Emma Raducanu will make her grand slam return against American Shelby Rogers at the Australian Open.
Rogers was one of the players Raducanu, who is playing her first major tournament for a year following surgery on both wrists and one ankle, beat on her way to the US Open title in 2021.
Raducanu made a positive return in Auckland last week, pushing Elina Svitolina in the second round before tiring, but alarm bells began ringing when she pulled out of first an exhibition match at Melbourne Park on Tuesday and then another exhibition at the Kooyong Classic on Thursday.
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However, Raducanu’s team insisted both were precautionary after she felt some soreness following a practice session on Monday and she practised for two hours at Melbourne Park on Thursday.
Raducanu looked relaxed and happy hitting with fellow British player Lily Miyazaki under the guidance of coach Nick Cavaday, with no strapping or obvious signs of discomfort.
Rogers is a kind draw on paper with the 31-year-old also coming off a long break having not played since Wimbledon and ranked down at 156.
All the British women avoided seeds in the first round, with Katie Boulter drawing China’s Yuan Yue and Jodie Burrage taking on German Tamara Korpatsch.
An intriguing women’s draw was headlined by top seed Iga Swiatek taking on 2020 champion Sofia Kenin, with the winner to play either another past winner in the returning Angelique Kerber or former finalist Danielle Collins.
Four-time grand slam champion Swiatek is the only one of that quartet who is yet to reach the final in Melbourne, although she will be a strong favourite to come through.
Naomi Osaka, who like Kerber is returning after having a baby, makes her grand slam comeback against 16th seed Caroline Garcia while reigning champion Aryna Sabalenka faces a qualifier.
Caroline Wozniacki’s first match in Melbourne since her retirement here in 2020 will be against 20th seed Magda Linette, with the Dane having returned to the sport last summer, reaching the fourth round of the US Open.
Andy Murray was the only British player to draw a seed, with the five-time former finalist taking on 25th-rated Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
Should the Scot make the third round, he would expect to find himself up against top seed Novak Djokovic, who will open against a qualifier.
Cameron Norrie, the only British seed at 19, faces Peru’s Juan Pablo Varillas, with Jack Draper meeting American Marcos Giron and Dan Evans playing Italian Lorenzo Sonego.
Fourth seed Jannik Sinner was drawn in the top half as a potential semi-final opponent for Djokovic while Carlos Alcaraz and third seed Daniil Medvedev are in the bottom half.
Three-time winner Mark Selby cruised through to the last eight of the Masters with a 6-1 victory over Robert Milkins at Alexandra Palace.
World number five Selby, who won the tournament in 2008, 2010 and 2013, raced into a 4-0 lead and although Milkins briefly stemmed the tide by taking the fifth frame, the result was never in doubt.
Selby produced a 119-break in the second frame of the evening match to assume control and compiled four more frame-winning half-century breaks to seal a convincing win.
The four-time world champion made scores of 70 and 74 in the final two frames to stay on course for a sixth appearance in the Masters final.
Mark Allen had earlier conjured a break of 86 in the final-frame decider to oust John Higgins and advance to the quarter-finals.
A week after 16-year-old Luke Littler thrilled during the World Darts Championship it was two old-timers that were starring at Ally Pally.
Higgins, a two-time champion, looked to be in control as back-to-back 80-plus breaks put him 3-1 up.
But world number three Allen won the next two scrappy frames, thanks to some wayward potting by Higgins to draw level.
The Northern Irishman had to wait until frame seven to make his first half-century break as he took the lead for the first time and then a sumptuous 123 clearance – the best of the match – put him one frame away.
Higgins had been looking beaten for the previous 30 minutes but summoned his renowned fighting spirit to reduce the deficit after winning the tactical battle and then sent it to a decider with a 61 break.
But hopes of a comeback were put to bed as Allen produced his decisive break to set up a last-eight tie with Selby.
He said: “It wasn’t a phenomenal contest, we were both a bit edgy, but any win against John is a good win so I will take it.
“Strangely I didn’t feel too bad in the last frame because 5-3 to 5-5 I didn’t feel like I’d done much wrong.
“I missed two really tricky shots, so I was looking forward to getting a chance and when John missed that long red I was fearing the worst but I got another chance and I made the most of it.”
Coco Gauff's emergence as arguably the biggest star of American tennis since Serena Williams is great for the women's game, says former British number one Laura Robson.
Gauff captured the imagination of the American public by winning the US Open last September, the 19-year-old fighting back to beat Aryna Sabalenka in a memorable final at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
That made the teenager the first American – male or female – to win the tournament since Williams, who won the event for the sixth time in 2014. Gauff, Williams and her sister Venus are the only American women to claim the trophy in the 21st century.
Gauff will look to back up that success at the Australian Open when the first major of the year begins on Sunday, and Robson is delighted to see her thriving after being criticised earlier in 2023.
"I love what she's done in the last three months in particular, because over the clay courts and the grass-court season, everyone was writing her off," Robson told Stats Perform.
"She just went back to the drawing board, got a new team around her, played unbelievably at the Cincinnati Masters and came into the US Open with confidence.
"You could tell, with the way that she played the longer matches, she just felt so good about her game. You could see how she was moving out there.
"She is definitely the fastest out on tour at the moment on the women's side. I'm just super pumped for her.
"To be in the stadium and to feel the energy when she won the US Open was crazy.
"I'd say 99.99 per cent of the stadium was going for her and it's going to be a huge boost for women's tennis to have an American superstar like her."
Asked whether Gauff was the natural successor to Williams – who finished her glittering career one major title shy of Margaret Court's record of 24 – Robson said other players' efforts to push American tennis forward should not be overlooked.
"I definitely feel like Jessica Pegula and Madison keys and people like that don't quite get enough credit for how much they've pushed American tennis," Robson continued.
"Even going into the US Open, Pegula was the number one American, but Coco definitely had more attention on her, which is great because their different profiles are being raised, but at the same time they were still pushing each other along and playing doubles together almost every week.
"It's just fantastic to see and the fact that there's now another name that you're throwing into the mix just makes everyone feel better."
Gauff currently sits a career-high third in the world rankings, though she has plenty of ground to make up on the top two, with Iga Swiatek currently edging out Sabalenka.
Robson expects that duo to trade places often as they battle to dominate the women's game, saying: "You definitely struggle to see Swiatek losing at Roland Garros, with the way that she goes on clay.
"I think it's going to be quite nice because they each have different strengths. You would almost say Sabalenka goes slightly better on a hard court and Iga is better on clay.
"I can see it almost swapping back and forth over the next few years, but Iga is going to be right in there, for sure."
Coco Gauff has every chance of adding to her 2023 US Open triumph by winning further grand slam titles in the coming years.
That is the view of former world number four Johanna Konta, who also believes it is "only a matter of time" before the American rises to the top of the WTA rankings.
Having lost the French Open final to Iga Swiatek as an 18-year-old in 2022, Gauff went one step further on home soil last September, becoming the first American teenager to win the US Open title since Serena Williams in 1999.
Gauff is looking to add to that triumph when the Australian Open begins on Sunday, and she is considered one of the favourites to claim the trophy after making a flying start to 2024.
The teenager captured her second straight Auckland Classic title on Sunday, fighting back to beat Elina Svitolina and make it seven wins from eight tour-level singles finals in her career.
Konta believes last year's US Open victory was just the start for Gauff, telling Stats Perform: "She's already a grand slam champion. So, she's got every possibility to win multiple grand slams.
"Once you're winning those tournaments, then it's only a matter of time before you get to world number one."
Gauff is up to third in the world rankings – the highest position of her career – though she has work to do to overhaul world number one Swiatek, who has won three of the last seven grand slams and is targeting her first Australian Open success after going out in the fourth round last year.
Konta, who failed to win a major during her own career despite reaching the last four at Melbourne Park, Roland Garros and Wimbledon, thinks the 22-year-old will be a force to be reckoned with for the foreseeable future.
"I think she's an incredibly consistent player, the level is just very consistent," Konta said of Swiatek.
"I think she will be one of the ones that will be there for a long time if she's just able to sustain that. I think she'll be one of the top handful."
The Los Angeles Clippers signed star forward Kawhi Leonard to a contract extension on Wednesday, with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reporting the deal is worth $153million for three years.
Without announcing terms of the contract, Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank issued a statement saying "we're thrilled to continue our relationship with Kawhi.
"He is an elite player, a terrific partner and a relentless worker who knows how to win and makes it his first priority.
“He elevated our franchise from the moment he arrived. We feel fortunate that Kawhi chose to join the Clippers five years ago, and excited to keep building with him."
The 32-year-old Leonard declined his $48.8million player option for 2024-25 as part of the extension and is slated to earn $52million next season and roughly $50million in both 2025-26 and 2026-27.
Leonard signed with Los Angeles in July 2019 after leading the Toronto Raptors to their first NBA title.
He was named MVP of the 2019 NBA Finals, the second such honour of his career after guiding the San Antonio Spurs to the championship in 2013-14.
A five-time All-Star and two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Leonard leads the Clippers (23-13) this season with 23.8 points and 1.75 steals per game.
He is also tied for second on the team in rebounding (6.1) and ranks fourth with 3.4 assists per game.
Pete Carroll is no longer the coach of the Seattle Seahawks.
After 14 seasons as the team's coach, the 72-year-old is moving into an advisory role with the organisation.
"After thoughtful meetings and careful consideration for the best interest of the franchise, we have amicably agreed with Pete Carroll that his role will evolve from Head Coach to remain with the organisation as an advisor,” the team said in a statement.
The Seahawks made the announcement on Wednesday, three days after the team concluded the season with a 21-20 win over the Arizona Cardinals. They finished the year 9-8, and would've made the play-offs had the Green Bay Packers lost to the Chicago Bears in Week 18.
As the coach of Seattle since 2010, Carroll led the Seahawks to the franchise's only Super Bowl title, two conference championships, five division crowns and 10 play-off berths. Overall, he went 137-89-1 with Seattle.
Although he is the winningest coach in franchise history, the Seahawks missed the play-offs in two of the last three seasons, and have only advanced to the divisional round of the post-season once in the last seven years.
He had prior NFL coaching stops with the New York Jets and New England Patriots, and his 170 career wins are tied with Tom Coughlin and Mike Shanahan for the 14th most in NFL history.
"His expertise in leadership and building a championship culture will continue as an integral part of our organisation moving forward," the statement read. "Pete will always be a beloved member of the Seahawks family.”
Mark Allen produced a break of 86 in the final-frame decider to oust John Higgins and advance to the quarter-finals of the Masters.
A week after teenage sensation Luke Littler thrilled during the World Darts Championship it was two old-timers that were starring at Alexandra Palace.
Higgins, a two-time champion, looked to be in control as back-to-back 80-plus breaks put him 3-1 up.
But world number three Allen won the next two scrappy frames, thanks to some wayward potting by Higgins to draw level.
The Northern Irishman had to wait until frame seven to make his first half-century break as he took the lead for the first time and then a sumptuous 123 clearance – the best of the match – put him one frame away.
Higgins had been looking beaten for the previous 30 minutes but summoned his renowned fighting spirit to reduce the deficit after winning the tactical battle and then sent it to a decider with a 61 break.
But hopes of a comeback were put to bed as Allen produced his decisive break to set up a last-eight tie with either Robert Milkins or Mark Selby.
He said: “It wasn’t a phenomenal contest, we were both a bit edgy, but any win against John is a good win so I will take it.
“Strangely I didn’t feel too bad in the last frame because 5-3 to 5-5 I didn’t feel like I’d done much wrong.
“I missed two really tricky shots, so I was looking forward to getting a chance and when John missed that long red I was fearing the worst but I got another chance and I made the most of it.”
Guenther Steiner, the star of Formula One’s ‘Drive to Survive’ series, has been sacked by Haas.
The 58-year-old Italian earned a cult following his X-rated outbursts on the successful Netflix show.
But Steiner’s reign as team principal for the American team is over after owner Gene Haas dispensed of his services with immediate effect.
Steiner had been team principal at Haas since the team entered F1 in 2016. But they finished 10th and last in the most recent constructors’ championship, scoring points at only four of the 22 races.
He will be replaced by Ayao Komatsu, the Japanese Loughborough University graduate who is promoted from his role as trackside engineering director.
“Moving forward as an organisation it was clear we need to improve our on-track performances,” said Gene Haas.
“In appointing Ayao Komatsu as team principal we fundamentally have engineering at the heart of our management.
“We have had some successes, but we need to be consistent in delivering results that help us reach our wider goals as an organisation.
“I’m looking forward to working with Ayao and fundamentally ensuring that we maximise our potential – this truly reflects my desire to compete properly in Formula One.
“I’d like to extend my thanks to Guenther Steiner for all his hard work over the past decade and I wish him well for the future.”
Off the back of his newfound Netflix fame Steiner released his own book last year, while it was also reported that he is set to be involved as a producer on a sports-based fictional comedy show with US broadcaster CBS.
Speaking on Sky Sports last month, Steiner insisted his extracurricular activities were not hindering his role as team principal.
“It is a balance, and you have to be careful it doesn’t take too much time,” he said. “But writing the book didn’t take time.
“I always tried to do it while I was doing other things. I try to be very efficient and if there is a comedy with CBS I will not be performing in it.
“Everybody in the team is in a good place, financially as a business, and technically, too. We had a tough last year, but we could end up at the top of the midfield in 2024.”
The new season starts in Bahrain on March 2.
Boris Becker would have loved to commentate with Nick Kyrgios at the Australian Open, but has revealed the Eurosport pundits will be on opposite sides of the planet over the next fortnight.
It was confirmed earlier this week that injured former Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios will be part of Eurosport’s punditry team for the first grand slam of 2024.
This raised the prospect that Kyrgios, who was sidelined for most of last year with knee and wrist issues, could come face to face with six-time major winner Becker in Melbourne after their online exchange last month.
Kyrgios and Becker traded insults on X, formerly known as Twitter, over a succession of days in December with the recent jail sentence served by double Australian Open winner Becker referenced, but he has now confirmed they will be – unintentionally – kept apart during their media duties.
“I would have liked to see a match where we are both commentating next to each other. I think that would be more watched than the tennis match actually,” Becker said.
“Look, he joined the team of Eurosport International out of Melbourne and I joined the Eurosport German team out of Munich. So, unless we get connected into the cube where they beam you into the studio, I don’t think there is anything happening there.
“Ultimately we both love the game, we love tennis, we like to commentate on a good match and that’s the bond we have.
“We have a difference of opinion, but that’s normal. We agree we want to see great matches, we want to see a great tournament and this is why we do the job.”
Becker will not be in Australia for the first major of the year, but has a vested interest after he took up the role of Holger Rune’s coach in 2023.
While the German has backed the 20-year-old to do well at Melbourne Park, he cannot look beyond defending champion Novak Djokovic, another player he has coached in the past.
He added: “I have to mention my player Holger Rune, who reached the fourth round last year, he was also comfortable, he started the year well with the final in Brisbane. He had a good practice week and I am sure he is ready by Sunday.
“Holger is a very intense, very dynamic and a very explosive young player. He reminds me a little bit of a young Novak Djokovic.
“For me, the clear-cut favourite is Novak Djokovic. He won the tournament 10 times. Let me repeat, he won it 10 times. This is a really outstanding achievement.
“He is the clear-cut favourite but he is 36, he had a small injury on his hitting hand. I saw him practicing yesterday and today, he seemed fine but we have to watch this space because he is not getting any younger.
“Having said that, when the tournament starts, he is the number one player in the world, he is the defending champion and he is the top favourite.”
Becker is back on the tennis scene after he spent part of 2022 in prison for hiding £2.5million of assets and loans to avoid paying debts.
The 56-year-old, a three-time Wimbledon winner, believes he is a better coach for his recent battles with bankruptcy.
“I don’t want to go into details to what happened to me and how I came out of it, but I think I am a better man now than I was five years ago,” Becker reflected.
“Hopefully my family would agree with that but also because of the things I have experienced, I might even be a better coach. All the top guys, the difference is often their mentality, their attitude, how they deal with disappointment.
“This is my strong part. I can really talk to a player about overcoming adversity at any given time and I am much more credible now than I was five years ago.”
French star Theleme will revert to the Flat next month in preparation for a tilt at the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.
The seven-year-old has struck Grade One gold five times in his homeland, including victory in last year’s French Champion Hurdle and successive wins in the Grand Prix d’Automne at Auteuil.
He has enjoyed a winter break since his most recent triumph in the latter contest in November – and with alternative opportunities thin on the ground, the Arnaud Chaille-Chaille-trained gelding is set to switch codes for for his final outing before an intended trip to the Cotswolds in March.
Bertand Le Metayer, racing manager for Leeds-based owners the Gordon family, said: “Cheltenham is very much the plan. It’s probably not ideal as we’ve only got one Flat race that suits him for a prep run and that is on February 23.
“It’s not really ideal, but we can’t really prep him otherwise. I know it’s not the most usual programme, but the French system is not made at all for running on both sides of the Channel.
“The horse has just won a Grade One, we gave him a break after that and he looks fabulous for it.”
Le Metayer hopes a spin on the level next month will give Theleme a taste of the pace he is likely to encounter at Cheltenham, with hurdle races at Auteuil traditionally far more tactically-run affairs.
He added: “The Flat race he is going for is at Tarbes, which is a nice, big oval with a long straight and it will be the first (meeting) of the year, so we expect it to be nice, soft ground.
“Hopefully the race will just give him some rhythm. We have a short amount of time to get him ready and we don’t want to squeeze the lemon too much.
“He’s only been back in training three weeks and we’ve got five weeks until the Flat race, so we’ll give him a nice blow there, jump him over some English hurdles and then take him to Cheltenham.”
Theleme will be bidding to become the first French-trained winner of the Stayers’ Hurdle since the mighty Baracouda claimed back-to-back victories in 2002 and 2003, although Le Metayer feels it is difficult to compare the two with Baracouda having excelled on British soil, as evidenced by four wins in the Long Walk Hurdle, two Ascot Hurdles and two Long Distance Hurdles.
“I actually spoke at length with Francois Doumen, but his ways of doing it were different because Baracouda was not as good a horse in France and he was trained for Cheltenham to the millimetre as that was his objective,” he said.
“The reason we are going to the Stayers’ Hurdle is because we don’t like the prep races (for the French Champion Hurdle) in France as they make you carry top-weight. We have to run in prep races with 72 kilos, which is not something we like doing, so we thought the best way would be to take him to Cheltenham off level weights and also give the Gordon family a taste of Cheltenham.
“The horse has a brilliant mind and he’s obviously a super horse, there’s no doubt about it. It’s just more complicated to prep him for Cheltenham this year than it would be next year because firstly it is unknown and secondly, by next year he will have had a third run on the Flat, so he will have a handicap mark which opens up other options.”
Theleme is a 4-1 joint-favourite for Cheltenham with sponsors Paddy Power alongside the Gordon Elliott-trained Teahupoo, with the latter’s stablemate Irish Point only a point bigger at 5-1.
Ivy-Jane Smith hopes her push towards a place at next year’s Paris Olympics will continue to help shift perceptions and blaze a trail for young Romany and traveller girls to pursue careers in elite sport.
Like girls in her community, Smith left school at the age of 13, but was encouraged by her parents to continue her successful junior boxing career, which has lifted the Dorset light-flyweight to the brink of a place at the Games.
Smith, now 24, concedes that others within her wider community may not always have been so happy to see her pursue a less traditional path, but is comfortable assuming a role in helping to slowly change those attitudes.
“As a young girl (in my community) you usually marry and have children early, and I haven’t followed that path and some people will probably have a problem with it,” Smith, who fights on home soil for the first time in six years in the GB Open in Sheffield next week, told the PA news agency.
“It’s my personal life and and at the end of the day you’ve got to be proud of who you are. I know there’s still an idea out there that everyone’s got to follow a certain way, and that’s the way it is.
“It’s not a nasty way, it’s just tradition, but if you keep following tradition you’re never going to know anything different. You see a lot more young girls staying in school these days and I think it’s slowly changing for the better.”
Smith’s boxing career has been fully supported by her parents, John and Ivy, since she was first encouraged to try boxing at the age of three. In her teens, Smith won a series of national titles and caught the eye of GB performance director Rob McCracken, who rated her one of the best young prospect he had seen.
But no sooner had Smith established her place on the GB development squad at the age of 18, than she chose to abruptly walk away from the sport, ignoring her coaches’ entreaties to return and barely so much as wobbling a punchbag for the next four years.
“I was quite a young 18-year-old and travelling up to the GB gym from Southampton got too much for me,” continued Smith, who maintains her decision had nothing to do with external pressure from others.
“I hit a point where I thought, I just don’t want to do this any more. I could feel myself not giving everything in the gym. It wasn’t because of any pressure, I just don’t think I was ready for it back then, and I just quit completely.”
Seemingly lost to the sport, Smith settled into a part-time job before feeling the familiar urging to lace back on the gloves at the beginning of last year.
“I was fed up in my job so I just went back for something to do,” said Smith, who by a twist of fate also happened to move to Sheffield, home of the GB Boxing set-up, during her extended lay-off.
“I started really pushing for it, I got selected for England again and I won a gold medal in a tournament in Poland in September, which got me back onto the GB squad.
“I’d always wanted to go to the Olympics, and even when I quit I had a few regrets and thought, ‘what if?’ Now it’s almost there, I won’t disappear again. I want to go to the Olympics in Paris and make a difference.”
Novak Djokovic is the greatest male tennis player of all time, according to Marcos Baghdatis.
Djokovic is the most decorated player in the history of the men's game, boasting 24 grand slam triumphs over a magnificent career. Even with Djokovic turning 36 in 2023, the Serbian won three of the four majors on offer throughout the year.
Rival Rafael Nadal, who has the second most grand slam titles among male players with 22, recently conceded Djokovic is the greatest ever.
Baghdatis agrees with Nadal that Djokovic's numbers make him the best of all time, with the 2006 Australian Open runner-up telling Stats Perform: "I think that yes, Rafa is right. He's the GOAT [greatest of all time].
"I mean, statistically, he has the best history written in tennis. Of course, he has written more history than any other player.
"It's tough to say who is the best and who's not. I can say, the three players from Rafa, Roger [Federer] and Djokovic, I think he [Djokovic] is the most complete, if you understand what I mean.
"He's still there, he's still winning matches, still winning Grand Slams.
"So yeah, he's the best of all time because of the stats, but it's very hard to just get the other two out."
Djokovic, Nadal and Federer are often referred to as the 'big three', and Baghdatis believes the trio helped to move tennis forward. However, he also says Andy Murray deserves greater recognition despite failing to match his rivals' grand slam accomplishments.
"I cannot take Andy Murray out of there," Baghdatis said. "Because, you know, he was always taking them to their limits too.
"I think it's a package that these four people changed the sport for the better. Yeah, they helped each other improve themselves, but at the same time, they helped so many other players improve themselves and be better at what they do. So they left a legacy behind."
With Federer retired and Djokovic and Nadal in the latter stages of their careers, Carlos Alcaraz is seen by many as the next potential legend of the sport, having already claimed US Open and Wimbledon glory.
While Baghdatis feels Alcaraz is a great talent, he also believes other youngsters deserve credit, saying: "I'm not saying that Alcaraz cannot [become a legend], of course he has a shot at it.
"He's young. I think he's great for tennis, he has great energy on the court, a great personality.
"I think maybe right now he's the best of his generation, let's say, but Jannik Sinner, Holger Rune are coming up, [Daniil] Medvedev is still there.
"But it's going to be very tough. I think he has a shot. It's going to be very, very tough to achieve what they [the big three] have achieved."
Prince Zaltar will miss the Coral Lanzarote Handicap Hurdle at Kempton on Saturday after suffering a minor setback.
Philip Rothwell’s charge has run two fine races in Britain already this season, finishing sixth at Cheltenham in November before filling the runner-up spot behind Sonigino at Aintree last month.
Rothwell had been eyeing a third successive trip across the Irish Sea for this weekend’s feature handicap, but said on Wednesday: “I’m not running. He’s had a little setback, so he won’t go.
“He worked well yesterday, but we just weren’t happy afterwards. I haven’t a clue how long it will hold us up for, it won’t be long I’d say, but we’re not going to make Kempton anyway.
“The horses are flying, thank God, but their welfare is the most important thing and we’ve got to make sure they’re 100 per cent right. If it was an Irish race I might still plan on going, but when you’re going across to Kempton and things aren’t 100 per cent right I’m definitely not going to go.”
Prince Zaltar’s non-participation is a rare blip in an otherwise excellent campaign for Rothwell.
Numerically the Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer is enjoying his best ever season, with a tally of 33 winners and prize-money totalling over €390,000 putting him fifth in the trainers’ table behind the powerhouse quartet of Gordon Elliott, Willie Mullins, Henry de Bromhead and Gavin Cromwell.
He added: “We’re doing really well and getting huge support for a small yard. We’re just trying to turn them over and thrash the winners out as best we can and we’re really happy with how it’s going.
“The last three or four seasons have been very strong and we have a very strong team of staff and people working here in a very small environment.
“We’re very specific about what we’re doing, the whole thing is a team job and I’m just very lucky that the players on my team at the moment are very good.
“We’ve been building this for the last few years and hopefully we can keep at the kind of level we’re at now as we’re not going to get further. I’m fifth in the trainers’ table, we’re not going to hassle the top four and I’m sure some of the lads behind us can pass us at some stage.
“We have 55 or 60 boxes, whereas the lads in front and some behind have 200 boxes. Their average spend is in excess of £80,000 and my average spend is about £5,000, so we’re boxing way above our weight and we’re very happy to be doing that.”
Paisley Park is on course to attempt a fourth win in the McCoy Contractors Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham on January 27.
Big Buck’s won the race twice while Lady Rebecca won three in a row from 1999-2001, but a victory for Emma Lavelle’s stalwart would see him stand alone as a four-time winner.
In two outings this year the 12-year-old has been beaten a head by Dashel Drasher at Newbury and a short head by the young pretender Crambo in the Long Walk Hurdle – a race which Paisley Park has also won three times in his stellar career.
“He’s great. He’s come out of the race (Long Walk) so well, he cantering away and I just can’t believe he’s run two such fantastic races and just got beaten in both of them,” Lavelle told Sky Sports Racing.
“We’re so proud of him. He’s just turned 12 and we’ll head to the Cleeve, all things being equal.
“It would be nice if he could just get his head in front there, to win the Cleeve four times would be extraordinary.
“I’ve always said he’ll tell us when he’s had enough and clearly his first two runs this year have shown us he hasn’t had enough.
“If he keeps running the way he is then I don’t see why we would necessarily retire him at the end of the season.
“We’ll keep going with him as long as he is happy to keep going and quite clearly at the moment he is very happy.”
Stable stalwart Thomas Darby spearheads Olly Murphy’s bumper squad of horses on Saturday afternoon, with the trainer poised to saddle key runners across the country.
The 11-year-old is part of the furniture at Murphy’s Warren Chase base and was one of the horses who helped put the trainer on the map when finishing second in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 2019.
Since then the seven-time winner has been a regular on the big days and counts victory in Newbury’s Long Distance Hurdle as one of his greatest accolades.
He will now seek another major prize in the rearranged Unibet Veterans’ Handicap Chase at Warwick, returning to the scene of his comfortable course-and-distance success in November.
“He’s in good form and obviously he’s off a lofty mark now but he has course-and-distance form round Warwick and seems in good order,” said Murphy.
“He was second in a Supreme behind Klassical Dream and has had success at a high level throughout his career.
“He has been a very good horse, just probably 7lb short of being a proper Grade One horse. But we’ve had some very good days. He’s won a Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury and he’s run well on many occasions at the highest level so to win a nice handicap like this would be great.
“Harry Skelton rides him and if he gets into a good rhythm I don’t see why he wouldn’t have a good each-way chance in a valuable race.”
Sporting the same silks of owner Diana Whateley is Chasing Fire who has always threatened to be a quality operator and is upped in class at Wetherby for a shot at the Grade Two William Hill Towton Novices’ Chase.
“He definitely runs at Wetherby and is in good form,” continued Murphy.
“He’s a horse that hasn’t achieved what I think he should have achieved yet, but it is still really early days for him.
“It will be a competitive race, but we’re looking forward to it and Brian Hughes rides him.”
Meanwhile, Thunder Rock could be tasked with a stiff-looking recovery mission if taking his chance in Kempton’s Coral Silviniaco Conti Chase.
The eight-year-old fluffed his lines when sent off favourite for Cheltenham’s December Gold Cup prior to Christmas and with Murphy toying with the idea of reverting to hurdles, is keen to give his charge another chance to prove himself over fences back in a small-field contest.
“We’re short of options and running him back in a handicap is probably not the right thing to do with him at the moment,” explained Murphy.
“We would rather run in a smaller-field Graded race if possible, but options are far and few between.
“He’s in good form, he just got a terrible fright at Cheltenham last time. If he runs it will be very much a confidence boosting run.
“Unfortunately I think he’s rather well-handicapped but we’re not able to put that to good use just yet. He’ll have a run back over fences whether that is Saturday or not and see how we go, and if it doesn’t work out we’ll go back over hurdles.”
Rory McIlroy is focused on finding the “final piece of the puzzle” as he bids to end his major drought in 2024.
McIlroy won two Rolex Series events on the DP World Tour last year to claim the Race to Dubai for a fifth time and enjoyed a career-best performance to help Europe regain the Ryder Cup in Rome.
The world number two has also recorded seven top 10s in his last eight majors but remains without a win since the 2014 US PGA Championship at Valhalla, which will also host the second major of the year in May.
“I’m excited for the year,” McIlroy said before getting his season under way in the inaugural Dubai Invitational, with a title defence of the Dubai Desert Classic following next week.
“This is my 18th full season on tour, which is mad to think about. But I’m as excited as I was for the first one. I think every new year [brings] new opportunities, new goals.
“My consistency has really been there over the last couple of years, without winning one of the big ones.
“I think that’s the final piece of the puzzle for me, especially coming out of Covid and sort of going through some dips in my game and then coming back up and playing so well the last couple years.
“The final piece of the puzzle is trying to knock off one of those four.”
McIlroy’s Ryder Cup team-mate Tommy Fleetwood expressed similar sentiments as the Dubai-based world number 15 set his sights on a first tournament win since the Nedbank Golf Challenge in November 2022.
Fleetwood, who has recorded six top 10s in his last 10 starts worldwide, said: “I played really well last year, particularly from like early summer onwards, late spring. I think my consistency levels were great.
“Like most people in the world of golf, I don’t win anywhere near as much as I would like, so you’re always looking to that missing piece that would lead to you more victories.
“But overall, in terms of the depths of my performances throughout the year, I was very, very pleased, and to finish the world ranking in a high place again, knocking on the door of that top 10. Hopefully I can just carry on with that consistency and doing the right things and try to kick on.”
The Dubai Invitational features a 72-hole strokeplay tournament played concurrently with a three-day pro-am team event, with Sunday featuring professionals only.
Fontwell’s meeting on Thursday has been abandoned with parts of the course frozen and another cold night forecast.
Temperatures dipped to a low of minus 3.5C on Tuesday evening and were only due to rise to a high of 2C on Wednesday.
To make matters worse there was a windchill of minus 4C preventing conditions from improving.
Given it could get even colder on Wednesday evening all hope was lost that the track would thaw and having originally called an inspection for 8am on raceday, that was brought forward to 1pm on Wednesday and an early decision was made.
Wincanton on Friday is also under threat due to frost.
Having performed a minor miracle to get the course raceable on Saturday, clerk of the course Dan Cooper and his team now face a different problem.
The course is currently frozen in places and temperatures overnight could reach minus 3C before racing but a daytime high of 5C offers hope.
The meetings at Doncaster and Leicester on Wednesday both passed inspections before racing.
There were no issues at all at Doncaster but Leicester did need three inspections before getting the go-ahead, the latter at 12 noon.
Andy Farrell is expected to be named British and Irish Lions head coach for the 2025 tour to Australia on Thursday.
A month after agreeing a contract to remain in charge of Ireland until the end of the 2027 World Cup, Farrell is set to be confirmed as Warren Gatland’s successor in the Lions role at a lunchtime press conference in central London.
The 48-year-old Englishman is seen as the outstanding candidate for one of the game’s most prestigious posts, having masterminded last year’s Grand Slam and an historic 2-1 series victory in New Zealand in 2022.
Ireland also enjoyed a lengthy stay at the summit of the world rankings under his guidance until they were forced into second place by repeat World Cup winners South Africa last autumn.
Farrell would be leading the Lions for the first time, having impressed as an assistant coach under Gatland on the 2013 and 2017 tours, and his appointment would have the blessing of the Irish Rugby Football Union.
“We’d be ecstatic if Andy was named coach of the Lions so hopefully that accolade is the next one for him,” IRFU performance director David Nucifora said in December.
In addition to his management credentials, Farrell has the benefit of coaching the nation that is expected to provide the bulk of the touring party unless England, Scotland or Wales threaten Ireland’s ascendancy over the next 18 months.
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The dual code international won eight caps as a centre in 2007 following his move from Wigan rugby league club and then moved into coaching, first with Saracens and then with England, serving as an assistant under Stuart Lancaster.
He joined Ireland after the 2015 World Cup and succeeded Joe Schmidt as their head coach four years later.
An inspirational figure, he has yet to experience series defeat with the Lions having helped clinch a 2-1 victory over Australia in 2013 and a drawn series with New Zealand in 2017.
He was unavailable for the most recent tour to South Africa due to his commitments with Ireland but there is no objection this time from the IRFU, which is likely to grant him a sabbatical.
It will be the first time the Lions have been led by anyone other than Gatland since 2009, with Wales’ Kiwi boss having already ruled himself out of the running.
Next year’s tour schedule launches against Western Force on June 28, with the first Test taking place in Brisbane on July 19.
Fastorslow will have two options at next month’s Dublin Racing Festival, as Martin Brassil looks to put the finishing touches to his Cheltenham Gold Cup contender.
Having inflicted a shock defeat on Galopin Des Champs in the Punchestown Gold Cup in April, Fastorslow proved there was no fluke about that when again getting the better of last season’s Cheltenham hero in the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase on his seasonal debut.
The trilogy was expected to take place in Leopardstown’s Savills Chase over the festive period, but Fastorslow was withdrawn on the morning of the race due to the deteriorating ground conditions.
In his absence, Galopin Des Champs got back on the winning trail with a brilliant victory, cementing his status in the eyes of the bookmakers as the one to beat in the blue riband at Prestbury Park in March, while trainer Willie Mullins is considering taking in the Irish Gold Cup before the defence of his Cheltenham crown.
Fastorslow is also in Irish Gold Cup contention, but Brassil will also consider the two-mile-one-furlong Ladbrokes Dublin Chase at the same fixture should testing conditions again prevail.
“The entries closed today for the Dublin Racing Festival, so we’ve entered him up for there,” Brassil told the PA news agency on Wednesday.
“He’s in the Irish Gold Cup and we’ve put him in the shorter race as well, just in case the ground came up heavy, then we might run in the shorter race with it being close to the (Cheltenham) Gold Cup.”
Brassil has no regrets about sidestepping the Savills Chase, adding: “It was a horrible evening there, I’d had a couple of runners in the Paddy Power Chase the day before and the ground had well opened up.
“We’ve never ran him on it (testing ground) before, we said we had another option (Dublin Racing Festival) and we said we’d take it.”
While admitting to being impressed by the 23-length success of Galopin Des Champs, he is not shying away from taking him on again.
He said: “He was great wasn’t he? He really was. It’s two-nil at the moment anyway.”
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