| £3m Champions' Day at Ascot is centrepiece of racing fixtures for 2011 • Richest-ever British meeting aims to rival Arc card• Major midweek festivals to switch to weekendBritish racing's fixture list for 2011 finally emerges into the public domain today, two months late yet, in terms of volume, seemingly little different to the current programme. Its detail, though, includes a number of significant changes, including the long-awaited creation of a £3m Champions' Day at Ascot, shifts into the weekend for the Ebor and July festivals, and the branding of a number of top events as races in a British champions' series.The stated long-term ambition of the British Champions' Day at Ascot, to be staged for the first time on 15 October next year, is to rival the prestige of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe weekend in Paris two weeks earlier, and the Breeders' Cup meeting in the United States, which would be expected to fall three weeks afterwards.While the latter two meetings include multiple Group One events, however, the initial count for British Champions' Day is likely to be two, the Champion Stakes, which has been moved from Newmarket, and the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. The other Pattern races on the card – the Group Two Diadem for sprinters, Group Two Pride Stakes for fillies and Group Three Jockey Club Stakes for stayers – will need to attract consistently top-class fields in the hope of reaching Group One status.In an attempt to explain the paths that lead towards Champions' Day, many top races earlier in the season will be branded as part of the British champions' series, which will launch on 30 April 2011 with the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket. It will include five separate championship categories – sprint, mile, middle distance, long distance and fillies and mares – and focus on six of the most important races in each category in an attempt to create easy-to-follow storylines for a broad audience."Champions' Day will be the climax of the series," Karl Oliver, the chief executive of BCS Ltd, said yesterday. "It's not a finals day, you can't do that in racing, but the prize money on offer will make Champions' Day by far the biggest day of the season, with twice as much as the second-biggest."In time, we will certainly be looking to upgrade the remains races [to Group One status] in the normal way via the [European] Pattern committee. It took a while for Arc weekend to get all its main races up to Group One status, and I think we're doing the right thing and that we have the industry right behind us."Newmarket's decision to allow the Champion Stakes to switch to Ascot has been controversial among many of its annual members, but a reciprocal scheme will at least allow Newmarket's members to attend Ascot to watch what used to be "their" race. Ascot's annual members, meanwhile, will gain free entry to a new Future Champions' Day at Newmarket on 8 October, which will include several of the season's most important races for two-year-olds. This card will also stage the historic Cesarewitch Handicap, while the Group One Fillies' Mile, previously staged at Ascot, moves to a Newmarket fixture in late September.Overall, there will be only 23 fewer fixtures in 2011 compared to the record total of 1,503 in 2010. There are 898 Flat meetings and 582 over jumps, down from 913 and 590 respectively.Ruth Quinn, the director of racing for the British Horseracing Authority, said yesterday that no further significant shifts into Saturday slots are likely until the negotiations surrounding the sport's media rights contracts are concluded prior to 2013. "I suspect that there won't be much more movement to Saturday afternoons until then," Quinn said. "The big festival meetings that are left in midweek are very successful and strong and we all love them dearly."There may well be further discussions about [the] Cheltenham [Festival], but other than that, we will have to wait and see if something exciting develops [from 2013] that makes it worth racing's while."Horse racingAscotGreg Woodguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Mickelson says McIlroy-Woods spat overblown By DOUG FERGUSON 2010-09-29T14:52:51ZNEWPORT, Wales (AP) -- Phil Mickelson came to the defense of Rory McIlroy on Wednesday, calling him one of the classiest players in golf and his desire to play Tiger Woods is the goal of every player who wants to beat the best.... hosted.ap.org |
Spain 'probably the best we've faced' • 'We'd like to get a goal, we would like to get two'• Manager ignores criticism of negative formationAs if the raw talent at Vicente del Bosque's disposal was not worrying enough, Scotland must beware a Spanish squad who have arrived in Glasgow harbouring dual motivation. The World Cup winners sense they can inflict a fatal blow to the Scots' aspirations of reaching Euro 2012 – a mere four games into the qualification process – while living up to the status bestowed on them courtesy of a summer triumph in South Africa.Craig Levein believes Scotland "are probably facing the best team that we have ever played". Yet that glowing endorsement from the Scottish manager is in contrast to the relative struggles of Del Bosque's players since they gave up their historical role as pretenders by lifting the World Cup.Spain have understandably swept aside the meagre qualifying challenge of Liechtenstein and Lithuania thus far but could only draw a friendly with Mexico in August and were trounced 4-1 by Argentina a month ago. "This is something we have to get used to; every game is a special one for our opponents," said Del Bosque.There is a feeling, notably among the Spanish media, that the international team has not fully shaken off their post-World Cup hangover. The toils of David Villa, who has failed to find the net for Spain since South Africa, back up that theory. Tomorrow night, Villa will have his latest opportunity to surpass Raúl's 44-goal record haul for his country."Three months ago we were crowned world champions and now every time we play it becomes a big, big match for our opponents," said Iker Casillas, the Spain goalkeeper. "They always see it as their chance to put one over on the European and world champions."You only need to look at Argentina when we went over there a few weeks ago and they played out of their skins. It means that however motivated our opponents are, we must match it."Casillas believes Scotland's sense of purpose in Glasgow this evening should stem from the fear of failure and yet another barren campaign.Friday night's 1-0 defeat in Prague to the Czech Republic means Levein has watched his players drop five points from a possible nine. They can barely afford further slip-ups. "If Scotland come away pointless from this game, it will be very hard for them to qualify," Casillas said. "The rest of the group would become very difficult and complicated for them. They need something from this game."Del Bosque was unwilling to fully enter the debate over Levein's controversial 4-2-4-0 formation against the Czechs. "That is a crafty question," he said. "I don't want to comment on that because I would be seen to criticise another manager's tactics. I think we will see a more attacking Scotland team, they are playing in front of their own fans."Thereafter came a warning. "We will be very much prepared for whatever tactics Scotland might use," said the Spain manager. "We have got various ways of playing if we have to combat a defensive style. A lot of our players are used to facing this at club level, anyway."Del Bosque should have fond memories of Hampden. He managed Real Madrid when they won the European Cup there in 2002, a match in which Casillas also appeared as a substitute. Yet the coach has given a short shrift to memories of past glories."I am not a particularly nostalgic kind of guy," he said. "I do not live for the past. We are here for three points."Levein's attitude is now arguably more defensive than the approach of his team. There was stinging criticism from supporters and the media in the aftermath of Friday's game, leaving the manager to re-assert that he will not be swayed by public pressure to employ more attacking tactics. "You're assuming I have read any papers, which I haven't," he said.His displeasure last week stemmed from a tabloid report which laid out his team to face the Czechs, 48 hours before the game. "Here's how it works: I got this job and the job is to try and qualify for the Euros," added the Scotland manager. "I'll do that the way I think is right. If it causes a little bit of a stooshie and some of you press guys get upset, then so what? That's not my concern."I've got a group of players who I believe I can work with and who everybody who watched against the Czech Republic realised they put everything they had into the match. For me, that's a great starting point and we move on."We're at home, it's really important we get the supporters right behind us and we will see what we can do."We'd like to get a goal, we would like to get two goals."Euro 2012ScotlandSpainCraig LeveinEwan Murrayguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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United star gets South Korea going with a win SOUTH KOREA, who previously had won just a single World Cup finals game away from home, this time romped through in a canter. Their two goals could have been doubled or even trebled and it was highly appropriate that the second of them, early in the second half, should go to the Manchester United attacker, Park Ji-Sung. timesonline.co.uk |