
Bright Thunder oozes class in Deauville romp
Karl Burke's four-year-old was a Listed winner at Chantilly last summer and after going close on home soil at Goodwood and Epsom earlier this season, gained some valuable compensation on the continent.
It was a victory that was a welcome tonic for the Spigot Lodge team after near misses both earlier on the Deauville card with Spycatcher and in the German Derby with Contingent and there could plenty more to look forward to with the daughter of Night Of Thunder after her commanding performance in the hands of Sam James.
James told Sky Sports Racing: 'She jumped really well, if not too well and I wanted to get a bit of cover.
Emphatic!
British raider Bright Thunder makes it look easy in the Listed Prix Goldikova for @samjock22 and @karl_burke … pic.twitter.com/5wMv1GI8yn
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) July 6, 2025
'However, once I got behind Christophe (Soumillon on Rubies From Burma) on the lead horse she settled away grand and I thought we were going quite slow so I was quite happy to let her find herself and keep coming.
'She doesn't find an awful lot off the bridle but to be fair to her today she's really quickened up and put the race to bed.
'A Group Three wouldn't be out of the question for her and the faster they go in these races the more it suits her. She seems to like coming over here so maybe she can come over again.
'You can sometimes get racing a long way out on a straight mile, but today it all went to plan and she obviously likes coming over and Karl does as well when he brings horses over here.'
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Times
2 hours ago
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Eric Midwinter obituary: cricket statistician
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A scholarship to read history at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, set him on his way to a master's at Liverpool University and he stayed on as an educationalist, directing the city's Education Priority Area (EPA) programme, a government-funded initiative aimed at boosting literacy, numeracy and attendance. He subsequently became principal of the Liverpool Teachers' Centre before moving to London in 1975 to become heads of public affairs at the National Consumer Council. Having already written books and papers about education, social history and Make 'em Laugh, a study of well-known comedians, he was in his 50th year before he published his first book about cricket, WG Grace: His Life and Times. His choice of subject was in part because there had been no new biography in two decades but also because Billy Midwinter, reputedly his grandfather's cousin, had played with Grace in the Gloucestershire and England teams and to this day holds a record as the only Test cricketer to play for both England and Australia in matches against each other. In the words of Walt Whitman, he lived a life that 'contained multitudes' but it was cricket that retained a special place in his world and he was never happier than watching a game at Old Trafford or Lord's with pint in hand. As he once wrote, 'The temperance movement could never claim to have exerted a stranglehold on the game which, associated as it is with drowsy summer days, requires the restorative and relaxing qualities of honest beer to complete its pleasure.' Eric Midwinter, writer, cricket enthusiast and polymath, was born on February 11, 1932. He died after a short illness on August 8, 2025, aged 93


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