Author: The Guardian

CInstitutional Hill has been a favorite for the automatic Champion Hurdle since his brilliant success in the Supreme Novice Hurdle in 2022, a week after he was dropped from this year’s race with Tuesday’s inevitable feature at Cheltenham The ground feels a bit below par. he.Also unsurprisingly, the title of odds-on favorite has gone to Willie Mullins’ State Man, who finished 12 months behind Constitution Hill ) suffered his only defeat in the nine-length runner-up finish.There’s no doubt he’s the most likely beneficiary of Constitution Hill’s absence, but best odds of 4-11 suggest he’s as far ahead of seven opponents…

The Conservative party’s biggest donor told colleagues that looking at Diane Abbott makes you “want to hate all black women” and said the MP “should be shot”, the Guardian can reveal.Frank Hester, who has given £10m to the Tories in the past year, said in the meeting that he did not hate all black women. But he also said that seeing Abbott, who is Britain’s longest-serving black MP, on TV meant “you just want to hate all black women because she’s there”.He also called all his “foreign” workers together to defend himself against online claims that he had made racist…

timeThere have been rain-soaked festivals and frigid festivals since the National Hunter show began to emerge in the winter and take hold in the racing world. In 2001, no festival took place at all due to the foot and mouth crisis, and in 2021, during the third Covid lockdown, another festival took place behind closed doors. During that period, stretching back to the mid-1980s, key indicators – including number of games, prize money, attendances and stakes – have been on an upward trend.The “Cheltenham” concept, if it had been considered at all, would not have been feasible in the middle…

The release of the first official picture of the Princess of Wales and her three children since her operation was undoubtedly meant to end speculation about her recovery. But that has backfired spectacularly after the princess was forced to admit she had edited it.Catherine apologised on Monday after the manipulation of the picture led international picture agencies to refuse to distribute it on grounds of editorial standards.PA Media, the UK’s largest agency and an important outlet for royal news, initially left the image on its picture service. On Monday morning, a spokesperson said: “Like other news agencies, PA Media issued…

Russell Wilson is headed to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback has agreed to a one-year deal with the Steelers, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Sunday night.Associated Press sources said Wilson will receive the veteran’s minimum salary of $1.21 million, with the Denver Broncos paying the remainder of his $39 million salary.Wilson posted his intentions on the X, saying: “Grade 13. Grateful. Steelers.”The 35-year-old was acquired from Seattle in a trade and compiled an 11-19 record in two seasons with the Broncos. He bounced back from a poor 2022 season, throwing for…

Republican South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace says she is unbothered by her choice to support Donald Trump’s run for a second presidency despite previously arguing that he should not hold office again because his supporters attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.“I listened to my voters in South Carolina, and they’ve moved beyond January 6th,” Mace said Sunday on ABC News’s This Week, alluding to how the former US president dominated the recent presidential preference primary in that state as well as others. “Voters held him accountable through our Republican primaries this year. He’s won overwhelmingly.”Mace on Sunday also…

Mickey was a rebel. Not the kind of dude who’d go round telling everyone how radical he was – just quietly, persistently insubordinate.Springer spaniels were pretty rare back in the 1970s. We thought he’d be like a cocker – sweet, passive, affectionate. Mickey turned out to be supersmart but ungovernable. He became known to some as “Mad Mick”.Mickey was six weeks old when he joined us, and unbelievably cute. He couldn’t get up the first stair without falling back down. Not for long, though. He soon learned how to get into bedrooms, using his left paw to open the door.…

timeTo be clear, this doesn’t happen very often. In the fourth innings of the Christchurch Test match, Australia needed 279 runs to win. The Australian Test team has a history of 147 years. Before Monday, they had chased bigger targets 13 times. The total is now up to 14 innings, and after an innings that probably went wrong many times, did go wrong on 3 different outbursts, it finally got it right calmly and cautiously.One of the former baker’s dozen victories came at Edgbaston last year. Late on the fifth day, in a somber atmosphere, bowling captain Pat Cummins batted…

The Princess of Wales has apologised and accepted responsibility for an editing error that led to an official photograph of her and her three children being recalled by international picture agencies.In a tweet posted on the Prince and Princess of Wales’s social media platforms, Catherine wrote: “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C.”The photograph, taken by Prince William at Windsor last week and released to the media through Kensington Palace…

Australia registered a resounding victory in the Test in Christchurch as Alex Carey scored 98 runs to challenge New Zealand to a 2-0 series victory. Carey and Mitch Marsh, who scored 80 runs, got the job done for Australia, who fell behind at 4-34 to win 281-7.After losing 80-5 to Travis Head (18) early on, Marsh and Carey put on a combined 140 – the biggest partnership at the most pressure-packed time of the series. New Zealand debutant Ben Sears provided a huge shock to the Aussies, knocking out Marsh with two goals and then Mitchell Starc , reducing the…