Kyrgios regrets shoving ex-girlfriend Trainers ponder plans for La Crique

Nick Kyrgios has expressed his gratitude for the court decision that means he isn’t convicted for assaulting his ex-girlfriend – and that he regretted his actions.

Kyrgios had pleaded guilty to shoving over his ex-girlfriend in 2021, fronting the ACT Magistrates Court in Canberra yesterday where a bid to have the assault charge thrown out on mental health grounds was rejected.

But magistrate Beth Campbell threw out the charge, accepting the seriousness of the matter was ‘‘lowlevel’’ and indicating Kyrgios was not a risk of reoffending.

Campbell said the publicity of the trial, the time that has elapsed since the incident, and the fact that it appeared to be a one-off incident, meant the case did not warrant a conviction.

The world No 20 was charged with a late-night incident from January 10, 2021 where he pushed over Chiara Passari following an argument outside her apartment in inner-city Canberra suburb Kingston.

After his court appearance, Kyrgios released a statement on Instagram, saying he regretted his actions and was grateful for the court decision.

Nick Kyrgios

‘‘I was not in a good place when this happened, and I reacted to a difficult situation in a way I completely regret. I know it wasn’t OK and I’m sincerely sorry for the hurt I caused.’’

Kyrgios had uttered only a few worlds as he was swamped by reporters on his walk – on crutches because of a knee injury – to a car waiting for him outside court, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

‘‘Just recovery, get back on court,’’ he said when asked about his immediate plans.

Kyrgios was asked when he predicted he would appear on court next.

He appeared to respond by saying he would be playing the game Mario Tennis, a spinoff from the Mario Cart video game series.

The court heard Passari was standing in the door of an Uber preventing Kyrgios from leaving when he pushed her over.

He stood over her and remarked ‘‘seriously’’ while she lay on the ground.

Passari reported shoulder pain along with grazing on her knee.

Kyrgios had told Passari to ‘‘leave me the f... alone’’ and to ‘‘just f...ing piss off’’ while she asked him to get out of the car and to calm down.

Passari didn’t report the incident until 10 months later, when the couple split after getting back together following the incident.

Common assault carries a maximum sentence of two years in jail.

Simon and Katrina Alexander are feeling a sense of deja vu with their quality mare La Crique.

Her spring preparation was hampered by wet weather and the Matamata trainers have been met by the same fate this summer.

They elected to withdraw La Crique from the Group I Thorndon Mile (1600m) at Trentham last Saturday after the track was downgraded to a Heavy10.

While disappointed about bypassing the mile feature, the Alexanders are trying to find the silver lining, believing the trip down south has benefited their mare.

‘‘It would have been nice to have been able to run her but kicking off her campaign we didn’t want to do it on that type of ground,’’ Katrina Alexander said.

‘‘It is frustrating. It is not that she doesn’t handle wet tracks, it’s just that we don’t want to do that to her.

‘‘Craig [Grylls, jockey] was happy with the decision, he was quite adamant that we didn’t need to do that [run]. By the time he had ridden in a few more races he walked past me and said I had done the right thing.

‘‘The owners were happy about the decision too. The horse comes first, so collectively we were happy with the decision that was made.

‘‘This is her first trip away since Melbourne.

She has travelled away beautifully, she has eaten everything in sight and has had quite a lovely experience.’’

Alexander has now set her sights closer to home with La Crique, with the Group I BCD Group Sprint (1400m) at Te Rapa next Saturday her next likely target.

‘‘It most likely looks like we will head across to Te Rapa,’’ she said.

‘‘The fact that it is a home venue and then she can go on to the WFA Classic (Group I, 1600m) at Otaki, and then we will reassess things after that.’’

With wet conditions hampering La Crique’s second consecutive campaign, Alexander said they have toyed with the idea of basing the mare across the Tasman.

‘‘It is not actually the racing on the heavy tracks that has almost tripped us up, it is the training on those surfaces all the time as well and the daily grind,’’ Alexander said.

‘‘Are you really going to get a chance to get a campaign together on top of the ground and are we going to get this continuing each racing preparation?

‘‘We talked last time [spring] about whether we should go straight to Queensland, and there is also the option to spell her in Australia if we chose to do that and start every preparation from scratch in Australia rather than kicking her off here. There are a lot of options, you have just got to be able to think on your feet and have a plan B.’’