We are confident the therapy will lead to an early resolution but I’d rate his chances of playing

We are confident the therapy will lead to an early resolution but I’d rate his chances of playing Thursday as 50-50. Lee, who scored a courageous unbeaten 43 and took five wickets during Australia’s sensational two-run defeat to England at Edgbaston, was yesterday taken to a Birmingham hospital after experiencing swelling and discomfort in the joint. But it’s pretty glassy out here and, with 400 miles to go, it is still totally anyone’s race. All the 60s are in the hunt.”Only two of the 283 starters are reported to have retired after minor crew injuries.. “We never stopped, even if the wind was very light at times, and we have been battling with Sill, crossing tacks ever since the start in Cowes.

Sanderson, partnered by Emma Richards with some of the most senior lieutenants from his ABN-Amro Volvo boat, was leading the 60s, a mile and a half ahead of French rival Roland Jourdain on Sill.”It has been awesome racing,” he said last night. But striding out ahead of them, the two fastest boats, both 100-footers, were on course to turn the desolate rock off south-west Ireland, topped by its famous lighthouse, before midnight and begin their 250-mile run back to the finish in Plymouth. In the lead was New Zealander Charles Crichton Brown’s Maximus, which had been making a steady 10 knots in just six knots of wind across the Celtic Sea, followed by Australia’s Grant Wharington in Wild Thing.
But the third top contender, Bouwe Bekking in the first Volvo Open 70 movistar to be seen racing, had to battle against rival skipper Mike “Moose” Sanderson in Pindar. On Sunday, Freddie and his pony Snowman gained their Olympia ticket at Gatcombe.”He’s going the same route as Jack,” added Mitchell “He rode at Olympia two years ago. It’s early days yet for both, but my father would have been very proud to see the next generation on a racecourse.”Richard EdmondsonNap: Fu Fighter (Newton Abbot 4.30)NB: Wester Lodge (Bath 3.45). As the rich became richer, the smaller boats in the Fastnet Race were left struggling in the predicted light winds all down the English Channel yesterday. Jack was watched yesterday evening, by dad, mum Trish, older half-sister Holly (who picked up several creditable placings from just a few rides) and young brother Freddie who, at the age of 10, is, like big brother before him, making his own mark in a form of junior racing.The Shetland Grand National series, in which the ponies race over hurdles on a small circuit, started life as a novelty display at the Olympia horse show two decades ago but now has a vibrant identity, with qualifiers up and down the country for the big London pre-Christmas indoor equestrian extravaganza.

He has quiet, soft hands, which are a wonderful asset for a jockey, and rode an intelligent race at Newmarket.”There may be another in the Mitchell pipeline. So Jack’s first win meant a great deal to me, and indeed the whole family. It was a wonderful day, my best moment in racing, better even than all the fun we had with Running Stag round the world He has been a natural since day one. He has, however, developed a fine career as a surgeon.”He was a lovely rider,” said Mitchell senior, “but being a jockey was not to be. His older half-brother Guy, now 31, showed every sign of being a chip off the old block too, but the loss of an eye from cancer at the age of two meant he could never be granted a licence to ride. In second and third places, incidentally, were two more 5lb claimers, the future fellow trainers Henry Candy and Bill O’Gorman.Jack first sat on a horse at three, and his first success in the saddle, a cool neck victory, had a certain poignancy. Young Jack already has one over on Dad; like his son, Philip had his first race-ride at the age of 16, but was 18 before he rode his first winner, on Creditable at Haydock 39 years ago tomorrow.

And last night at Windsor, 16-year-old jockey Jack Mitchell continued to play his part in upholding his own family’s honour. And though his mount, Wild Pitch, failed to catch the judge’s eye in the opening amateur riders’ race, Mitchell had notched his first career victory on the gelding at Newmarket 16 days earlier, his third ride in public. The teenager is tracing some distinguished genetic footsteps; there have been Mitchells gracing saddles on Epsom Downs for three-quarters of a century.
His grandfather Cyril, who died four years ago, was the first. One of the best jump jockeys of the wartime era, he started his career as an apprentice with Vic Smyth in 1929 before switching to the winter game, and then earned fame as trainer of Peter O’Sullevan’s two best horses, the top-class sprinter Be Friendly, whose wins included two Haydock Sprint Cups and a Prix de l’Abbaye, and the smart staying handicapper Attivo, winner of a Chester Cup, a Northumberland Plate and a Triumph Hurdle.Jack’s father, Philip, who took over the licence at Downs House Stables, hard by the Epsom one-mile start, in 1974, was the best amateur rider of his generation, champion five times and winner of the Moet & Chandon Silver Magnum, the so-called amateurs’ Derby, on his local course four times. Whipper, who took the Prix Maurice de Gheest the same afternoon, is scheduled to meet his young half-sister Divine Proportions in the Jacques le Marois on Sunday Dynasties matter to racing, but not just on the equine side. “That has disrupted a lot of her season; she wasn’t ready for the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket last month and the ground went too soft when we’d hoped to run her in France.