Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Murray takes a Brit of a knock
ANDY MURRAY was beaten by British No.1 Dan Evans in The Battle of the Brits charity tournament yesterday.
Evans was outplayed in the opening set at the National Tennis Centre, London, by Murray (above) – who was playing in his first event for seven months after a pelvic injury – before hitting back to win.
Evans, who won 1-6 6-3 10-8 to set up today’s final with Kyle Edmund, said: “Andy did a lot good in the first set. In the end it came down to the big points. I got a little lucky today but I’m just happy to come through.”
Murray has safely come through four matches in five days, with one more – a third-place play-off against Cameron Norrie – to play today.
THEY have made two entries into racing’s history books in the early weeks of the virus-hit 2020 Flat season.
Does good news also come in threes?
In May, when the BHA changed the rules to allow training partnerships, Paul and Oliver Cole wasted no time in applying for a joint licence.
The father-and-son team (left) were the first pairing to saddle a winner, when two-yearold filly Valpolicella scored at Newmarket three days after racing’s restart.
And they broke new ground when Highland Chief made a winning comeback at 20/1 in Royal Ascot’s Golden Gates Handicap 10 days ago.
“It does feel different when you’ve got your name on the licence,” reveals Oliver, 39, who will send the colt to Epsom next Saturday in search of another first – a collaborative triumph in the greatest race of all, the Investec Derby.
“You’re not just the man behind the man.”
‘The man’ in front is Paul Cole, 77, who already has the Derby on his illustrious CV, via the exceptional Generous, a five-length victor at Epsom in 1991.
Generous became the sixth Derby winner to be trained at the historic Whatcombe estate in Oxfordshire.
Crowned champion trainer five months later, Cole suffered a dip in fortunes when the colt’s owner – and Whatcombe’s main patron – Saudi Prince Fahd Salman suffered a fatal heart attack, at 46, in 2001.
But Highland Chief is just one exhibit in a body of evidence that the blend of youth and experience is working.
“Oliver has been a big asset for years,” observes Cole Snr. “It’s very exciting that he is involved.
“He’s got owners that don’t want to have horses with me, and I’ve got owners I’ve trained for a long time for, who are quite happy to have horses with me.”
Highland Chief ’s owners, husband and wife Jim and Fitri Hay – Cole’s elder son Alex is the couple’s racing manager – fit into the latter category.
The home-bred son of 2,000 Guineas hero Gleneagles is a 12/1 shot for the Derby on the back of his return-to-action success at Ascot over 1m2f.
Attempting to make a jump from such handicap company to Group One level would rank more as folly than ambition in a typical year – but 2020 has been anything but that.
“I don’t think any of us ‘knows’ what we would know in a normal year,” says Paul Cole. “We haven’t had the trials or the preparation.”
Cole Snr is, in his own words, “a glass half-empty bloke” but allows himself the admission that “everything has gone well” with Highland Chief ’s season.
“At home, he just does enough,” says Oliver Cole. “Then, on the racetrack, he seems to come into himself.
“His turn of foot is electric, and we think he’ll get the 1m4f Derby trip. It’s exciting.”
His turn of foot is electric... and we think he’ll get the Derby trip