Latest news with #Roper

Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Baker looks to spring targets after Robusto rises to Winter Challenge
The $12 Sportsbet chance overcame the consistent Joe Pride-trained sprinter, which made life difficult for him and jockey Tom Sherry in a messy finish. It followed a heavy track win at Warwick Farm carrying 61 kilograms when first up off a 17-week spell and one trial. The five-year-old now has seven wins and 15 placings from 36 starts. 'He's not one of these million-dollar horses, he was just bred in a back paddock with the owners, and it's just wonderful for them and that these stories can happen,' Litt said. 'He'll go on with this, and I'm hoping there's a couple of races coming up, maybe in listed grade, that he can be competitive in.' It was part of a treble for Sherry, who earlier won on Annabel and Rob Archibald-trained Yoshinobu, which was first-up off a gelding operation. Sherry finished the day with victory on Peter Snowden-trained King Of Roseau. Storm The Ramparts' jockey Reece Jones was fined $400 for an audible obscenity in the scales area after the defeat. He said his frustrations had boiled over, and the breach was out of character. He said he had been 'absolutely hammered' by race goers on the way in. Roper lucky to walk away Jockey Josh Parr labelled wayward country galloper Highway Strip 'dangerous' after its part in the fall of apprentice Anna Roper and Rob Agnew-trained Pony Soprano at Rosehill. Roper, who was stood down by the club doctor from the rest of the day, was fortunate to walk away from the fall. Pony Soprano appeared to escape serious injury. The pair fell near the 750m mark of the 1100m Highway Handicap when Danny Williams-trained Highway Strip shifted out, forcing Roper's mount onto the heels of Never Fails. Roper said Highway Strip was racing ungenerously on her inside, and she believed the fall came from a combination of him hanging out and Never Fails cutting across. Parr told stewards he expressed his disappointment to the stable about the horse's poor racing manners and said 'at no point did I feel I had control of that horse'. 'There was no response from the horse from any command that I gave him, and I'd go as far as to say it's a dangerous horse,' Parr said. Highway Strip, the race favourite, hung out on the turn but finished strongly for fourth. Highway Strip had been sent back to the trials previously for its poor racing manners, and Williams told stewards the horse had worked and trialled well since his last-start second at Randwick on January 25. Stewards ordered that Highway Strip trial twice to their satisfaction before being allowed to race again. Three-year-old Shropshire Lad ($8.50) won the race, breaking through for his first Highway win. Knights Armour Knights Armour provided a career highlight for Braidwood cattle farmer and hobby trainer Ross Lavis and Swedish apprentice Rebecca Bronett Prag when the six-year-old gave both a first Saturday city win. Bronett Prag raced Knights Armour ($12) into second-last spot in the 2400m benchmark 78 handicap before cutting the corner with an inside run on the home bend. Knights Armour, the only horse Lavis trains, made the most of the economical trip to land a half-length victory over Good Banter. 'He tries his heart out, and I knew the 2400, he was going to see it out no worries at all,' Lavis said. Bronett Prag, who came to Australia as a teenager, also scored her first metro midweek win with Knights Armour. Maher 2YO scores surprise win Ciaron Maher-trained Without Peer will race into the spring after scoring a surprise win on debut at Rosehill on Saturday. Coming off two unplaced trials, the Pierata gelding was a $12 Sportsbet chance and near last in the 1200m two-year-old handicap before storming down the centre of the track for jockey Chad Schofield to hold off Spice Prawn by a short neck. Maher assistant trainer Johann Gerard-Dubord said the win 'surprised us a bit'. 'He's a gelding, so we will just go through the grades with him and space his runs heading into the spring,' Gerard-Dubord said. 'He's got a lot of talent, but he's still very raw, and we saw that in both of his trials, especially his first one. 'I don't think it was the deepest two-year-old Saturday race, which is why he ran today. 'We just felt 1200 around Rosehill would be a very good starting point. We just wanted him to have a good experience. 'He's still doing a few things wrong, so I think there's a lot more to come.' Loading Big talent on way to success Premier trainer Chris Waller expects Useapin to kick on after she was strong late to win second up at Rosehill on Saturday. The three-year-old daughter of Waller's Everest winner, Yes Yes Yes, fought off Scott Singleton-trained Dollar Magic to claim the benchmark 78 handicap over 1200m for fillies and mares. It was a 14th runner-up effort from Dollar Magic. Waller expected more success after Useapin's fourth victory in 11 starts. 'It was a long straight and Zac [Lloyd] got her out into plenty of air, but she looked like she was going to be vulnerable with 200 to go, but she did enough and she was brave the last bit,' Waller said. 'She's a big girl and she's always shown us promise, but through that big size has struggled to put it together every start, but she's on her way and she should have a good six months.'

The Age
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Baker looks to spring targets after Robusto rises to Winter Challenge
The $12 Sportsbet chance overcame the consistent Joe Pride-trained sprinter, which made life difficult for him and jockey Tom Sherry in a messy finish. It followed a heavy track win at Warwick Farm carrying 61 kilograms when first up off a 17-week spell and one trial. The five-year-old now has seven wins and 15 placings from 36 starts. 'He's not one of these million-dollar horses, he was just bred in a back paddock with the owners, and it's just wonderful for them and that these stories can happen,' Litt said. 'He'll go on with this, and I'm hoping there's a couple of races coming up, maybe in listed grade, that he can be competitive in.' It was part of a treble for Sherry, who earlier won on Annabel and Rob Archibald-trained Yoshinobu, which was first-up off a gelding operation. Sherry finished the day with victory on Peter Snowden-trained King Of Roseau. Storm The Ramparts' jockey Reece Jones was fined $400 for an audible obscenity in the scales area after the defeat. He said his frustrations had boiled over, and the breach was out of character. He said he had been 'absolutely hammered' by race goers on the way in. Roper lucky to walk away Jockey Josh Parr labelled wayward country galloper Highway Strip 'dangerous' after its part in the fall of apprentice Anna Roper and Rob Agnew-trained Pony Soprano at Rosehill. Roper, who was stood down by the club doctor from the rest of the day, was fortunate to walk away from the fall. Pony Soprano appeared to escape serious injury. The pair fell near the 750m mark of the 1100m Highway Handicap when Danny Williams-trained Highway Strip shifted out, forcing Roper's mount onto the heels of Never Fails. Roper said Highway Strip was racing ungenerously on her inside, and she believed the fall came from a combination of him hanging out and Never Fails cutting across. Parr told stewards he expressed his disappointment to the stable about the horse's poor racing manners and said 'at no point did I feel I had control of that horse'. 'There was no response from the horse from any command that I gave him, and I'd go as far as to say it's a dangerous horse,' Parr said. Highway Strip, the race favourite, hung out on the turn but finished strongly for fourth. Highway Strip had been sent back to the trials previously for its poor racing manners, and Williams told stewards the horse had worked and trialled well since his last-start second at Randwick on January 25. Stewards ordered that Highway Strip trial twice to their satisfaction before being allowed to race again. Three-year-old Shropshire Lad ($8.50) won the race, breaking through for his first Highway win. Knights Armour Knights Armour provided a career highlight for Braidwood cattle farmer and hobby trainer Ross Lavis and Swedish apprentice Rebecca Bronett Prag when the six-year-old gave both a first Saturday city win. Bronett Prag raced Knights Armour ($12) into second-last spot in the 2400m benchmark 78 handicap before cutting the corner with an inside run on the home bend. Knights Armour, the only horse Lavis trains, made the most of the economical trip to land a half-length victory over Good Banter. 'He tries his heart out, and I knew the 2400, he was going to see it out no worries at all,' Lavis said. Bronett Prag, who came to Australia as a teenager, also scored her first metro midweek win with Knights Armour. Maher 2YO scores surprise win Ciaron Maher-trained Without Peer will race into the spring after scoring a surprise win on debut at Rosehill on Saturday. Coming off two unplaced trials, the Pierata gelding was a $12 Sportsbet chance and near last in the 1200m two-year-old handicap before storming down the centre of the track for jockey Chad Schofield to hold off Spice Prawn by a short neck. Maher assistant trainer Johann Gerard-Dubord said the win 'surprised us a bit'. 'He's a gelding, so we will just go through the grades with him and space his runs heading into the spring,' Gerard-Dubord said. 'He's got a lot of talent, but he's still very raw, and we saw that in both of his trials, especially his first one. 'I don't think it was the deepest two-year-old Saturday race, which is why he ran today. 'We just felt 1200 around Rosehill would be a very good starting point. We just wanted him to have a good experience. 'He's still doing a few things wrong, so I think there's a lot more to come.' Loading Big talent on way to success Premier trainer Chris Waller expects Useapin to kick on after she was strong late to win second up at Rosehill on Saturday. The three-year-old daughter of Waller's Everest winner, Yes Yes Yes, fought off Scott Singleton-trained Dollar Magic to claim the benchmark 78 handicap over 1200m for fillies and mares. It was a 14th runner-up effort from Dollar Magic. Waller expected more success after Useapin's fourth victory in 11 starts. 'It was a long straight and Zac [Lloyd] got her out into plenty of air, but she looked like she was going to be vulnerable with 200 to go, but she did enough and she was brave the last bit,' Waller said. 'She's a big girl and she's always shown us promise, but through that big size has struggled to put it together every start, but she's on her way and she should have a good six months.'


New York Post
11-07-2025
- General
- New York Post
English church wants to exhume skull of Tudor saint decapitated by Henry VIII
An English church wants to exhume and preserve the remains of a martyr whose head was lopped off and speared on a London Bridge spike. St. Dunstan's Church in Canterbury is asking parochial leaders to open its tomb of Thomas More ahead of the 500th anniversary of his 1535 murder, the Times of London reported. More, a Tudor lawyer to the English monarchy, was decapitated on Tower Hill on the orders of King Henry VIII after refusing to recognize the axe-happy monarch as the head of the Church of England during the English Reformation's separation from the Vatican. St. Thomas More was executed in 1535 after he refused to recognize King Henry VII as head of the church. Getty Images After the execution More's body was tossed in a mass grave at the Tower of London, while his head was parboiled and stuck on a spike over the Thames for passersby to see. And it would have been tossed into the river had More's daughter not paddled down the waterway and retrieved it — and kept it preserved and hidden away until she died years later, with the head being encased in lead and buried with her at St. Dunstan's, according to legend. Over the coming centuries More gained a following as devotee of his faith, and in 1935 — the 400th anniversary of his execution — was made a saint by the Vatican. And now the church council at St. Dunstan's wants to exhume whatever remains of More's skull to begin preserving it for the 500th anniversary of his death, but needs permission from Canterbury's commissary court before any action can be taken, the Times reported. 'We could just put it back in the vault, maybe in a reliquary of some kind, or we could place the reliquary in some sort of shrine or carved stone pillar above ground in the Roper chapel, which is what many of our visitors have requested,' St. Dunstan's said in a statement. More's skull is entombed at St. Dunstan's Church in Canterbury. Benefice of St. Dunstan / Facebook Nobody is quite sure what state the skull's remains are even in. The vault containing the skull was accidentally opened in 1835 during construction, and in 1997 it was placed in a secured niche in the vault's wall — but it hasn't been seen since. During both of those years, the lead casing around the skull was seen broken open and the bones were fragmented. 'Having the relic deteriorating in a vault is not good enough for many who venerate Thomas More. He's here, he's staying here — despite many of our Catholic visitors who would like him back — and we need to consider our ecumenical responsibility,' the church added. The exhumation would seek to preserve whatever remains of the skull, and the church is seeking nearly $70,000 in donations for the process.
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
NC State Football: 2025 Wolfpack Season Preview and Prediction
NC State Football: 2025 Wolfpack Season Preview and Prediction originally appeared on Athlon Sports. With two new coordinators, NC State is bound to look different on the field in 2025. The Wolfpack want to operate fast on offense, while getting sacks and tackles for a loss in bunches on defense. It'll be interesting to see which side of the ball emerges as this team's strength, but the offense, led by quarterback CJ Bailey, seems to have the upper hand so far. Advertisement [Editor's note: This article is from Athlon Sports' 2025 College Football Preview print magazine. Order your copy today online, or pick one up at retail racks and newsstands nationwide.] More ACC team previews Boston College | California | Clemson | Duke | Florida State Georgia Tech | Louisville | Miami | North Carolina Pitt | SMU | Stanford | Syracuse | Virginia | Virginia Tech | Wake Forest NC State 2025 Season Preview and Prediction Previewing NC State's Offense for 2025 NC State's offense will have a new feel this season under Kurt Roper, who was promoted from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator in the offseason. It's been eight years since Roper called an offense, but he's tasked with improving a unit that was 62nd in scoring (28.5 points per game) a year ago. Advertisement Sophomore quarterback CJ Bailey will lead the attack after starting eight games in his first season of college football. He can build off last season with a core of playmakers around him, including senior tight end Justin Joly, sophomore wide receiver Noah Rogers and sophomore running back Hollywood Smothers. Joly was the Wolfpack's leading receiver with 661 yards and four touchdowns, while Smothers emerged as the top running back down the stretch, amassing 834 yards from scrimmage and eight scores. The expectation is that both will be featured pieces of Roper's up-tempo offense. Wolfpack QB CJ Bailey | Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images Previewing NC State's Defense for 2025 Like the offense, NC State's defense is breaking in a new coordinator in D.J. Eliot. The veteran defensive play-caller is looking to bring his pressure-based scheme to Raleigh, where getting after the quarterback is key to the unit's ability to wreak havoc. Advertisement Senior nose tackle Brandon Cleveland is set to anchor the defensive line, while redshirt seniors Sean Brown and Caden Fordham will lead the team's linebacker corps. Temple transfer linebacker Tra Thomas, who will likely spend most of his time at edge, impressed this past spring. The Wolfpack will boast a largely new secondary as the transfer portal took most of the starters. Former FCS Villanova transfer Devon Marshall emerged as a consistent cornerback for the Pack a year ago and is set to start. Watch for young defensive backs like redshirt freshmen Ronnie Royal III and Jaren Sensabaugh to make waves this fall. NC State LB Sean Brown | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images Previewing NC State's Specialists for 2025 Punter Caden Noonkester, placekicker Kanoah Vinesett and long-snapper Aiden Arias are set for another season with the Pack. Noonkester averaged 43.6 yards per boot, dropping 18 inside the 20-yard line and launching 14 punts of 50-plus yards. Vinesett is entering his second season as NC State's starting placekicker. He was 18-of-24 on field-goal attempts with a long of 52 a year ago. He was a perfect 34-for-34 on PATs and was 14-for-16 on field-goal attempts under 40 yards. Advertisement National Ranking: 54 More ACC team previews Boston College | California | Clemson | Duke | Florida State Georgia Tech | Louisville | Miami | North Carolina Pitt | SMU | Stanford | Syracuse | Virginia | Virginia Tech | Wake Forest Related: ACC Football 2025 Predictions Related: College Football Rankings: Projecting the Top 25 Teams for 2025 Related: Athlon Sports 2025 College Football Preview Magazine Available Now This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 3, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GE Appliances completes $180M Georgia plant expansion
This story was originally published on Manufacturing Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Manufacturing Dive newsletter. GE Appliances has completed a $180 million expansion of subsidiary Roper Corp.'s cooking products manufacturing facility in LaFayette, Georgia, the company announced earlier this month. The investment is an increase from its initial $118 million announcement in 2021. The additional $60 million went toward purchasing additional equipment and expanding production capacity, Luther Ingram, president and executive director of Roper, said in an email. The combined investment created more than 600 jobs. It also enables the company to add automated technology to its lines such as robotic cells that can assemble glass cooktops, program control boards and rotate units, according to the press release. Robotics use has more than tripled at the Roper facility, improving the factory's efficiency and employees' work environment, GE Appliances said in the release. The robotics work began in 2023, Ingram said. The factory has only implemented robotics in 30% of the plant, with an opportunity to add more, he added. Roper has been focused on upskilling the plant's workforce as it invests in robotics and digitization. In 2023, Roper obtained grant money from the state of Georgia and partnered with Georgia Northwestern Technical College to fund an apprenticeship program to train 45 employees in robotics. The new lines and robotics allow GE Appliances to expand production capacity to manufacture gas, electric and induction ranges to meet customer demand, according to the press release. Additionally, the investment will accelerate the company's launch of new range products, notably its smart feature and more accessible and affordable brand, the GE Profile induction. The Roper facility opened in 1973 and employs approximately 2,500 people, Ingram said. The plant is vertically integrated and incorporates stamping, paint, enamel, welding, graphics and production, according to the release. GE Appliances is a subsidiary of China-based appliance and consumer electronics company Haier Smart Home. The company acquired GE Appliances from General Electric in 2016. The appliance maker has 11 manufacturing facilities and microfactories in the United States, five of which are located at the company's headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky. The remaining four plants are located in Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Indiana and Connecticut, according to GE Appliances' website Correction: The story has been updated to reflect that GE Appliances' parent company is Haier Smart Home. Recommended Reading Yaskawa America to expand Wisconsin plant, streamline manufacturing Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data