Eve Johnson Houghton is readying both Indian Run and Juniper Berries for Group One assignments at Newmarket in the coming weeks.

The Didcot handler is enjoying another excellent season with her two-year-olds and is looking forward to being represented in two of biggest juvenile races of the campaign on the Rowley Mile.

Having recorded a narrow victory in the Group Three Dick Poole Stakes at Salisbury, Juniper Berries will get her shot at top-level honours in the Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes on Saturday.

The daughter of Expert Eye has plenty on her plate as she looks to turn the tables on the William Haggas-trained Relief Rally, who has already beaten her on two occasions, but Johnson Houghton feels she merits her place in the Cheveley Park field.

“We’re definitely going to have a crack at the Cheveley Park and we’re looking forward to it,” said the Didcot-based trainer.

“She’s a huge price. It will be really hard to turn the form around with Relief Rally, I get that, but she’s won her Group Three and where else do you go with her?

“She doesn’t seem to be too ground dependent to be fair.”

Two weeks after Juniper Berries is due to strut her stuff, stablemate Indian Run is set to contest the Dewhurst.

A promising third on his Newbury debut, the Sioux Nation colt has since won a valuable maiden at Ascot and the Group Three Acomb Stakes at York and Johnson Houghton is hopeful there is more to come.

She added: “He’s in good form. He’s had a bit of a chill-out time, but now we’re back working hard and going really well.”

Westover enjoyed a trip to the beach on Friday as his bid for glory in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe looms ever closer.

Last season’s Irish Derby hero was not beaten far into sixth place in Europe’s premier middle-distance contest last season and will return to Paris next weekend following an excellent campaign so far.

Second to Japanese ace Equinox in Dubai earlier in the year, Ralph Beckett’s four-year-old has since finished chased home Emily Upjohn in the Coronation Cup and won the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud before going down by a head to Hukum in a pulsating renewal of the King George at Ascot.

The son of Frankel has been kept fresh since that late July outing and is reported to be in rude health following a racecourse gallop at his trainer’s local track and a spin on the sand.

“Westover went to Salisbury last Friday and to Hayling Island beach this Friday and both exercises went well,” said Beckett.

“It suited him to just take the edge off him ahead of Longchamp and he’s shown he can handle any ground between the extremes.”

Also set to be in Group One action next weekend for Beckett and Westover’s owners Juddmonte is the regally-bred juvenile Task Force.

By Frankel and out of another Guineas winner in Special Duty, the youngster has looked the part so far in winning a Salisbury maiden and a Listed race at Ripon, earning him a shot at the Juddmonte Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket on Saturday.

Beckett added: “Task Force will go for the Middle Park. I was really pleased with him (on Saturday) morning.”

His accent is as American as his caddie, but Sepp Straka believes he has gone the extra mile – thousands of them in fact – to prove his dedication to Europe’s Ryder Cup team.

Straka was asked to compete in the Hero Cup in Abu Dhabi in January, a team event between Continental Europe and Great Britain and Ireland which it was felt necessary to revive in the wake of 2021’s record Ryder Cup defeat.

The only problem was that the Austrian was contesting the Sentry Tournament of Champions the week beforehand in Hawaii, which meant undertaking an epic journey across 14 time zones.

“Francesco (Molinari, captain of Continental Europe) was the first person to talk to me about the trip,” Straka told the PA news agency.

“My first reaction was that I don’t know if I’ll make it because I don’t think that I can get there.

“Then I looked into the flights a little deeper and realised that I could make it for the Tuesday and it didn’t start until the Friday.

“Once I realised I could get there in time to prepare then I wanted to make the trip because it was huge in terms of getting to Rome and also getting comfortable playing team golf. I think that is something we don’t get to do a lot.

“I’ve always wanted to be a part of it. I kind of put myself in a place last year for consideration for the team and I knew that would show my commitment.

“From there on, I could focus on just trying to play my best golf and put my name out there.”

Straka won two points from his four matches in the Hero Cup, including a foursomes victory over Ryder Cup team-mates Shane Lowry and Tyrrell Hatton, but then missed the cut in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and Dubai Desert Classic.

However, he claimed his second PGA Tour title in the John Deere Classic in July and two weeks later finished joint second in the Open at Royal Liverpool, his second top 10 in a major in 2023.

Such performances meant Europe captain Luke Donald felt he “couldn’t leave” Straka off his team and duly gave him a wild card, making Straka the second Austrian after Bernd Wiesberger to play in the contest.

“It’s been an incredible ride,” said Straka, whose family moved from Vienna to Georgia when he was 14  – he went on to play on the University of Georgia with twin brother Sam.

“Kind of all started by winning the Honda (Classic) last season and thankfully I was able to ride that and gain confidence and just keep improving my golf game.

“I feel like it’s in a place where I give myself a lot more chances now than did I early in my career and yeah, it’s been an incredible ride the last few years.”

As for having a southern accent and an American caddie in Duane “Dewey” Bock, Straka joked: “I was thinking about maybe getting a translator. Maybe my brother can translate for me for the week just so we don’t have to hear it.

“Dewey is a great caddie. He’s been awesome to have on the bag and it’s helped me so much over the last few months.

“He is definitely red, white and blue. A bunch of the European caddies have been giving him crap about having a US yardage book cover but he’s already changed that. We’re working on him.

“He’s a professional. He’ll do his best job that he can and it will be great.”

Ed Crisford is excited to see Vandeek bid for a second Group One success in the Juddmonte Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket on Saturday.

The Havana Grey colt has won each of his three starts to date, with a successful debut at Nottingham followed by big-race wins in the Richmond Stakes at Goodwood and the Prix Morny at Deauville.

Crisford, who trains Vandeek in partnership with his father Simon, is well aware the youngster will have his mettle tested on the Rowley Mile next weekend but is relishing the challenge.

He said: “The Middle Park is a proper championship race and if he was able to win a Group One at Newmarket it would be huge – not just for us but for the owner and the horse himself. It would put him on the board as one of the top two-year-olds in Europe.

“It will be a proper race against proper horses and there will be some new horses coming in that we haven’t faced yet. It is going to be a very good race, but he has gone and won a Group One so he goes there with every chance.

“He is the first Group One winner that me and dad have had and he just has that natural talent. We’ve had some good older horses come through our hands like Century Dream, but Vandeek has that real quality as a two-year-old and that means he should be an exciting three-year-old.”

Vandeek’s top-level win in France came at the expense of Christopher Head’s exciting filly Ramatuelle, who had shown her quality by winning a Group Three and a Group Two.

“Looking at the Morny, it was the championship two-year-old race at the time and a proper Group One – you needed to be on your A game to win it,” Crisford added.

“He got caught in a pocket a bit and the French filly Ramatuelle went for it and I thought we might not catch her, but he put his head down and for him to grind her down was a good performance.

“He is still learning his trade and the Morny was the first time he had to race, as up until then he had done it on ability.”

While Vandeek’s wins at Goodwood and Deauville have both come on testing conditions, Crisford is confident a faster surface will not be a problem.

He said: “I think good ground, or just on the quick side of that would be fine as Havana Grey’s (progeny) tend to go on that. To be honest, running him on the soft ground has just been the way it has happened.

“The way he moves and covers the ground, I wouldn’t be too worried on better ground and I think he could be a better horse on it as you would see that turn of foot come to the fore.

“For a breeze-up horse he is unbelievable. He is so relaxed and that will put him in good stead for these big events. He doesn’t waste any energy.”

James Doyle will take over in the saddle aboard Vandeek from Andrea Atzeni following the Italian’s recent move to Hong Kong.

Should all go well in the Middle Park, Crisford will consider stepping his exciting colt up to seven furlong for the first time for a crack at the Dewhurst Stakes back at Newmarket a fortnight later.

He added: “He hit the line strong in France and I think he would stay seven (furlongs) standing on his head. He is a big, tall scopey horse who covers a lot of ground.

“We have to take one race at a time and the Middle Park is his next target. If he wins and looks like he is in great order, who is to say he is not going to have a crack at the Dewhurst as well?”

Marcus Smith could be retained at full-back as England progress deeper into the World Cup after excelling in his first start in the position against Chile.

Smith overcame an edgy opening to help orchestrate an 11-try rout at Stade Pierre-Mauroy, offering the team a new dimension with the ball in hand, which he underscored with a personal two-try haul – albeit against opponents ranked 22 in the world.

England must now decide whether to give him another chance to adapt to 15 in their final group match against Samoa on October 7 or revert to the ultra-dependable Freddie Steward, their first choice in the position for over two years.

Richard Wigglesworth has been a central figure in Smith’s transition from fly-half and the attack coach has seen enough to know the 24-year-old is ready for the bigger tests that lie ahead.

“Marcus has given us food for thought at full-back throughout pre-season because that’s the standard he operates at,” Wigglesworth said.

“It was a bigger talking point than we felt it was because we just see a great rugby player there. We were really impressed by him against Chile.

“We all thought it was coming before the game and were really confident that he was going to produce that sort of performance. He looked great, didn’t he?

“He’s definitely a viable option (to start) because he’s a top, top international, so when you have that level of ability like he’s got, executing the way he is, then he’s always a viable option.”

Whether Smith faces Samoa, reprises the bench role that worked well over the four Tests before Chile were overwhelmed or England perform a positional sleight of hand by squeezing him and Steward into the same back line, one of the game’s most exciting talents has a role to play at the World Cup.

With Owen Farrell and George Ford blocking the path at 10, the Harlequins magician has adjusted quickly after defence coach Kevin Sinfield first raised the prospect of him switching positions during the summer.

“Marcus is a fly-half who can play full-back and what’s so impressive about him is that he has just ripped into that role,” Wigglesworth said.

“He gets training time at both, but he’s ripped into this like, ‘I want to get a shot, I want to have an impact at a World Cup’. And what an attitude for someone to have.

“There hasn’t been a hint of, ‘Oh, this isn’t quite my preferred position or the one that I’ve played and played very successfully for my whole career’.

“He’s not done that, he has just gone, ‘Let me make an impact on this team, on the players around me’. And he has been first class.”

England, who are on the brink of reaching the quarter-finals, have resolved to let Smith forge his own identity in the role.

“We’ve let Marcus do it the Marcus way because, from the first moment he has done it, he has looked pretty comfortable there,” Wigglesworth said.

“He’s done extra high-ball work and understanding the back-field roles in that, and he’s really grabbed that.

“He’s a smart, smart rugby player, so he retains that information and then commands other people around him straight away.

“He’s grabbed it himself and we want Marcus Smith to look like Marcus Smith at full-back, no one else.”

Diogo Dalot described the recent external scrutiny and criticism of Manchester United as a “killing machine” after Erik ten Hag’s side secured a return to winning ways at Burnley.

The Red Devils have been under the microscope off the field as well as on it at the start of the campaign, having lost four of their opening six matches in all competitions for the first time since 1986.

The heat was on as absentee-hit United headed to promoted Burnley on Saturday evening, when Bruno Fernandes’ fantastic volley on the stroke of half-time secured a much-needed 1-0 victory.

“We are playing for Man United,” right-back Dalot said. “We have to be consistent in every game because they will kill you in every direction that they can if you don’t win games.

“And you could see this last couple of weeks, it was another normal killing machine against us, but we fought hard.

“When we get into Carrington (training ground), the noise stays outside and we work hard.

“And I think we were rewarded with these three points, but we want to keep going.”

United were not entirely convincing against the winless Clarets, but it was a solid showing underpinned by clear togetherness and focus.

“I think this was massively important,” Dalot told MUTV. “Apart from the three points, I think the clean sheet brings us a little bit of extra confidence to go to the next games.

“We needed it after these last couple of games when we conceded a lot of goals and this has to build a foundation now for the next game.

“I think today we showed a proper compact team, aggressively defending the box, everybody (supporting) each other.

“Collectively we were very good. Everybody was speaking with each other, communication, aggressive on the front foot.

“And I think that brings you confidence when you look to your mate and he’s giving everything for you.

“You want to give everything for him as well. Today we came out to the pitch with that mentality.

“I think this is the standard that we need to have for the rest of the season.”

As for Burnley, their wait for a first win since returning to the Premier League continues.

Vincent Kompany’s outfit showed flashes of quality during the narrow home loss and summer signing Aaron Ramsey is keen to build on that display.

“We didn’t come out with three points, but I think that everyone can see a lot of positives that we can take from that, that we can take into the next game,” the 20-year-old said after making his Premier League start.

“Hopefully the three points come soon but in the changing room all of us are taking as many positives as we can from it – and there’s quite a few.

“It’s Manchester United and I think that we more than competed and hopefully next time we get the three points, but like I said loads and loads of positives from the game, and we can just build from that.”

Christian Horner knew Max Verstappen was ready to return to winning ways from his aggression in a game of padel tennis as the Dutchman moved to the brink of a third world title with victory at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Verstappen was imperious around the high-speed corner circuit at Suzuka, beating McLaren’s Lando Norris by over 19 seconds as Red Bull sealed the constructors’ championship with a record six races to spare.

The 25-year-old’s record 10-race winning run and Red Bull’s unbeaten season was ended in Singapore a week ago, but he hit back in style.

Verstappen is now within touching distance of a hat-trick of world titles, extending his lead over team-mate Sergio Perez to 177 points, and could even win it in the Saturday Qatar sprint race in two weeks’ time.

“I played padel tennis with Max on Wednesday and he was properly fired up and made it clear ‘I want to win the race by 20 seconds’ and in fairness he came within 0.7 of a second of achieving that,” team principal Horner said.

“You could tell from the very first lap in practice one that he was totally focused on this event.

“It is a circuit that he loves and enjoys. It was an outstanding performance. His laps in qualifying yesterday, particularly that final lap has to be up there with one of the best laps of all-time in qualifying.

“Max is absolutely at the top of his game, he is the best driver in F1 at this point in time.

“He’s just got this inner hunger, determination and huge ability. He doesn’t get distracted by the trappings of F1. He is an out-and-out racer. If he is not racing in the real world he is racing in the virtual world.

“He’s a winner and he loves winning. You’ve seen that competitive spirit at its utmost this weekend.”

Red Bull are the first team in Formula One history to win the team championship with six races to spare as Verstappen’s victory moved the Milton Keynes-based team 318 points clear of second-placed Mercedes in the standings. It is Red Bull’s sixth constructors’ title since their debut season in F1 in 2005.

They clinched it at the track owned by their engine supplier Honda, with Horner paying tribute to the entire team.

“To achieve this sixth constructors’ championship is beyond our wildest dreams. Coming into the season I don’t think we could have ever dreamt of having a year like this,” Horner added.

“Last year was a very strong year for us but to have kept that momentum rolling through the year that we have had is testimony to all the men and women in the team that have worked tirelessly.

“To repeat a season like this, to do better than we are doing is impossible. We are riding a wave and we want to ride that wave as long as we can.

“It is very fitting that we have won the championship here on the 75th anniversary of Honda at their circuit at Suzuka.”

While Verstappen coasted to the win, it was a tough day for Perez, who broke two front wings and was handed two penalties before retiring on lap 15.

He then came back into the race briefly on lap 40 before retiring again, with the team keen for him to serve his outstanding penalty rather than suffer in Qatar.

“It was just a disastrous weekend,” Perez said.

McLaren showed further signs of their progress by comfortably beating Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to seal second and third – with Oscar Piastri picking up his first F1 podium.

“Another amazing day for us. A P2 and P3, so we couldn’t have asked for anymore,” Norris said.

“We are pushing, we are getting there. The progress we’ve made is pretty outstanding.”

Dominic Calvert-Lewin is determined to stay fit after revealing his frustration at his latest injury setback.

The England striker returned from a fractured cheekbone to score Everton’s third goal in their 3-1 win at Brentford.

“It’s difficult when you keep getting sidelined and you’re doing everything to stay on the pitch, but I think everyone knows I’m doing everything I possibly can,” Calvert-Lewin told the club website.

“I’m in a good place now, feeling physically fit, strong, fast. I’m buzzing to get the goal and long may it continue.

“We knew we needed a result and most importantly a win but we have to continue the work we’ve been doing, keep the momentum and take that into next week.”

James Tarkowski had headed the Toffees back into the lead against his old club after Mathias Jensen cancelled out Abdoulaye Doucoure’s opener.

Calvert-Lewin then secured Everton’s first win of the season and condemned the Bees to a first home defeat.

“I think that Everton deserved to win,” said Bees boss Thomas Frank. “The first five games we played this season, we performed very well – this was a bad performance. We need to learn from that, move forward and bounce back.

“What this group of fantastic players have done very well over all the years I’ve been in charge here is that, after a bad performance, they’ve bounced back.

“Everything that Everton came with didn’t surprise us. We expected everything, we just handled it poorly. We just didn’t deal very well with it.

“There are two things, besides the bad performance, that we need to look into: one is defensive set-pieces, obviously we conceded two goals and we weren’t on top of them.

“Secondly, is our quality and decision-making on the ball, especially in the first half. We were throwing the ball away way, way too easy with touches, passes and decisions.”

Lewis Hamilton criticised Mercedes’ tactics and suggested he and George Russell needed to “work as a team” after on-track battles throughout the Japanese Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion finished fifth at Suzuka, two places ahead of Russell in a race where the pair scrapped repeatedly and aired frustration over the team radio.

After an early coming together where Russell surged past Hamilton before swiftly losing the place again, the 38-year-old pushed his team-mate off track in a second scrap and they then disagreed over how to defend their places against Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

Russell was struggling on his tyres having attempted a one-stop strategy, while others around him deployed a two-stop, and Hamilton urged his team to let him through.

The 25-year-old resisted on the radio before being told “this is an instruction, George” and allowing Hamilton to pass.

Hamilton was then told to stay within DRS range to help his team-mate defend against Sainz, as the Spaniard had done to thwart Russell a week ago in Singapore.

“We should have swapped around earlier and I should have got as far ahead as possible to get the gap as big as we could to the Ferrari,” Hamilton said.

“Because he (Russell) was trying to fight me he was damaging his tyres and I think it just made it all complicated.

“The fact is we are not fighting each other in the team championship. As drivers it is not important where we are.

“What is important is that one of us finishes ahead of the Ferrari and to keep the position. Today we really needed to work as a team.”

Hamilton also disagreed with the team’s DRS strategy.

“I don’t think that was a good idea at all,” he said. “When they suggested it to me I knew that they obviously thought of it from the last race but it made no sense.

“I needed to get as far clear as possible. I was on my way, around two seconds ahead and they asked me to give George DRS and I had to come off the gas down the straight.

“Then he got overtaken by Sainz. He then got past George and he was right on my tail which was not ideal.”

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was absent for this race due to knee surgery, with his role divided among numerous other staff while the Austrian was on the intercom.

The team’s lead to Ferrari was cut in the battle for second in the constructors’ championship – which Red Bull clinched at Suzuka with a record six races remaining.

Max Verstappen stormed to victory, with McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on the podium ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Russell, who lost sixth to Sainz at the death, said he had no hard feelings over the battle with Hamilton.

“The main goal is to finish P2 in the constructors’ championship,” Russell said. “The drivers’ championship is out of the window for me totally. Lewis is in a good place to fight for a good position.

“The goal is to finish ahead of Ferrari this season and keep on working for next year. No issues on my side.

“I viewed it as good, hard racing. Of course we lost a bit of overall time fighting each other. You are a bit frustrated on the radio but that is just part of racing.

“We are not even going to discuss it, there is nothing to discuss. We have bigger fish to fry which is how do we make the car go quicker.”

Johnny Sexton says beating defending champions South Africa is among Ireland’s best Rugby World Cup wins but insists his team must push on and “make it count”.

Andy Farrell’s men put one foot in the quarter-finals of the tournament by edging a classic Paris encounter 13-8 to register a 16th straight victory.

The world’s top-ranked team have a two-week break before returning to Stade de France to complete their Pool B fixtures against Scotland.

“I think we’ve had some big wins in pool stages before, that’s right up there,” said captain Sexton.

“When you play against the reigning world champions, it’s always going to be incredibly tough and it was.

“They didn’t let us down in terms of the physicality of the game but I thought we fronted up and gave some good stuff ourselves in that regard.

“Yeah, it’s right up there but we’ve got to make it count now.

“We’ve got some time off this week with the bye week, then we regroup and we’ve got to back it up against Scotland and make sure we do the business to get out of the pool.”

Mack Hansen’s first-half try, plus five points from the boot of Sexton and a late Jack Crowley penalty moved the Six Nations champions within touching distance of the knockout stages.

South Africa remained in contention until the final whistle through Cheslin Kolbe’s score and a Manie Libbok penalty but paid a heavy price for some wayward goal kicking.

Ireland were roared home by an estimated 30,000 Irish fans on an unforgettable evening in the French capital.

Veteran fly-half Sexton felt the “insane” support was a vital factor in securing a statement victory.

“We’ve had some big days before in terms of results in the pools but I’ve never ever seen a crowd like that,” said the 38-year-old.

“Someone said there was 30,000 fans but there was no way it was 30,000.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if there was 60,000 and they were insane throughout. They gave us the lift that we needed.

“Honestly, it’s not lost on us. We talk about it a lot, about inspiring those people that put their hand in their pocket week after week.

“They probably saved for four years to come here and it’s something we refer to all the time and I mean that.

“We play for them and they gave us the edge, fair play to them.”

Springboks skipper Siya Kolisi urged his side not to dwell on the disappointing result as they seek to bounce back in a crucial clash with Tonga.

“The intensity of the game was exactly what we needed for a lot of players that have never played at such intensity,” said the flanker.

“The whole atmosphere was amazing on the field but we know exactly what we need to do as a group.

“We’ve got to lift our heads, we’ve got a big game coming and if we dwell too much on what happened, we will forget to perform next week.

“We need to get through that one and then we can start thinking about afterwards. Tonga is an important game.”

Phil Foden admits Manchester City have a big hole to fill after influential midfielder Rodri picked up a three-game ban in Saturday’s win over Nottingham Forest.

The Spain international was sent off early in the second half of City’s 2-0 victory at the Etihad Stadium for raising his hands towards the neck of Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White.

The treble winners now face being without Rodri for their midweek Carabao Cup trip to Newcastle, next Saturday’s game at Wolves and – most crucially – the encounter at Arsenal on October 8.

Foden said: “He is one of our most important players and he seems to play all the minutes. He is going to be a big miss, but we have players to step up now and we are going to need them.”

Rodri’s dismissal dramatically changed the mood of a game City had been cruising to victory in following goals from Foden and Erling Haaland in the first 14 minutes.

A tame affair became fractious and City lost some of their composure before switching to a defensive mindset.

Attacking players Jeremy Doku and Julian Alvarez were sacrificed for Kalvin Phillips and Nathan Ake as manager Pep Guardiola took a pragmatic approach to secure three points.

“I thought we showed a different side to the team,” Foden said.

“It was not ideal with Rodri getting a red card so early in the second half, but I thought we showed heart and desire – a different side to the team that we sometimes need to show.

“I am really happy with the performance. We dug deep.”

Despite making their latest victory unnecessarily complicated, the champions’ 100 per cent start to the season remains intact.

In an ominous warning for the rest of the competition, Foden believes there is plenty more to come.

The 23-year-old said: “I would say it is a perfect start, but there are still a couple of gears for us to go. We are happy with the start, but we still know we can get better.”

Forest manager Steve Cooper was pleased with his side’s response in the second half and felt they should have got more from playing against 10-man City.

He said: “When you play a game and you get presented an opportunity, you really want to recognise that you have to take that.

“I’m not angry with the players. I’m not disappointed in any way, shape or form, and I’ve told them that.

“But I’ve just challenged them, like, ‘Come on boys, really back yourselves, because I do’.

“Hopefully we’ll reflect on the game and be motivated that we can play in these really tough games and do some good things.”