Horse racing tips: He's absolutely rapid and 12-1 odds look very appealing
FIVER FLUTTER Horse racing tips: He's absolutely rapid and 12-1 odds look very appealing
SUN Racing takes on Thursday confident of smashing in some winners.
Back a horse by clicking their odds.
LONGSHOT
GRANDLAD (3.47 Haydock)
Is very quick and can go well when fresh. He was gelded late in September and there could be more to come from him this year.
EACH-WAY THIEF
KISSKODI (3.17 Haydock)
Shaped better than the bare result at Catterick last month.
INVITORIO (5.22 Haydock)
Ran poorly last time but showed plenty of promise at Ponte the time before.
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Telegraph
33 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Shock player exits and a problem position – the build-up to England's title defence
England's defence of their European Championship title will begin on Saturday but much has changed since their historic victory in 2022. The Lionesses remain one of the strongest teams in the tournament but the standard of those around them has vastly improved. There has also been a high turnover of personnel in Sarina Wiegman's side, with some big-name players having retired while younger talents have been promoted. With just days to go until their campaign kicks off, Telegraph Sport takes a look at how the Lionesses are shaping up ahead of this summer's tournament. Wiegman averts a crisis The words 'new England' were repeated when the 23 players took part in a pre-tournament media day. It is not an inaccurate description of the current squad. Of the 11 players who started every game at Euro 2022, only six remain – Lucy Bronze, Leah Williamson, Keira Walsh, Georgia Stanway, Lauren Hemp and Beth Mead. Alessia Russo, who was one of the 'super subs' at the tournament, has replaced Ellen White as the first-choice striker. Ella Toone and Chloe Kelly, who both came off the bench to score in the final, are also challenging for places in the starting team. Four of the Euros starters have retired. White hung up her boots just after that tournament while Rachel Daly, who played at left-back despite her preferred position being centre-forward, stepped back from international football in April last year. The more surprising retirements came just five weeks before the start of England's title defence. It began with Mary Earps making the shock decision to end her international career, as Telegraph Sport exclusively revealed, after being told she would be the second-choice goalkeeper, behind Hannah Hampton, at the Euros. Earps was part of the Euros-winning squad but was arguably more prominent during the Lionesses' run to the World Cup final in 2023. Her campaign to get Nike to sell her goalkeeper shirt coupled with her performances, which included saving a penalty in the final before screaming the words 'f--- off', made her so popular that she went on to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Fran Kirby was next to retire. The forward was told she would not be part of the 23-player squad for the tournament and announced her retirement in the aftermath of England's Nations League defeat in Spain. Less than 24 hours later, Millie Bright became the third withdrawal, though the Chelsea captain has not yet decided whether to retire from international football. Bright had withdrawn from the squad for the Nations League fixtures in May and June, citing mental and physical fatigue. Wiegman had hoped she would be available for the Euros but Bright said she was not able to give 100 per cent. The sudden loss of Earps, Kirby and Bright threw England's preparations into chaos. But the dust has somewhat settled in the last fortnight and Wiegman insisted there was 'no crisis' after naming her squad. Goal threat is key strength England's biggest asset when they won the Euros was their quality in front of goal. They scored 22 across the tournament – a record – and even thrashed Norway 8-0 in the group stage. But goals were slightly harder to come by at the World Cup a year later, with 13 scored in seven games, and subsequent Nations League campaigns have been hit and miss. Still, it is undeniable the Lionesses have the most depth and talent up front. Lauren James, who was a standout player at the 2023 World Cup despite her red card in the quarter-final, has returned from injury. She can be England's best player on her day, but she is not the only exciting member of this squad. Russo jointly won the golden boot with 12 goals in the Women's Super League last season while back-up striker Aggie Beever-Jones was not far behind with nine. The Lionesses also have Mead, Hemp and Kelly to call on while Toone and Grace Clinton can weigh in with goals from midfield. Michelle Agyemang, who scored 41 seconds into her England debut, is also in the squad as a wildcard option. Problem position in defence England had the meanest defence at both Euro 2022 and the 2023 World Cup, with Earps winning the golden glove at both tournaments. But the Lionesses have not looked as solid at the back in the past two years. The left-back position has been a problem area with no player having managed to nail down a regular starting spot. It is likely that Williamson will play alongside Alex Greenwood at centre-back, with Niamh Charles and Jess Carter set to battle it out for the left-back role. Charles plays there for Chelsea but was not a regular starter last season while Carter is primarily a centre-back, her position at the World Cup. Greenwood is the only left-footed defender in the squad and can play there, but Wiegman tends to prefer her in her more natural position. England's other issue is they can often be left exposed when they lose the ball higher up the pitch. Bronze likes to rush forward but there is not always cover behind her, which was the case when the Lionesses conceded against Spain in the World Cup final. At that tournament, Wiegman changed to a 3-5-2 formation and there is an argument that England would be suited to that style of play now. An extra centre-back would help alleviate the issues they face when Bronze gets forward and the weakness at left-back. Wiegman has not tried that formation since she fielded a vastly inexperienced team in a friendly against Switzerland in December but will no doubt have something up her sleeve if her tried-and-tested 4-3-3 is not working. Spain pose biggest threat Spain are most people's favourites heading into this tournament and it would be no surprise were they to reach the latter stages. Should England and Spain both top their groups and progress, they could end up meeting in the semi-finals. Germany, who were runners-up in 2022, are also contenders and will be keen for a better showing than their group-stage exit from the World Cup. Norway and France have continually disappointed on the big stage but could mount a challenge. France are in England's group and have an array of attacking talent while Norway's pool and route to the semi-finals is favourable.
Auto Car
an hour ago
- Auto Car
David Coulthard on F1 in the 1990s
Open gallery Coulthard made his F1 debut at the age of 23 The Scotsman's best years were at McLaren in the late 1990s and early 2000s Coulthard has remained a Red Bull ambassador since retiring in 2008 Close Understudy to Alain Prost. Subbed in after the death of Ayrton Senna. Undermined by a returning Nigel Mansell. Teamed with and against Damon Hill in a Williams blessed by the Midas touch of Adrian Newey. And that was just the first three years. At the time, it was all just life for young and promising David Coulthard. Now long retired at 53, established as an eloquent TV pundit and about to do it all again as a racing dad, the man universally known as DC has to admit: his 1990s kinda rocked. 'I recall testing with Prost [in 1993], looking over to his side of the garage and just thinking: how can my life be any better than this?' Coulthard tells me. 'I'm test driving for the guy who was my hero watching BBC Two half-hour highlights with Murray Walker and James Hunt. "An amazing period. Of course it was shit what happened at Imola 1994 [when Senna was killed in a crash], but that's life. No one gets through it without tragedy. That was how my opportunity came about.' Coulthard was a bright, rising star at the dawn of the 1990s. Promoted unexpectedly in those terrible circumstances, he had to accept sharing the #2 Williams car for the rest of 1994 with Mansell, who returned from Indycar for guest appearances. Coulthard took the drive full-time the following year, claimed his first grand prix win in Portugal, but left at season's end for McLaren, following sticky contractual negotiations. Shaded by double world champion team-mate Mika Häkkinen, Coulthard nevertheless remained at McLaren for nine seasons before seeing out his career at Red Bull. Instinctively he's self-deprecating about his abilities, but the truth is that he was a very good grand prix driver. The timing of his Formula 1 emergence spanned the last manual-gearbox F1 cars, in tests for Benetton and McLaren, before he found himself as an unpaid tester for Williams at the height of the so-called 'gizmo era' in 1993. 'The 'active' Williams had power steering, ABS [anti-lock braking], traction control, fully automatic up-changes, full launch control – then that was all banned for 1994,' he says. 'So I got to experience the 'magic carpet' cars, the more raw F1 of 1994-1995, then went to McLaren.' More regulation changes designed to curb performance followed in 1998, via new narrow-track car dimensions and 'shite' grooved tyres. Coulthard had to live with the compromised rubber all the way to the end of his F1 career. 'The sport very rarely listens to the drivers,' he says. 'Of course they did what they were supposed to do, which was reduce the contact patch, but getting the graining under control and leaving enough groove depth at the end of a race to keep them legal… what a load of faff to slow the cars down. It could have been done in another way.' The slick modern world of F1 exists in a different dimension to the raw, unvarnished sport that Coulthard grew up in, I suggest. 'Yes and no,' replies Coulthard. 'I've been going to race tracks since I was a kid, and there's a familiarity whenever I go back to one.' Recently he returned to humble Pembrey in Wales for the first time since his days testing for Williams, to watch his 16-year-old son Dayton prepare for his first season in the British GB4 Championship. The essence of racing life doesn't change. 'F1 has always been about technology and the fastest thing available at that time,' he says. 'Where we are now is a reflection of modern governmental influence [in terms of emissions legislation], whereas in the 1980s and 1990s, F1 did its thing, the automotive business did its thing, there would be crossover, such as carbonfibre, traction control and fuel efficiencies, but largely F1 was more of a marketing association than the technical collaboration it is today. That's the big change.' The physicality of driving F1 cars is different, too. Just watch old on-board footage from the 1990s compared with clips on today's ultra-smooth race tracks. 'It's quite difficult to explain to today's generation,' says Coulthard. 'Ollie Bearman [the 19-year-old rookie driving for Haas] is probably looking at F1 as somewhat easier than Formula 2, because grand prix cars have power steering and F2 doesn't. Power steering is like a light going on for racing drivers. 'I asked him about Saudi Arabia last year when he stepped into the Ferrari for his F1 debut and the biggest thing was his neck, because he wasn't used to that level of g-force over a long period of time. But if you go back to the 1990s, when we had in-race refuelling, our relative race pace was closer to a qualifying time, so the physicality in the races was higher than in modern F1. 'In reaction to the 2023 Qatar GP, when a few drivers were overheating, we now have all these nice [cooling] bodysuits to make sure our highly paid racing drivers aren't working too hard… It's just a reflection of modern society, isn't it? 'I loved the grands prix when I was physically and mentally spent at the end of them, because it made me feel like a GP driver. When I watch those videos of Senna at Suzuka or Monaco, that is an amazing feat of driving skill and physical prowess. "Today they are amazing drivers, and every generation should be better. Arguably Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton are the best there has ever been. But physically they're in a comfort zone that wasn't there in the 1980s and 1990s.' F1 seems less intimidating for new drivers today than it was for Coulthard's generation. 'Just getting out of the garage without stalling used to be a badge of honour because the foot clutches were pretty raw,' he says. 'I don't want to be the guy who says it was more difficult then, but speak to Fernando [Alonso] and Lewis, who have tried those older cars. Don't take my word for it; take it from them.' There's a general perception that the 'gizmo cars', with all their driver aids, were easy. Allan McNish, who tested for Benetton at the height of that era, refutes the charge: the aids raised the performance level, he says, but living on the limit still separated the great from the good. 'I remember testing at Imola with full active suspension and ABS, and that night my head was in my soup,' recalls Coulthard. 'My neck was f***ed. Every time you braked it was a sledgehammer in the back of the head. "I had servo on the brakes as well, so you didn't even have to push the pedal that hard to get 100% of its potential, and I had ABS, which doesn't mean shorter braking; you're just not flat-spotting tyres where the limit is.' He comes back to power steering: 'The most difficult cars were those without it. I remember testing [famously arm-strong] Mansell's Williams at Estoril: at the fast turn two, you had one attempt at putting on steering lock, and whatever you got, that was your profile for the corner. "Nigel liked a very small steering wheel too. I got to a point and that was as far as I could turn it, so that decided my speed through the corner.' One happy advance in F1 since the 1990s has been safety. Never mind cockpit halos: Coulthard's shoulders were fully exposed in the 1994 FW16. Again, a different dimension to the one that his son is entering. Yet fear of death was something Coulthard rationalised early on, in a manner that gets to the heart of what separates racing drivers from the rest of us. 'I crashed a Williams in testing at Silverstone, got knocked out, and it was a revelation,' he says. 'I realised if I was ever killed in a racing car, the moment when the lights go out wouldn't be filled with fear. When I was about to crash, my head was full of doing what you do to minimise the damage. The only difference from being knocked out and being killed is you wake up from being knocked out. So I didn't have to worry about being killed. 'I tried to explain that to my mother, got halfway through and she squealed: 'Stop, stop, stop!' Now, having stood at the side of kart tracks with my son wondering why I'm supporting him, of course you don't want them to be hurt, but what can you do? You have to support them, don't you? So yes, I'm happy he's racing in this era.' 'I don't want to be that guy who says 'it was better in my day', but I'm very happy with the era in which I raced,' he continues. 'The sport is bigger today; as a result, the values and salaries are higher. "But I've seen Gary Lineker talk about his salary when he was playing [from 1978-1994] versus modern Premier League footballers. You have to live for your time and, being a father, you want the next generation to be better. Evolution has left us a trail to suggest that is the case.' Coulthard approves of where F1 finds itself now, although he makes it clear what he thinks about fining racing drivers for swearing. 'The crowd's [booing] reaction to the FIA [at the season launch in London] would suggest this isn't a golden era of governance, that the public feels there's meddling in the raw emotion of what these gladiators do out on track.' 'But we will look back on this time as a golden era,' he continues. 'There's a golden generation right now of young, handsome, fast racing drivers in their prime – and we've got the outliers of Fernando and Lewis in their forties, to be a reference point for the brilliant young racing drivers who you and I are going to talk about for the next decade and more.' Join our WhatsApp community and be the first to read about the latest news and reviews wowing the car world. Our community is the best, easiest and most direct place to tap into the minds of Autocar, and if you join you'll also be treated to unique WhatsApp content. You can leave at any time after joining - check our full privacy policy here. Next Prev In partnership with
Edinburgh Live
an hour ago
- Edinburgh Live
Princess Kate 'felt guilty' as she fulfilled promise to Princess Charlotte with touching gesture
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Princess Kate "fulfilled a long held promise" to Princess Charlotte, feeling "guilty" about the time spent away, according to Royal biographer Ingrid Seward. She revealed that Kate had assured Charlotte she would take her to Wimbledon one day. Kate, 43, is an avid tennis enthusiast and has frequently been seen at the prestigious tournament over the years. Since 2016, she's also served as the patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. With Wimbledon in full swing, Royal watchers are keen to see if Kate will grace the Royal Box once more this year. There's also a chance that Charlotte, who made her debut at the event last year, might accompany her mother. Seward explained that Kate wanted to bring Charlotte, aged 10, to Wimbledon last year because she hadn't been able "been able to spend as much time as she would have liked to" with her children due to stepping back from public duties for cancer treatment. Kate had promised the young Royal a trip to the tournament as a special treat. In conversation with The Sun, Seward commented: "It was a long held promise that Kate would take Charlotte to the finals as a special treat. Kate felt guilty she hadn't been able to spend as much time as she would have liked to be with the kids because of her exhaustion after her treatment." (Image: PA Archive/PA Images) The author also mentioned that Charlotte's presence last year served to "deflect" focus from her mother. Despite her cancer battle, Kate was "determined" to be present at Centre Court the previous year. Body language guru Judi James has dubbed Princess Charlotte as Kate's "wing-girl" during their recent public appearances. She observed that the young Royal is exceptionally "tuned-in" to her mother's cues. Speaking to The Mirror, she explained: "Charlotte is still showing signs of being her mother's wing-girl. She is now grown up enough to walk independently beside or behind her mother, with Kate only performing a small, loving touch on the back to bring her forward for her handshakes. (Image: PA Archive/PA Images) "Charlotte is so clearly still using her mother as her body language role model, too. She appeared to be tuned into Kate closely, changing her own pose to mirror her mother's while they all stood chatting." Wimbledon got underway on Monday and is set to continue through to Sunday, July 13, with several members of the Royal Family expected to grace the prestigious tennis event. The tournament's opening day saw Sarah, the Duchess of York, in attendance, accompanied by her daughter Princess Beatrice. Lady Gabriella Kingston was also seen at the event, joining philanthropist Robert Denning. A plethora of celebrities have been spotted enjoying the action at the renowned tennis championships. Sir David Beckham, recently honoured with a knighthood, made an appearance at Centre Court on Monday. Hollywood A-lister Jessica Alba was there too, alongside her daughter Honor Warren. Radio One's Mollie King and England cricketer Stuart Broad were among the notable personalities in the audience on the first day.
