Latest news with #Selvan
New Paper
4 days ago
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- New Paper
Selvan's team toss in serious gallops
On the morning of May 28, Nick Selvan was a busy man trackside - and why not? The trainer, who is currently sitting second on the premiership table has entered a strong team of 13 for the upcoming Kuala Lumpur races on June 1 and, like his crew, he was up bright and early to watch the bulk of his gallopers being put through their paces. Names like Prince Lonhro, Uptown Girl and Delilah are some of the horses who could spearhead his assault on the races coming up. Next in line, God's Gift, Big Bad Mama and Single Warrior are the ones to keep a watchful eye on. Taking it from the top, the work put in by Prince Lonhro was the most impressive. The son of Lonhro did not break any speed records but he did the 600m in a nice time of 40.2sec. If anything, it would have told Selvan and track-watchers that he was holding the form which saw him record the second of his two wins at his last start on May 11. Granted, that was over the Perak Turf Club's 1,300m. But we know from his race records that he is very much at home at Sungai Besi. In 10 starts at Kranji when prepared by Donna Logan, a second place was his best showing. At his fifth Malaysian outing, at Sungai Besi on Feb 16, he did not give his rivals a whiff of his withers. He romped in by 5¾ lengths. Prince Lonhro may not yet be "royalty" in racing circles, but he is still a five-year-old and, quite definitely a work in progress. One that is getting on in years but is not yet ready to lie down is Uptown Girl. An eight-year-old mare, she worked well, running the 600m in 41sec after some serious cantering on the yielding track. The New Zealand-bred by Shamoline Warrior came close to putting together a seventh victory on May 17. Alas, it was not to be. Even though there was no economy in effort, she found one to beat in rank outsider Roger Roger, who charged home to win that 1,300m contest for Class 5A gallopers at Sungai Besi by 1¼ lengths. That day, her connections would have screamed themselves hoarse as, at the 100m mark, their lady looked like she was going to bring it home. Uptown Girl goes over the shorter 1,020m on June 1. The jump-and-run races may not be her forte as five of her six wins have been in races over 1,200m and longer. But, in her defence, we saw her sprint hard on April 5 when she beat Diamond Ring by 1½ lengths in a race over the short and sharp 1,150m. So, keep her on your shortlist and watch for her when she lines up in Race 11 on June 1. Her trackwork does suggest that she has the form to turn in a good showing. Then there was Delilah. She would have warmed Selvan's heart when she turned in a good gallop, running the 60m in 39.8sec. Until racing shut down in Singapore on Oct 5, 2024, Delilah was under the care of trainer Leslie Khoo who saddled her to three victories. That last win was in a 1,000m race at Kranji on Aug 25. To date, she has had four starts for Selvan and the last two were over the 1,300m. Selvan has picked a 1,020m race for Delilah and, if she can bring her training form to the races, she could be something else. Among his remaining three horses, Big Bad Mama clocked the fastest time in 38.4sec, while Single Warrior and God's Gift did the 600m in 41.6sec and 42sec respectively. Admittedly, at eight years of age, Big Bad Mama is getting long in the tooth, but Selvan has been meticulous in getting the mare ready for her next assignment. Indeed, it was as recent as May 20 that he sent her to the trials where she acquitted herself well, running second to Joey. Selvan has entered her for Race 8. It is the Metro A sprint over the flying 1,020m. The daughter of former Singapore 3YO Triple Crown champion Gingerbread Man will be in her element and, if she manages to overcome her outermost alley in 10, do what she does best in her races - which is to run like the hounds of hell are after her - she might just give her rivals something to chase. brian@
The Independent
13-03-2025
- The Independent
Google's new AI research assistant can plan your next holiday for you – and now it's free
Google has launched an upgraded version of its Gemini 'Deep Research' tool, making the AI -powered research assistant free for everyone to try. If you haven't heard of Deep Research, you're not alone. In Google 's race to expand its AI products across smartphones, search results and Google Workspace, the tool was easily overlooked – not least because it has until now been exclusive to the paid-tier of the Gemini app. Launched in December 2024, Deep Research effectively searches the web on your behalf. Give it a topic you want to learn more about – from child-friendly ski resorts to nuclear reactor legislation – and the AI assistant will disappear for five minutes, trawling the internet for trusted sources and up-to-date information before popping back up with a comprehensive, in-depth report. With today's upgrade to Deep Research 2.0 – and by throwing it open to everyone to try – Google is hoping the tool will appeal not just to academic and scientific users 'geeking out on nuclear fusion', but to the average person, whether they're planning a holiday, moving home or comparing local landscaping services. Aarush Selvan, senior product manager at Google, gave The Independent a first look at the new version of Deep Research ahead of its relaunch. 'We're looking at the kinds of tasks where before you might have had to open 50 Chrome tabs and weave together information to get to an answer, or to go really deep on a topic,' says Selvan. The new version of Deep Research upgrades the tool to Google's latest 'thinking' AI model – which transparently explains its reasoning as it works, and questions and corrects itself as it goes, which Google says should lead to more accurate results and a greater insight into how it arrives at its conclusions. 'This new model is actively thinking between taking steps,' says Selvan. 'That allows it to be more thoughtful in how it browses the web and to do more analysis on its findings. The idea is it will start being able to write more insightful and more detailed reports.' To demonstrate the newly upgraded Deep Research tool, Selvan tasked the AI with looking for potential holiday destinations in the Canary Islands along with a bunch of specific, personal requirements: two adults and one seven year old, a focus on good food and entertainment, with destinations ranked by average daytime temperatures. Whereas previously Deep Research would only display a list of the websites it was rifling through for information, the new thinking model gives a running commentary on its thought process: first identifying a longlist of possible holiday destinations, then diving into hotel websites to find kids' clubs, searching local restaurants and venues, and pulling up historical weather data to whittle down its report to a handful of relevant results. '[Deep Research 2.0] is now able to articulate what it's found, why it's interesting, and what it should look for next. We can bring that information back and show the user,' says Selvan. 'Another great example we worked on internally was finding the best summer camp for your kid, right? Like there are all these different small camps to consider, and you want to figure out which are half-day, which are full-day, and how they're all priced.' Today's update to Deep Research comes as Google faces increasing pushback from online publishers, who say that its controversial AI-generated search results and summaries – similar to those created by Deep Research – reduce traffic and ad revenue. Among other changes, Deep Research 2.0 at least puts a greater emphasis on identifying its sources, giving citations and outbound links to the sites being referenced. Selvan describes the assistant's reports as a 'starting point'. 'We want to make it really easy for users to double click into each website. That's why we dedicate quite a lot of screen real estate to [links]. We want people to click into these websites, read what's interesting and understand why these websites are appearing here.'
