garnishes, with produce from Japan, Argentina and, more recently, the Pacific Islands enriching the plate. But from the dawn of the professional age in 1996 until the Covid-enforced hiatus in 2020, the three main ingredients have come from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

But now Super Rugby has “lost a bit of spice”, at least according to John Plumtree, the now Durban-based Sharks coach and former All Blacks assistant.

May 12, 2023

‘Not dead yet’: Reds beat Chiefs to snap 10-year Super Rugby hoodoo

Queensland 25-22 victory halts Chiefs’ 10-game victory streak
Western Force climb to eighth after 34-14 win over Fijian Drua

Queensland Reds coach Brad Thorn has declared they are “not dead yet” after a historic upset in New Zealand rescued their season.

A 25-22 win in New Plymouth on Friday night was the Reds’ first in New Zealand since 2013. It ended a 21-game Super Rugby losing streak in the country and the Chiefs’ 10-game unbeaten run to begin this season.

February 21, 2023

Grand National: Irish horses to dominate field for second year running

Forty-one of the top 60 in the weights trained in Ireland
BHA handicapper calls for ‘English challenge’

The steady evolution of the Grand National into a contest dominated by runners from Ireland seems certain to continue in April. As few as a quarter of the runners in the world’s most famous race may arrive at Aintree from British stables.

Ireland supplied a majority of the field for the first time last season, with 21 of the 40 starters and after Tuesday’s publication of the weights to be carried in this year’s race on 15 April, 41 of the top 60, and all but one of the top 10, are Irish-trained.

January 17, 2023

Former jockey Danny Brock faces long ban from racing for betting conspiracy

BHA panel found Brock deliberately stopped horses
Case concerned three races in late 2018 and early 2019

Danny Brock, a jockey on the Flat from 2009 to 2021, will face a significant ban after the British Horseracing Authority’s independent disciplinary panel decided on Tuesday he had deliberately stopped three horses as part of a conspiracy to profit from betting on their races.

The BHA’s case against Brock and five other individuals, including Sean McBride, the son and assistant of the Newmarket trainer Philip “Charlie” McBride, concerned three races at all-weather tracks between December 2018 and March 2019.

December 17, 2022

Talking Horses: BHA will consider backtrack on whip rule changes

Authority may be ready to make adjustments to proposed regulations after recent lobbying from jockeys

The British Horseracing Authority indicated on Friday evening that it will look at amending its new rules on the use of the whip, which are due to come into force in February next year, following “public and private representations” from riders in recent days which focused in particular on a proposed ban on use of the whip in the forehand position.

The BHA published the amended rules in mid-July, following an extensive review and consultation process which included two senior jockeys, Tom Scudamore and PJ McDonald.

November 14, 2022

Talking Horses: racing’s factions bury differences in bid for brighter future

New structure to run the sport could end the factionalism and squabbling that has dogged the Turf for decades

British racing took a significant step towards what it hopes will be a brighter and more harmonious future on Monday, as the British Horseracing Authority unveiled a new governance structure for the sport which Julie Harrington, the BHA’s chief executive, insists will “enshrine the BHA board as the ultimate authority for the sport as a whole.” If the new structure works as planned – which, of course, remains to be seen – it could finally end, or at the very least significantly reduce, the factionalism and squabbling that has dogged the sport for decades.

The new regime, which was finalised when the Racecourse Association signed up at an EGM on Monday morning, means an end to the previous “tripartite” structure in which the BHA tried to balance the interests of the racecourses, on one side, and the Thoroughbred Group (ie. owners, trainers, jockeys and stable staff) on the other.

July 29, 2022

Racing heavyweights’ plan for radical shake-up of sport too narrow in focus

Simply throwing money at the top tier of Flat racing is likely to have unpredictable and irreparable consequences

Several months after the first rumours of its existence emerged in the Racing Post, some fairly sketchy details of Peter Savill’s latest scheme to transform racing’s fortunes emerged this week, suggesting that Savill and a number of other “industry heavyweights” want to “restructure” the Flat and boost prize money and field sizes at the highest levels of the sport.

Savill, for the benefit of younger readers, was a very hands-on chair of the British Horseracing Board, the forerunner of the British Horseracing Authority, from June 1998 to July 2004, a six-year reign that was never dull and, at times, highly controversial.

July 13, 2022

The aim of whip rule changes is to influence behaviour, not issue penalties | Greg Wood

Although disqualification for excessive whip use is now on the table, its enforcement is likely to be vanishingly rare

David Jones, the chair of the British Horseracing Authority’s whip consultation steering group, was keen to stress on Tuesday that its 20 recommendations on one of the most vexed issues in the sport should be seen as “a package” of measures, and one that all of its members – including those opposed to use of the whip for encouragement – could support.

None the less, two proposed changes in particular inevitably leapt off the page when the group’s report was published on Tuesday: disqualification of horses when riders commit an “egregious” breach of the rules, and a ban on using the whip in the “forehand” position.

July 17, 2018