Spanish Pipedream to show Queen Mary rivals a clean pair of heels June 17, 2014 THE QUEEN Mary Stakes (3.05pm) is always a difficult race to decipher with a huge field of mostly unexposed two-year-old fillies going hell for leather over a straight five furlongs. It’s fast and furious and today’s edition looks another blinder. Despite the large number of runners, only three of the last 10 runnings have been [...]
Mukhadram to chase home superstar Treve June 17, 2014 BILL ESDAILE PREVIEWS THE PRINCE OF WALES’S, SANDRINGHAM AND JERSEY STAKES THERE is always a horse or two that steals the show at Royal Ascot. Last year it was the Queen’s Estimate and in 2012 it was Frankel and Black Caviar. Without doubt the animal with the best chance of etching its name on Ascot [...]
Sturridge: I’ll be happy to see Suarez in crunch clash June 16, 2014 WITH Uruguay striker Luis Suarez having declared himself fit for Thursday’s win or bust clash with England, his Liverpool strike partner is relishing their head-to-head but has warned the two-time World Cup winners are by no means a one-man team. Suarez played no part in his country’s surprise defeat to Costa Rica due to recent knee [...]
Golf Comment: Kaymer’s 72 and 69 just as good as his pair of 65s June 16, 2014 NOT since the height of Tiger Woods’s dominance have we seen a Major victory as extraordinary as Martin Kaymer’s eight-shot win at the US Open on Sunday. The German loves the challenge of being out in front. Kaymer led from the start in claiming the Players Championship last month, and did it again in incredible [...]
World Cup: Muller magic puts Portugal to the sword June 16, 2014 GERMANY 4 PORTUGAL 0 GERMANY forward Thomas Muller believes the experience of playing in two major international tournaments set him up perfectly to shake off first day nerves and bag a hat-trick against 10-man Portugal. Having finished the 2010 World Cup as joint-top scorer with five goals, the Bayern Munich star struck three more at [...]
Schumacher out of a coma June 16, 2014 SEVEN-TIME Formula One champion Michael Schumacher is out of a coma and has been moved to a hospital in Switzerland. The development, announced yesterday by his management, is the most encouraging indication of recovery since he suffered life-threatening head injuries while skiing in France late last year. Schumacher’s camp said the 45-year-old German, who retired [...]
World Cup in brief June 16, 2014 Mexico have plan to stifle Brazil MEXICO captain Rafael Marquez is confident his team can cope with Brazil’s holy trinity in tonight’s second Group A match. He said: “It will surely be a very difficult game, we know the talent of Neymar, Oscar, Hulk, but we will train in ways to handle them.” Russia have [...]
Cook rues spin absence as England suffer late agony June 16, 2014 CAPTAIN Alastair Cook admitted to mixed feelings after England narrowly missed out on a dramatic victory in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s yesterday. England thought they had claimed the win with the penultimate ball when Nuwan Pradeep was given lbw off Stuart Broad, only for the tourists to review and umpire Paul [...]
World Cup: Dempsey downs Ghana with early strike to score revenge June 16, 2014 GHANA 1 USA 2 FORWARD Clint Dempsey struck the fifth fastest goal in World Cup history as USA finally gained their revenge against Ghana last night in Natal. Having lost to the Black Stars at the last two World Cups, including the last-16 stage in South Africa, USA made the best possible start when Dempsey [...]
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 [...]