World Cup: Jeers for Nigeria after being held to goalless draw by Iran June 16, 2014 NIGERIA 0 IRAN 0 AFRICAN champions Nigeria were booed off the pitch in Curitba last night after being held to the tournament’s sole draw so far. In a game of few clear cut chances, minnows Iran were content to sit back and soak up pressure, but Nigeria did not have the quality required to break [...]
Frankel foal fetches £1.15m June 16, 2014 HORSE RACING: A foal of Frankel fetched £1.15m at auction last night, in the first time one of the flat racing great’s offspring has been sold. The unnamed colt, aged three months, was sold with his mother Crystal Gaze, who is expecting another foal by Frankel, to MV Magnier of Ireland’s Coolmore Stud.
Sprinter Ujah snubbed by England June 16, 2014 ATHLETICS: Britain’s newest sprint star Chijindu Ujah has been left out of England’s Commonwealth Games squad. Olympic champion Mo Farah is set to run the 5,000m and 10,000m.
Ascot bookies braced for another Toronado June 16, 2014 BILL ESDAILE PREVIEWS THE QUEEN ANNE STAKES ROYAL Ascot kicks off in style with three Group One races today and my strongest fancy is in the opener at 2.30pm, the Queen Anne Stakes. This one-mile showpiece has been won by crack milers Goldikova, Canford Cliffs and Frankel in recent times and TORONADO can add his [...]
Paddy Power: Top Tips From June 16, 2014 TOP hat and tails time and us bookie chappies could do with Toronado getting chinned in today’s opener. And I’m taking Verrazano to do it. He’ll have learnt a lot from his UK debut on his first start on grass and was absolutely top-class on dirt in the States. Treve would be another bad result [...]
Kingman set to settle the score once and for all June 16, 2014 BILL ESDAILE PREVIEWS THE ST JAMES’S PALACE, KING’S STAND AND COVENTRY STAKES DING DING, round three. The royal meeting has always been about fantastic duels and it is going to be fascinating to see who comes out on top between KINGMAN and Night Of Thunder in their third meeting this season. The current score is [...]
Secret looks pearl of a bet in wide-open sprint June 16, 2014 THERE IS definitely an element of déjà vu about this afternoon’s King’s Stand Stakes (3.45pm) with last year’s first four home all lining up again. Sole Power, victorious 12 months ago, bounced back from a couple of average runs in Dubai to win last month’s Palace House Stakes at Newmarket. The globe-trotting seven-year-old will be [...]
Adaay can prove himself leading juvenile in the Coventry June 16, 2014 THE COVENTRY Stakes (3.05pm) is typically one of the strongest two-year-old races on the calendar and the winner generally finds himself prominent in the betting for next year’s 2000 Guineas. Dawn Approach, Canford Cliffs and Power have all followed up Coventry victories with success in either the British or Irish Guineas in recent years and [...]
England will still get out of tough group, says Hodgson June 15, 2014 ENGLAND manager Roy Hodgson is upbeat about his team’s chances of reaching the World Cup knockout stages, following their performance in Saturday’s defeat to Italy. A second-half header from former Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli earned Italy three points, after Daniel Sturridge had cancelled out Claudio Marchisio’s earlier strike. But England played much of the [...]
Sport Comment: Three Lions are a team to take pride in again June 15, 2014 FOR so long, England being a crushing disappointment had been synonymous with World Cups; part of the competition’s very fabric, like an African nation threatening not to turn up over a pay dispute, or the Dutch squad descending into civil war. In fact every major international tournament for the last decade had been a source [...]