And that patently is part of the business

And that, patently, is part of the business.Nigel Mansell has frequently been linked with Jordan, and since there are precious few drivers around with winning pedigrees, the former champion’s name has inevitably cropped up again of late. So, too, has that of Jean Alesi.The driving force of this perpetually moving operation is the team’s owner, Eddie Jordan, a Dubliner who always did talk a good race. Long before he negotiated deals for space on his grand prix car, he sold salmon to rugby fans over for internationals at Lansdowne Road.Phillips said: “He is, for a period of 10 to 12 minutes, the most blinding salesman you are ever likely to meet. He’s not a con man because he genuinely believes that what he’s saying he can deliver. “When the driver market starts to be busy we need to know we are going to be a player in that.

As yet, we have not been able to be a player.”That may be disturbing news for their current drivers, Rubens Barrichello and Martin Brundle, but tantalising for the sponsors and potential sponsors. Now they are chasing the extra cash.Phillips said: “We have set ourselves a target whereby at the end of the month we will know where 75 to 80 per cent of our money for next year will be coming from, and that gives you greater powers to invest long term in drivers.”Probably the next thing Jordan needs to do, and needs to secure the money to do, is put themselves in a position to buy a driver you know is capable of winning, one who has a pedigree of winning. Their work force, 42 when they entered Formula One five and a half years ago, will be up to 95 by the end of this month. Michael Schumacher’s salary alone accounts for that much, an irony in itself as Jordan gave the German his debut.The team are matching their own ambition with developments at their factory, across the road from the Silverstone circuit. Peugeot and Total are not only suppliers and partners but also the team’s other major sponsors.Benson & Hedges contribute around 60 per cent of Jordan’s annual budget, which is estimated at pounds 16m. It is a huge amount, yet modest compared with the resources of McLaren, Williams and Benetton, and almost insignificant by Ferrari’s standards. Although Jordan are yet to win a race at this level, let alone challenge for the title, they have earned a reputation for attracting sponsorship at a rate which belies their “second division” status.
They have about 32 backers (even their marketing man, Ian Phillips, has to pause to tot up the latest tally) and have wrong-footed illustrious, now envious, rivals to secure a long-term agreement with Benson & Hedges.

But the jockey’s injury took longer than expected to heal, and he decided last week to sit out the Eclipse meeting.France’s Anabaa was well backed yesterday for Thursday’s July Cup and is now 3-1 from 4-1 with William Hill who eased Pivotal from 6-4 to 7- 4.. No team will travel a shorter distance to the British Grand Prix this week, but Jordan-Peugeot are restless to go further. Come the late summer, they hope to be in the market for a driver of proven winning ability and be heading for the next Formula One world championship as major players

Such progress, of course, costs money. “He had a heart attack or suffered a brain haemorrhage and died a few minutes later.”Ray Cochrane, out of action since suffering a dislocated shoulder in a fall at Taby racecourse in Sweden on 4 June, will make his return to race-riding at York on Friday.Having been ruled out of the Derby meeting, Cochrane had initially hoped to make his comeback as soon as Royal Ascot. Anthea Farrell, the leading amateur rider and former partner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Jodami suffered head and hip injuries yesterday when a horse she was riding at the Great Yorkshire Show collapsed and died. Farrell, daughter of Jodami’s trainer, Peter Beaumont, was reported to be in a comfortable condition in Harrogate General Hospital last night.
Farrell suffered her injuries as she was riding the 12-year-old chaser Choctaw. “The horse collapsed on top of her,” a spokesman at the showground said.