Latest news with #JamesDoyle
South China Morning Post
4 days ago
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong winners Lazzat and Rebel's Romance the star acts on Sunday's simulcast cards
The Group One winners are favourites for top-level races in France and Germany respectively on Sunday Lazzat will take the next step in cementing himself as the best European sprinter when he goes for back to back wins in the Group One Prix Maurice de Gheest (1,300m) at Deauville on Sunday. The Jerome Reynier-trained speedster is a perfect three from three at the sprint trips and bagged his second top-level success when making all the running in the Group One Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (1,200m) at Royal Ascot. He gave his connections a scare post race, however, unshipping his jockey James Doyle and providing fans with an unscheduled lap of honour. LAZZAT WINS THE QUEEN ELIZABETH II JUBILEE STAKES! 🏆 #ROYALASCOT — At The Races (@AtTheRaces) June 21, 2025 His Ascot win put him to the front of the pack in terms of European sprinters and he has drawn barrier three as he bids to follow up a dominant three-length success in this race from 12 months ago. 'He took fright at the blanket and ejected James Doyle before escaping, but fortunately there was no harm done,' Reynier said this week. 'He came out of his Ascot race very well. He adapts to everything, is used to Deauville and is ready to defend his title.' It will not be an easy task, however, with strong challengers from at home and abroad. The Prix Maurice de Gheest is one of the few Group One races that legendary trainer Andre Fabre is yet to win and Sajir, a Group Three winner at Newmarket two starts ago, will bid to put that right after being withdrawn at the start at Royal Ascot. The Abernant goes to France 🇫🇷 Sajir strikes for master trainer André Fabre and @oismurphy.@BlandfordBldstk | @NewmarketRace — Racing TV (@RacingTV) April 16, 2025 As for the raiders, the biggest danger is set to be the Kevin Ryan-trained Inisherin, an impressive winner of the Group One Commonwealth Cup (1,200m) at Royal Ascot last year. He ran out of steam when seventh to Lazzat at Ascot last time, but his trainer is confident of a return to form. 'It's unfortunate what happened in the July Cup, but that's past tense now, and it was always the plan after that to go to the Maurice de Gheest,' Ryan told the Nick Luck podcast. 'This is six-and-a-half furlongs, an extra half furlong, but it won't be a problem to him. He seems very well in himself and I'm looking forward to running him. I think the distance will really suit him.' Other leading contenders include Group One Prix Jean Prat (1,400m) winner Woodshauna and Godolphin's Shadow Of Light, who chased home that rival in fourth last time. WOODSHAUNA WINS THE PRIX JEAN PRAT! 🏆 — At The Races (@AtTheRaces) July 6, 2025 There is also German action being simulcast on Sunday, with the Group One Grosser Preis von Berlin (2,400m) being the feature contest. One of the biggest races in the German calendar, it has been won by raiding horses in three of the last four years. Last year's Group One Champions & Chater Cup (2,400m) winner Rebel's Romance heads the field and is set to go off a very warm order for 2022's winning trainer Charlie Appleby. Junko, who won the 2023 Group One Hong Kong Vase (2,400m), is another big danger from abroad for trainer Andre Fabre. The home team is headed by last year's second Narrativo, who chased home the smart Al Riffa on that occasion, but he may have to settle for the same position with another strong group of raiders.
Scottish Sun
6 days ago
- Sport
- Scottish Sun
Jim Delahunt's expert horse racing betting tips for Chepstow, Musselburgh, Ayr, Haydock and Leopardstown
HAATEM was beaten in a messy mile race at Goodwood last time but the Royal Ascot winner looks all set to make amends at Haydock on Saturday. Richard Hannon's four-year-old could only finish third behind Never So Brave in that Sussex Group 2 but little went right for stand-in Sean Levey that day and James Doyle is back on board for this ten furlongs Group 3 at 3.0. 2 Haatem ridden by James Doyle on the way to winning the Wolferton Stakes Credit: PA 2 Jim Delahunt is back for another week of top tips Credit: Keith Campbell - The Sun Glasgow Doyle steered last year's seven furlongs Jersey Stakes winner to a second Royal meeting success over ten furlongs in June and while excuses could be made back over a mole at Goodwood, Saturday's mile and a quarter could now be an optimum trip. Recent Hamilton Glasgow Stakes winner Nahraan heads the betting for Haydock's Rose Of Lancaster Stakes but that three-year-old is dropping back in trip and I'd be confident that Haatem can prove his class and concede the 8lbs weight-for-age. SPIRIT OF JURA (5/1) was a Saturday night winner at Hamilton for this column last week and I'm backing BOY DOUGLAS to complete an Ayr hat-trick this Saturday night at 7.42. YAASER ran two excellent races on successive days at York two weeks ago and the Jim Goldie trained seven-year-old can get back to winning form in Musselburgh's 3.20 on Friday. Stable apprentice Lauren Young has been switched on to the stable's hat-trick seeking Inanna after doing the steering on Yaaser both times on the Knavesmire but Paul Mulrennan gets the leg up on my selection and this seven furlongs Class 3 looks ideal. ANOTHER ABBOT looked like he needed his first run in a month at Windsor last time but he was only beaten three and a half lengths by a Michael Dods' trained improver completing a hat-trick and the three-year-old can win Thursday's 'Brighton Bullet' at 3.30. Top-weight Abate will take some catching but Tom Marquand's mount will be suited by the likely strong pace and trainer William Haggas has been cleaning up in sprint handicaps all summer. DARK SIDE THUNDER is still 2lbs above his last winning mark as he tackles Newmarket's 7.05 but Jessica Macey applies blinkers for the first time and the new headgear could just provide the spark required with the handicapper unlikely to relent any time soon. Iain Jardine and Andrew Mullen can take Thirsk's 3.40 on Friday with PARISIAC and while the same pair combine with Paddy The Squire at 4.13, I reckon Tim Easterby's FINANCER could benefit from stronger handling (Duran Fentiman) after being ridden by two amateurs and an apprentice in his last three starts. Sandown and Leopardstown provide the alternatives to Racing League action on Thursday night and the Mick and David Easterby team look to have found an ideal opportunity for last year's Ayr Bronze Cup winner DILIGENT RESDEV in Sandown's 7.45. Jim Delahunt's FREE horse racing tips - Will Kalpana down the favs in Ascot's King George Racing tips at Ascot, York, Newcastle and Kilbeggan. The four-year-old is 353 at Thursday night's trip of seven furlongs this season but she could easily have been bumped up a few pounds for that latest third at York and she drops to Class 4 here with the three-year-old Happy Banner to beat. Leopardstown's card features Group 3 races at both eight and 12 furlongs and the first of them can go to course and distance maiden winner ALAKAZI which Ben Coen rides ahead of Johnny Murtagh stablemate Chicago Critic. The last-named ran well enough in a Curragh Group 2 to suggest he'll appreciate tomorrow night's drop in class but Alakazi has run well in two Listed races at the Curragh and I reckon he'll be better going back left-handed in a distinctly average Group 3 at 6.23. LAYFAYETTE had little more than a canter round under top-weight in a Galway handicap last Friday but it's back to serious Group 3 business for in-form Noel Meade's veteran and tomorrow's Ballyroan Stakes at 6.53 looks well within range. Jim Goldie sends two horses to Chepstow for Thursday night's Racing League and both look worthy of support under experienced 3lbs claimer Amie Waugh. Godolphin cast-off MONTEZUMA can surprise a few at 5.30 with WOOHOO only 2lbs higher than her last Ayr and hopefully set to be loaded last. DINO BELLAGIO drifted before landing the Sunday daily at 11/1 a month ago and Donald McCain's runner can don the Sunday best again at Haydock. The six-year-old's up 6lbs for that handicap debut win but he looked very well in on bumper form so check the early prices for the 6.45. Delahunt daily for Thursday August 7 Neoma to win 3.40 Brighton (13/2) Charlie Johnston's filly was down the field on soft ground at Yarmouth last time but she wasn't persevered with at all in that Racing League race and she's back on her favoured sound surface here. Neoma had looked a progressive young stayer before that trip to Norfolk but she's at least been dropped a pound for her troubles and she's one of two three-year-olds getting 10lbs weight-for-age. Hat-trick seeking Lexington Knight looks to repeat last year's win from 4lbs higher but Johnston's dad Mark won this race twice in the past and Joe Fanning can break his duck on the filly after four seconds. Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Colin Brazier: The day I discovered my millionaire grandfather
Five years ago, while explaining his conversion to Catholicism, America's vice-president, JD Vance, wrote that coincidences were evidence of 'the touch of God'. But how improbable need events be before rational explanations falter? I ask this, not for a friend, but myself. Last month, on Friday the 13th no less, something happened which stretches statistical credulity. And since I am already a Catholic, I am not minded to dismiss it as happenstance. I was sitting with my daughter at Lord's Cricket Ground when a message landed in my LinkedIn inbox. It was from a stranger, a woman claiming to be my aunt. A recent DNA test had apparently revealed the link. Without going into details, her story checked out. She also included two pictures of a man, bearing an unmistakable likeness to me, standing in front of a very grand house. This, she said, was my paternal grandfather, James JJ Doyle. Her disclosure was, to put it mildly, a surprise. I was raised knowing nothing about my father's side of the family (indeed, I had only learnt my father's true identity as a young man). Now, out-of-blue, came my grandfather's story. James 'Jimmy' Doyle was born in 1930 into extreme poverty in Hastings, where – coincidentally – I spent half a year training to be a journalist. He was a poor boy made good, up to a point. A spell in prison for handling stolen antiques (he was exposed by Esther Rantzen on That's Life) did not prevent a social ascent of Becky Sharp velocity. He became a property developer and in 1971 pulled off the biggest coup of his career. After 20 years of trying, he finally bought Wykehurst Place, a 105-room country house set in 180-acres of Sussex countryside. Doyle spent millions in today's money on a huge restoration project. Nikolaus Pevsner and Ian Nairn, in their influential series The Buildings Of England, described it as the 'epitome of high Victorian showiness and licence'. The house became the setting for films like The Eagle Has Landed starring Michael Caine. According to my newly-discovered aunt, her father was a man of strong dynastic instincts. His yearning for a male heir to inherit the family pile was never requited (he had seven daughters). The reality, unknown to him, was that he had fathered a boy as a teenager in Brighton. That baby, adopted by a couple far away in Yorkshire, became my father. Neither knew of the other's existence. Sadly, Doyle's life ultimately ended in ruin and despair. After divorce and bankruptcy, he killed himself in 1995. Learning of all this made me reflect that in a world where DNA home-testing kits are cheap and widely available, the discovery of hidden branches of family trees must be increasingly commonplace. Doyle's story was simply more colourful, and ultimately tragic, than many. But the genetic science that has made this possible is about more than ancestry tests. In the eternal debate about what makes people who they are, DNA now dominates the argument. Geneticists talk of characteristics as something we are born with, innate – not bred into us or learnt. When I look at the parallels between my life and that of my grandfather, do I see coincidence or genetic predisposition? Doyle had seven daughters and a son. I had a son and five daughters. Does that suggest a biological sex-bias in our DNA, something in our genes which made us both more likely to beget girls? Or, is it broader than that? There is evidence to suggest a genetic predisposition towards the decision to have children at all. What might feel like an act of free-will may actually have more to do with what lurks in our double-helix. Some scientists even believe that personality-traits like an openness to religion are genetically encoded. God-botherers like me are just born that way, it seems. But how to explain the other stuff? As anyone who has followed my 35-year-long career in television will testify (BBC, Sky, GB News), over the decades I have moved sharply and publicly to the Right. On X, I post regularly about immigration issues, motivated to a great extent by my upbringing in Bradford, a city used (disastrously in my view) as a giant laboratory for multiculturalism. Doyle, though ostensibly a businessman, was also of the Right. He founded the Racial Preservation Society, which campaigned in the 1960s and 1970s for an end to mass immigration. Until Friday the 13th, I had never heard of the Racial Preservation Society, nor of The British Independent, a newspaper founded and funded by Doyle. When I discovered Doyle's politics I was half-way through proof-reading a book about anti-Semitism for a Jewish friend. I have no time for racists. But I am also part of a growing cohort of commentators online and elsewhere who refuse to be shutdown by ideological enemies who use that slur to limit legitimate debate. I think Britain faces tough questions about its demographic future, and I am trying to explore them in the pages of The Salisbury Review, a conservative quarterly founded by the philosopher Roger Scruton and where I am now assistant editor. I have no idea how it compares to Doyle's British Independent. Yet it is odd that we should both be involved in Right-wing writing. If family formation and religiosity can be attributed to DNA, what about politics? But where does genetics stop and coincidence begin? And, indeed, where does a coincidence become so improbable that it veers beyond the bounds of reasonable likelihood? It is odd that I should call my only son John Joseph, even though I never knew James JJ (John Joseph) Doyle. It is strange that my grandfather, when he sold Wykehurst Park in 1981, should buy a slightly lesser mansion, now apparently inhabited by a famous English journalist and media personality (Piers Morgan). Yet these are everyday coincidences. How, though, to account for Bolney? I had never heard of Bolney, a village in Sussex, until a friend gave me a Virgin voucher as a wedding present last year. It was for a tour around a vineyard located there. We forgot all about it until, while my wife was organising her desk six weeks ago, she stumbled upon the card and noticed that the gift was about to expire. We decided to book a room there and spend a day walking on the South Downs. That was a few days before Friday the 13th. There are more than 6,000 villages in Britain and yet the one that had come to our attention was the very village in which Wykehurst Place sits. The home, not just of a vineyard, but of my paternal grandfather. What are the odds? The dictionary defines a coincidence as 'a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection'. I prefer the definition given by the late Alistair Cooke, long-time and much-loved host of BBC radio's Letter From America. Extreme coincidence was, he said in a letter about the subject in 2001, a potential gift of grace. 'Somebody,' he said, 'is saying 'stay the course' … reminding you that they have you in mind.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Colin Brazier: The day I discovered my millionaire grandfather
Five years ago, while explaining his conversion to Catholicism, America's vice-president, JD Vance, wrote that coincidences were evidence of 'the touch of God'. But how improbable need events be before rational explanations falter? I ask this, not for a friend, but myself. Last month, on Friday the 13th no less, something happened which stretches statistical credulity. And since I am already a Catholic, I am not minded to dismiss it as happenstance. I was sitting with my daughter at Lord's Cricket Ground when a message landed in my LinkedIn inbox. It was from a stranger, a woman claiming to be my aunt. A recent DNA test had apparently revealed the link. Without going into details, her story checked out. She also included two pictures of a man, bearing an unmistakable likeness to me, standing in front of a very grand house. This, she said, was my paternal grandfather, James JJ Doyle. Her disclosure was, to put it mildly, a surprise. I was raised knowing nothing about my father's side of the family (indeed, I had only learnt my father's true identity as a young man). Now, out-of-blue, came my grandfather's story. James 'Jimmy' Doyle was born in 1930 into extreme poverty in Hastings, where – coincidentally – I spent half a year training to be a journalist. He was a poor boy made good, up to a point. A spell in prison for handling stolen antiques (he was exposed by Esther Rantzen on That's Life) did not prevent a social ascent of Becky Sharp velocity. He became a property developer and in 1971 pulled off the biggest coup of his career. After 20 years of trying, he finally bought Wykehurst Place, a 105-room country house set in 180-acres of Sussex countryside. Doyle spent millions in today's money on a huge restoration project. Nikolaus Pevsner and Ian Nairn, in their influential series The Buildings Of England, described it as the 'epitome of high Victorian showiness and licence'. The house became the setting for films like The Eagle Has Landed starring Michael Caine. According to my newly-discovered aunt, her father was a man of strong dynastic instincts. His yearning for a male heir to inherit the family pile was never requited (he had seven daughters). The reality, unknown to him, was that he had fathered a boy as a teenager in Brighton. That baby, adopted by a couple far away in Yorkshire, became my father. Neither knew of the other's existence. Sadly, Doyle's life ultimately ended in ruin and despair. After divorce and bankruptcy, he killed himself in 1995. Learning of all this made me reflect that in a world where DNA home-testing kits are cheap and widely available, the discovery of hidden branches of family trees must be increasingly commonplace. Doyle's story was simply more colourful, and ultimately tragic, than many. But the genetic science that has made this possible is about more than ancestry tests. In the eternal debate about what makes people who they are, DNA now dominates the argument. Geneticists talk of characteristics as something we are born with, innate – not bred into us or learnt. When I look at the parallels between my life and that of my grandfather, do I see coincidence or genetic predisposition? Doyle had seven daughters and a son. I had a son and five daughters. Does that suggest a biological sex-bias in our DNA, something in our genes which made us both more likely to beget girls? Or, is it broader than that? There is evidence to suggest a genetic predisposition towards the decision to have children at all. What might feel like an act of free-will may actually have more to do with what lurks in our double-helix. Some scientists even believe that personality-traits like an openness to religion are genetically encoded. God-botherers like me are just born that way, it seems. But how to explain the other stuff? As anyone who has followed my 35-year-long career in television will testify (BBC, Sky, GB News), over the decades I have moved sharply and publicly to the Right. On X, I post regularly about immigration issues, motivated to a great extent by my upbringing in Bradford, a city used (disastrously in my view) as a giant laboratory for multiculturalism. Doyle, though ostensibly a businessman, was also of the Right. He founded the Racial Preservation Society, which campaigned in the 1960s and 1970s for an end to mass immigration. Until Friday the 13th, I had never heard of the Racial Preservation Society, nor of The British Independent, a newspaper founded and funded by Doyle. When I discovered Doyle's politics I was half-way through proof-reading a book about anti-Semitism for a Jewish friend. I have no time for racists. But I am also part of a growing cohort of commentators online and elsewhere who refuse to be shutdown by ideological enemies who use that slur to limit legitimate debate. I think Britain faces tough questions about its demographic future, and I am trying to explore them in the pages of The Salisbury Review, a conservative quarterly founded by the philosopher Roger Scruton and where I am now assistant editor. I have no idea how it compares to Doyle's British Independent. Yet it is odd that we should both be involved in Right-wing writing. If family formation and religiosity can be attributed to DNA, what about politics? But where does genetics stop and coincidence begin? And, indeed, where does a coincidence become so improbable that it veers beyond the bounds of reasonable likelihood? It is odd that I should call my only son John Joseph, even though I never knew James JJ (John Joseph) Doyle. It is strange that my grandfather, when he sold Wykehurst Park in 1981, should buy a slightly lesser mansion, now apparently inhabited by a famous English journalist and media personality (Piers Morgan). Yet these are everyday coincidences. How, though, to account for Bolney? I had never heard of Bolney, a village in Sussex, until a friend gave me a Virgin voucher as a wedding present last year. It was for a tour around a vineyard located there. We forgot all about it until, while my wife was organising her desk six weeks ago, she stumbled upon the card and noticed that the gift was about to expire. We decided to book a room there and spend a day walking on the South Downs. That was a few days before Friday the 13th. There are more than 6,000 villages in Britain and yet the one that had come to our attention was the very village in which Wykehurst Place sits. The home, not just of a vineyard, but of my paternal grandfather. What are the odds? The dictionary defines a coincidence as 'a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection'. I prefer the definition given by the late Alistair Cooke, long-time and much-loved host of BBC radio's Letter From America. Extreme coincidence was, he said in a letter about the subject in 2001, a potential gift of grace. 'Somebody,' he said, 'is saying 'stay the course' … reminding you that they have you in mind.'
The Sun
23-06-2025
- Sport
- The Sun
Huge Lazzat update after Royal Ascot hero almost KO'd helpless man – as trainer admits ‘freak' mistake caused meltdown
TRAINER Jerome Reynier has issued a big update on awesome Royal Ascot winner Lazzat - who almost kicked a man's head off after the race. Lazzat had just beaten Japanese challenger Satono Reve to win the Group 1 Platinum Jubilee Stakes last Saturday when he lost control. 3 3 First he dumped jockey James Doyle to the turf then galloped loose over the track. Moments later, ITV footage showed one poor helpless soul who tried to get him to calm down coming just inches from being kicked in the head. There were fears the worrying scenes could lead to Doyle being disqualified as he was unable to weigh in without his saddle - which was still strapped to Lazzat's back. But fortunately there was a happy ending for the Wathnan-owned horse, who is now back home in Reynier's French yard and doing well. Speaking to Sky Sports Racing, the trainer admitted Lazzat's meltdown was all his fault. It was Reynier who stood in front of the sprinter with the winner's cloth - and it was like waving a red rag to a bull. He said: "The horse is all good, nice and settled and he doesn't even seem tired. He's ready for more. "Me and James were laughing about it. It's my fault with the winning sheet. I came too close. I should've gone round the side. "But we were so happy and it was a freak (accident). "If I could have jumped on the horse with James I would have done! "But it was an amazing moment to share with all my friends on the day." Lazzat was made 5-2 favourite for the July Cup on the back of his 6f win at Ascot. But Reynier confirmed his next start will not be until August when he aims to defend his Maurice de Gheest crown in Deauville. He said: "This race will suit him well once again and obviously he will be the favourite. "On the European racing programme - he doesn'y mind the ground so the plan would be to stick with Group 1 sprinting races and Haydock and Ascot could be the next targets for him. "But we are focused on August 10 for Deauville and the Maurice de Gheest. "He is young and they often get better with age. "Maybe the best is yet to come." Commercial content notice: Taking one of the offers featured in this article may result in a payment to The Sun. You should be aware brands pay fees to appear in the highest placements on the page. 18+. T&Cs apply. Remember to gamble responsibly A responsible gambler is someone who:
