Breakaway competition ‘ridiculous’
11-10fav Slowly into stride, driven forward to chase leaders, hampered and shuffled back after 1f, headway over 1f out, led inside final furlong, ran on strongly, won at Kempton 1m 2yo nov stks (5) pol in Dec beating Just The Man by 1l, 14 ran. Invincible Spirit colt out of Astronomy Domine. Sea The Stars colt out of Nyarhini. 33-1 Soon outpaced in rear, driven and headway under pressure over 1f out, stayed on into 4th well inside final furlong, never threatened leaders, 4th of 12, 12l behind Divine Image at Chelmsford City 1m Fillies Novice Stakes (2yo) (4) pol in Dec. 20-1 Always towards rear, 9th of 12, 10l behind Baba Ghanouj at Wolverhampton 1m 1f Fillies Novice Stakes (2yo) (5) in Nov. 4-1 Led until over 2f out, weakened entering final furlong, 3rd of 6, 11l behind You Never Can Tell at Newcastle 6f 2yo nov stks (6) in Nov. Dawn Approach filly out of Coquette Noire. (124) M Herrington 9 9-7 ......................... J Hart 69 (62) B Haslam 4 9-7 (CD) ...........................G Lee 65 (5) D C Griffiths 6 9-5 (D6) ................ R Winston 66
(6) A Brown 7 9-4 (CD3) .......... C Hardie 65 (6) Miss T Waggott 9 9-0 (CD6) .B McHugh 63 (6) J Goldie 7 8-12 (CD) ............. P J McDonald 64 (6) Miss L Siddall 6 8-12 (CD).................... J Fanning 58 (6) Mrs R Carr 8 8-11 (CD) ...........J P Sullivan 65
(130) D Shaw 4 8-10 ................. P Mathers 59 (6) Mrs K Tutty 11 8-8 (CD4) ...... Phil Dennis (3) 66 (18) E Alston 4 8-7 ................ Rachel Richardson — (19) N Wilson 4 8-7 ...................................... A Mullen 71 BETTING: 4 Poppy In The Wind, 5 Cherry Oak, 6 Encoded, 7 Novabridge, Amazing Amaya, 8 Windforpower, 10 Star Cracker, 12 Archimedes, 14 Others.
5-1 Behind and outpaced, ridden 2f out, headway under pressure over 1f out, stayed on well inside final furlong, went 3rd towards finish, never reached front pair, 3rd of 10, 1 3/4l behind Encoded at Newcastle 5f hcp 0-60 (6). 6-1 Towards rear, ridden over 1f out, kept on inside final furlong, 5th of 10, 4 1/2l behind Casterbridge at Newcastle 5f hcp 0-70 (5) in Nov. 9-1 Held up behind, headway 2f out, ridden to chase clear leader 1f out, ran on inside final furlong, led final strides, won at Newcastle 5f hcp 0-60 (6) beating Novabridge by nk, 10 ran.
16-1 Slowly into stride, behind, headway chasing leaders over 1f out, ran on inside final furlong, soon every chance, no extra close home, 4th of 14, 3/4l behind Sienna Says at Newcastle 5f hcp (6) in Aug.
20-1 Led, ridden clear when hung left towards far side rail 1f out, kept on, hard pressed inside final 100 yards, headed final strides, 2nd of
10, nk behind Encoded at Newcastle 5f hcp 0-60 (6). 9-2 Held up towards rear, ridden over 1f out, kept on under pressure inside final furlong, never pace to challenge, 6th of 10, 3 1/2l behind Encoded at Newcastle 5f hcp 0-60 (6). 6-1 Towards rear, ridden and outpaced over 2f out, kept on under pressure final furlong, never near leaders, 7th of 10, 4l behind Encoded at Newcastle 5f hcp 0-60 (6). 20-1 Led, ridden and headed approaching final furlong, soon weakened, 6th of 9, 4l behind The Golden Cue at Southwell 6f hcp 0-65 (6) fbs. 20-1 Ed, ridden 3f out, headed under 2f out, weakened, 5th of 9, 4l behind Cyrus Dallin at Laytown 7f clm stks in Sep. 14-1 Prominent, driven over 2f out, ridden and lost place over 1f out, weakened final furlong, 9th of 10, 10l behind Encoded at Newcastle 5f hcp 0-60 (6). 33-1 Tracked leaders, lost place and edged left over 1f out, weakened inside final furlong, 11th of 12, 9l behind Distant Applause at Chelmsford City 6f hcp 0-50 (7) pol in Dec.
33-1 Keen, tracked leaders, pushed along halfway, weakened over 2f out, 8th of 10, 12l behind Bond Angel at Southwell 7f hcp (6) fbs in Dec. PROPOSALS for a revamped English top flight have not even left the drawing board yet, according to Premiership Rugby chairman Ian Ritchie.
Reports have surfaced of a rift between Premiership Rugby and the Rugby Football Union amid suggestions the English clubs could form a breakaway competition if its demands for an end to promotion and relegation are not met, but Ritchie described that as a ‘ridiculous’ and ‘precipitous’ representation of where things really stood.
Minutes of a Premiership Rugby board meeting have been reported yesterday, where an ‘unregulated competition’ is mooted ‘if the RFU were to be unwilling to support change’.
There would be serious consequences for any breakaway league such as this – for instance it would not be covered by existing anti-doping controls and any players involved in such a competition would be ineligible for England duty.
But Ritchie played down any suggestion of disagreement with the RFU over the matter and said discussions of how the Premiership may look in future were at the early stages, and that nothing had even been put to the RFU for consideration yet.
It is understood the RFU is not surprised that such ring-fencing of top-flight clubs was being discussed by Premiership Rugby, as it has been a subject which has been talked about at various times since 1995.
“Like any board, you would expect all boards to discuss issues like Premiership promotion and relegation, and we’ve been doing that for some time,” he said.
“To be clear, we’ve got an eightyear agreement with the RFU – we work very closely in partnership with them – and we’ve not put any proposals to them about this yet. And nor have we finalised our own, so I think what we need to do is consider this further.
“And I think it’s a bit precipitous to say that there’s a rift between us because we’ve not had the discussions yet.”
Premiership clubs are due to receive around £200m soon from a deal with private equity firm CVC and are therefore looking at ways to ring-fence their financial security. One method would be removing the threat of relegation to the Championship.
Ritchie added: “We all have views over the years of promotion and relegation and what happens with teams going up or down.
“But the uncertainty of that is another matter to consider, how it works on the economics of the game and the business.”
The RFU declined to comment on the reports about a breakaway league but did say: “The RFU has not received a proposal from the clubs on ring-fencing and neither have we made a proposal or offer to the clubs.”