British success stories at the Dublin Racing Festival are few and far between – and virtually non-existent when it comes to Grade One contests. But in 2019 La Bague Au Roi broke the mould, as she lifted the roof off the Leopardstown grandstand.

Many had questioned the sanity of trainer Warren Greatrex when fresh from holding off the likes of Topofthegame and Santini in the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase, he suggested heading into the backyard of the Irish rather than trotting down the typical pathway of the Cheltenham Festival.

However, the Lambourn handler had a plan and whereas the undulations of Prestbury Park were never going to be La Bague Au Roi’s ideal cup of tea, the parkland on the outskirts of the Irish capital were seen as the ideal ballpark for the star mare to double her Grade One tally.

“She won the Kauto Star and it was just thinking outside the box really,” said Greatrex.

“We knew historically the ground wasn’t always too bad there and she never really coped with bottomless ground, so it was just the case of a little plan hatched after Kempton and the owners were very sporting and willing to give it a go.

“There was a lot of pressure and a lot of people were thinking I was mad to take an English mare over to a Grade One in Ireland. But I thought the track and ground would suit and Richard Johnson had won the Irish Gold Cup on Florida Pearl so he knew the track inside out.

“I never thought Cheltenham would be her gig, she was fancied the year after and ended up unseating Richard Johnson in the Plate when I thought she would have taken some beating.

“Sometimes thinking outside the box pays off and it pays off to be a little bit braver, which is what sport is all about I think.”

Crossing the Irish Sea unbeaten in three over fences, La Bague Au Roi had every right to be among the favourites for the Flogas Novice Chase.

And when top Irish novice Delta Work was pulled out of the contest by trainer Gordon Elliott, she became the odds-on 10-11 favourite for an away game, leaving her trainer with some last-minute jitters to contend with,

“Delta Work was pulled out in the morning which meant she was a very short-priced favourite. As a trainer you like to see that, but obviously the pressure is then even bigger,” said Greatrex.

“To go over there, which is pretty unusual for the English to go over with a fancied horse, you are sort of panicking. You believe in the horse, but you are panicking and thinking ‘Is this the right thing to do?’.”

If the nerves were beginning to get to Greatrex, then no one informed big-race pilot Johnson, who bounced La Bague Au Roi out in customary fashion and began to put the best of Ireland’s novice chasers to the sword.

Having dictated terms throughout the time came to stamp her authority when challenged by 33-1 outsider Kaiser Black after the last and she displayed toughness in abundance to repel her only danger close home.

It remains the only British triumph in a Grade One at the Dublin Racing Festival and for all the big-race victories Greatrex has won in his training career, it is a day that will live long in the memory.

“There’s a picture I have of her at the last and Richard asked her from miles away and she delivered,” continued Greatrex.

“When you see the picture it’s fairly scary how far she was standing off it and she was all heart and never gave up.

“The Leopardstown win was big. I believed in her and I have to say – and I’ve trained a few Grade Ones – that was one I really enjoyed because to go to Ireland and beat them at their own back door is pretty cool. That win was a big feather in our cap, I think”

La Bague Au Roi would return to Leopardstown the following year to finish a battling fifth in the Irish Gold Cup, but no one can ever take that glorious afternoon from 12 months previous away from her.

It was the final triumph in a 28-race career that yielded 14 victories across the space of six seasons and she is now under the watch of former Premier League and Ireland international footballer Kevin Doyle at his family’s Slaney River Stud in County Wexford.

Always keen to hear about one of his star pupils, Greatrex keeps in contact with those in Ireland who report she shows the same character in retirement as she did when one of the leading lights on the racecourse.

Greatrex added: “I’ve been told that in the paddock she is the boss and she was very much like that here. Everyone knew when she was about as she would walk around Lambourn like she owned it.

“She was an amazing mare and won two Grade Ones and I hope somewhere down the line I can train one of her offspring.

“She was just so straightforward, she never missed a day and you could read her like a book. The more annoying she became, you knew you were having her ready.

“She just went through the grades and was phenomenal. She was like a model to look at, she was tall and leggy, never carried too much condition, but she was just very easy to train and just a brilliant horse to train.

He went on: “You would never look at her at home and think she was exceptional, she went through the motions and wasn’t very fast, but she had a big heart.

“Even when she ran in the Kauto Star, the way she fended them off, she was as tough as a boy and will live long in the memory. They only come around once every so often and she was a one-off I think.”

David Christie classes Ferns Lock as the best horse he will send to the Cheltenham Festival as he eyes up the St. James’s Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Chase.

Christie saw Winged Leader edged out by Billaway in 2022, while last year he saddled 9-4 favourite Vaucelet to finish seventh in the amateurs’ contest.

However, the exciting Ferns Lock has always looked a class above his contemporaries and having claimed Thurles’ Carey Glass Hunters Chase at a canter for the second year running, he is now poised to be unleashed at Prestbury Park on the final day of the Festival.

“It looks like Cheltenham is the way to go,” said Christie.

“I would probably be in agreement with Ruby Walsh and a few other people in that Aintree would maybe be more his cup of tea because he has so much class and speed, but saying that, you can’t really not go to Cheltenham.

“We’ve been patient and we may as well give it a go and see what it brings us.

“He’s a really exciting horse and has lots of pace. If you were to run him in handicaps or even Graded races then you would be wanting to run him over two and a half miles or even shorter. He’s exciting and his half-brother won a bumper for Ben Pauling at Newbury, so the family have that speed and class about them.”

Ferns Lock was high-up in the ante-post betting 12 months ago when Christie decided to take a patient approach with his young and inexperienced charge.

He swerved the Festival in favour of assignments closer to home then and although set to get his passport stamped this time around and as short as 5-2 with Sky Bet, his handler still has slight concerns about his maturity for a task as mammoth as National Hunt’s showpiece meeting.

“He’s a big horse, but he’s a very immature horse in his head and we probably in an ideal world would like to get another race into him before Cheltenham,” added Christie.

“We are wary with younger and immature horses that no matter how easy he won (at Thurles), he still has to run three miles and carry 12st on his back over fences on soft enough ground. So I’ll have to just leave it and train him for Cheltenham now but the worry is his immaturity a little bit.”

There is little doubt where Ferns Lock stands in Christie’s pecking order though, with the County Fermanagh trainer describing the seven-year-old as “just a better horse” than those he has travelled to Cheltenham in the past.

He said: “Winged Leader was just beaten there and Vaucelet loves really good ground and has won plenty of hunter chases. He was actually sick at Cheltenham and we didn’t realise until we got back home. He was beaten 10 lengths but he was sick and we didn’t know and then the travelling and that brought these things out.

“But even when you take that into account, this is still a better horse than Winged Leader and Vaucelet. He’s just a better horse. If you asked me to put them 1-2-3, then he would be the best.”

Preparing his string this winter in the west of Ireland has proved tricky for Christie, but if an upturn in the weather can revitalise Vaucelet, he could be handed a second bite of the Festival cherry, with former Willie Mullins inmate Ramillies another on track for the Cotswolds.

“It’s been such a horrendous year in terms of ground and weather and for someone like me who trains in one of the most westerly spots in Ireland, you can’t underestimate how difficult a year that makes it,” explained Christie.

“Vaucelet is a spring horse and as the days get longer and everything else, if there is a bit of a spark between now and Cheltenham, then I would definitely consider him.

“The other horse who will run, all being well, is the ex-Willie Mullins horse, Ramillies. He’s just turned nine and I’m basically keeping him fit point-to-pointing and doing very little with him at home – that is his work.

“He’s getting his confidence in the point-to-points and we will aim for Naas on February 10 and if all goes well there, then we will go to Cheltenham.”

He went on: “You can go with a couple of nice horses, but it is difficult to win at Cheltenham and you need so many things to go your way.

“There’s plenty of us in Ireland who have good horses, but you have to have plenty of respect for the likes of Will Biddick and Bradley Gibbs, who won it last year, because they are just good at what they do and they deserve what they get. It’s OK me saying I have a nice horse, but they do too and they know how to train as well.”

Galopin Des Champs remains on course to spearhead what is sure to be a formidable team for Willie Mullins into battle at this weekend’s Dublin Racing Festival.

The reigning Cheltenham Gold Cup hero bounced back to his best with a scintillating performance in Leopardstown’s Savills Chase over Christmas period and will be short odds to follow up with a successful defence of the Irish Gold Cup at the Foxrock circuit on Saturday.

Following six winners across three meetings in Britain and Ireland on Saturday, a Sunday treble at Naas and two more victories at Punchestown on Monday, the champion trainer is firing on all cylinders ahead of a high-profile meeting he traditionally dominates.

And with Galopin Des Champs set to be joined by the likes of State Man, El Fabiolo and a whole host of promising novices, another Mullins bonanza could be in store.

“Everything is going well and at the moment everything is on song, unless something works bad during the week,” he said.

“He (Galopin Des Champs) is all set for it and he’s going to work tomorrow or the next day.

“We’re happy, there is no reason that we’re not happy at the moment – we’re very happy with him.

“They are getting enough rain up there. I think they got plenty today and there is more forecast, it was probably needed.”

Luton captain Tom Lockyer had an emotional reunion with his team-mates at the club’s training ground on Monday.

The 29-year-old made his first visit to the Hatters’ Brache HQ since suffering a cardiac arrest during the Premier League match at Bournemouth in December.

“It was amazing to see him back,” manager Rob Edwards told the club website.

“We had a really good morning seeing him around the place.

“We handed out the debut Premier League balls with (former managers) John Still and Mick Harford.

“It was a nice presentation; it was a special moment and great to see.

Lockyer receives treatment after suffering a cardiac arrest (Steven Paston/PA)

“I managed to hold it together but it was emotional. It’s been a really difficult time for his family first and foremost, but for us it was great to see him.

“He’s an unbelievably brave man and someone who has an unbelievable handle over all of it. I wouldn’t be how he is.

“He’s such an impressive and focused person. There’s a rehabilitation process but he’s taking it slowly, he’s got a baby on the way and that’s his main focus.”

Wales defender Lockyer collapsed on the pitch at the Vitality Stadium and was tended to by medics. The match was subsequently abandoned.

Lockyer later praised the “heroic” actions of the players, staff and medics who helped save his life.

Roberto De Zerbi believes in-form Brighton top scorer Joao Pedro must sustain performances over 90 minutes to take the final step in becoming a “great, great player”.

Brazilian forward Pedro increased his tally for the season to 18 goals in all competitions with a hat-trick during Saturday’s 5-2 FA Cup win at Sheffield United.

The 22-year-old – a £30million summer signing from Watford – opened his Albion account on the first weekend of the campaign in a 4-1 victory at home to Tuesday evening’s Premier League opponents Luton.

“Joao Pedro’s DNA is of a top player,” said Brighton boss De Zerbi.

“The target of Joao is to play better and better and to keep this mentality because now he’s showing a great mentality, a mentality he needs and we need.

“He’s becoming amazing as a striker because his quality to play in ball possession, to play in between the lines, to make assists were important but in terms of goals, he’s improving a lot.

“The last step to become a great, great player is to play 90 minutes in the same way.

“Sometimes he starts the game not pushing off his best and I would like at the beginning of the game until the end of the game the same mentality.”

Pedro is likely to receive a hostile reception from Luton fans due to his Watford connections.

De Zerbi feels Kenilworth Road is one of the most challenging places to go in the top flight.

The relegation-threatened Hatters have beaten Newcastle and drawn with Liverpool on home soil this term, in addition to suffering single-goal defeats to Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea.

“Playing in the Luton stadium is one of the toughest games in the Premier League because they have a great intensity,” said De Zerbi.

“People think Brighton have to win and it’s normal if Brighton win in Luton but in football there are no easy games and if you want to win you have to push until the end.

“Arsenal and Man City, they won a game at the end of the game and I watched both games and they were very, very difficult games for both teams.”

Seventh-placed Brighton have been linked with a move for Leicester midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall before the transfer window closes.

De Zerbi, who has a close relationship with Foxes boss Enzo Maresca, says Dewsbury-Hall has “great quality” but was tight-lipped on the speculation.

“I don’t know anything about him (personally); I know him as a player,” the Italian said of the 25-year-old.

“He has great quality but it’s not my business speaking about other players, especially because Enzo Maresca is my friend and I want to be correct with him.”

Brighton remain without Joel Veltman, Solly March, Simon Adingra, Kaoru Mitoma, Julio Enciso and Ansu Fati.

Barcelona loanee Fati has returned to training following an injury sustained in November but will not be rushed back into first-team action.

“He’s a risk and he’s important for us in the second part of the season,” said De Zerbi.

“We can’t take any risks in this moment.”

Steve Borthwick insists England’s battle-hardened players are ready for the Guinness Six Nations as a result of facing greater club demands than any of their rivals.

Borthwick’s 36-man squad have comfortably racked up the highest number of minutes played since the World Cup due to their Gallagher Premiership and European commitments.

But while they will enter the Six Nations depleted by a greater workload – they have accumulated over two hours of game time more per player than next highest France – Borthwick believes they have benefited from the competitiveness of English clubs.

Six Premiership teams have reached the knockout phase of the Investec Champions Cup while the domestic league itself is more compelling that ever following its reduction in  teams.

“The players are match-hardened, so that’s a great benefit. Generally I will try to look at the positive side and I have a group of players that are match-hardened. They are ready to go,” Borthwick said.

“The other thing is the nature of the Premiership. All of the games are counting so the leverage of all these games is huge.

“And there have been teams fighting in Europe to get qualification, fighting to find a way to win which, again, is a real positive.

“Everything we’re getting is saying all the clubs are running more than they were 12 months ago, so that’s a real positive.”

England may enter Saturday’s opener against Italy in a fitter state than they were at the equivalent stage in 2023, but Premiership duty will not have equipped them for breakdown and contact area demands of a Six Nations.

And Borthwick has also told his players that there is a minimum requirement every time they pull on a Red Rose jersey.

“The Six Nations is a real contest. It’s breakdown contest game so we need to ensure that we’ve got that running right as well as the level of repeatability around the contact area,” Borthwick said.

“We are going to improve as a rugby team. We will get tactically and technically better, and we will get fitter.

“The supporters also need to see that this team fights all the time, is competitive all the time and plays at the intensity required in an England team.

“That is the base standard and if you have that, you can add the technical and tactical elements that will then follow.”

Argentinian coach Gonzalo Quesada took charge of Italy after the World Cup, replacing Kieran Crowley, and Borthwick insists England will have to think on their feet to contain a repurposed Azzurri.

“Under Kieran Crowley Italy played a phased attack game,” he said.

“They beat Australia, pushed South Africa, beat Wales in Cardiff and in the first game of the Championship last year they went very close to beating France. This is a very dangerous team.

“Quesada played a very different style to that at the Jaguares and at Stade Francais, much more of a blend of forward dominance with competitive kicking, lower phase count.

“They are two contrasting styles so the interesting question for Italy is what can they put together in that first game? We’ll have to be ready to recognise what style they are bringing very early in the game.”

A four-year doping ban has been imposed on Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, with her results at the 2022 Winter Olympics disqualified.

News that Valieva had tested positive for a banned substance, trimetazidine, during the Russian national championships in December 2021 emerged during the following year’s Winter Games in Beijing. She was 15 years old at the time.

The subsequent legal case reached the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which ruled on Monday that Valieva had been unable to establish that the anti-doping rule violation had not been committed intentionally.

The start of the four-year ban is backdated to the time of the failed test, meaning it will run until Christmas Day 2025.

CAS confirmed all Valieva’s results subsequent to the failed test had been disqualified and that she would have to forfeit any medals won during her period of disqualification, which would include the team gold she won with Russia in Beijing.

The United States finished second to Russia in the team event, but CAS said “the consequences linked to the retroactive disqualification of Ms Valieva from past events, including from the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, were not within the scope of this arbitration procedure and will have to be examined by the sports organisations concerned”, which means that any decision on reallocation of medals will have to come separately.

The International Olympic Committee has been contacted for comment.

Despite news of her positive test emerging after the team event, Valieva was cleared to compete in the individual event, but failed to finish in a medal-winning position. Even if she had secured a spot on the podium, the IOC had stressed before the individual competition that medals would not be awarded until a full investigation had been completed.

In its decision on Monday, CAS said it had found Valieva’s age at the time of the doping violation had no bearing on the sanction it should impose, and that there is a burden on athletes of all ages to prove there had been no intention to commit the violation.

The CAS decision is final and binding, but parties in the case have the right of appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal within 30 days on limited grounds.

Bayern Munich have hit out at suggestions that head coach Thomas Tuchel has touted himself as a replacement for outgoing Barcelona boss Xavi.

Xavi revealed in the wake of Barca’s 5-3 home defeat by Villarreal on Saturday that he would leave the club this summer, sparking a frenzy of speculation over potential successors.

A day later, Tuchel spoke about his ambition to work in Spain one day at a fan event, prompting claims he was setting out his stall for the post soon to be vacated by Xavi, much to the annoyance of his current employers.

In a statement issued via Bayern’s official website on Monday, chief executive Jan-Christian Dreesen and sporting director Christoph Freund said: “Our head coach Thomas Tuchel was asked by supporters on Sunday as part of a fan club visit about his coaching career and his previous experiences abroad at Paris St Germain and Chelsea, and naturally provided information about this during the discussion.

“He also answered general questions from fans about Spain as a footballing country. He never spoke about Xavi Hernandez and his successor, as was falsely claimed afterwards.

“We will no longer accept such non-factual statements directed against our coach, which always come from the same source.”

Tuchel, who took charge at the Allianz Arena in March last year, has found himself under pressure in recent weeks with the Bundesliga champions trailing current leaders Bayer Leverkusen in a two-horse title race.

However, that has eased somewhat in the last week courtesy of an edgy 1-0 win over Union Berlin in their game in hand and a 3-2 victory at Augsburg on Saturday which reduced the gap to just two points as a result of Leverkusen’s 0-0 home draw with Borussia Monchengladbach.

Baaeed has sired his first foal with a new arrival at Haras de la Perelle in Normandy.

The Shadwell-owned superstar was trained to six successive Group One victories by William Haggas, landing the Lockinge, Queen Anne, Sussex Stakes and Juddmonte International in his four-year-old season before meeting with the only defeat of his career in the Champion Stakes.

He subsequently retired to Beech House Stud in Newmarket, having earned over £2.5million in prize-money and stands there for a current fee of £80,000.

His first foal is a bay filly out of Mejthaam, a well-related Exceed And Excel mare who is a half sister to Alflaila – also owned by Shadwell and trained by Owen Burrows to three Group-race successes so far.

William Rimaud, manager of Haras de la Perelle, said of the new arrival: “We are delighted with her.

“She is a strong, good-sized foal, full of energy and has a great temperament.

“She is doing everything right. It is very exciting to have had the first foal of the brilliant champion Baaeed.”

Harry Fry will not shirk a Cheltenham Festival rematch with Lossiemouth despite seeing his own star mare Love Envoi come off clear second best in their clash in Saturday’s Unibet Hurdle.

The latter is already a Festival winner having claimed the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle in 2022 and last season gave the retiring Honeysuckle a real run for her money in the Mares’ Hurdle itself.

Fry admitted to being disappointed with Love Envoi’s performance when filling the runner-up spot in the rescheduled Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Sandown last month, but was much more encouraged by her display on Cheltenham Trials day, albeit she was no match for the impressive Lossiemouth.

“Obviously the winner was in a different league, but we were pleased with the run,” he said.

“She travelled and jumped with her usual fluency and it was good to see that she was much sharper for her reappearance.

“The Mares’ Hurdle has always been the plan, we were runner-up in the race last year and we’ve got six weeks to look forward to going back there.

“Obviously Lossiemouth is going to be very hard to beat on the form she showed on Saturday, but it’s a horse race at the end of the day and you’ve got to be in it to win it.”

Love Envoi is a general 14-1 shot for the Mares’ Hurdle, with the Willie Mullins-trained Lossiemouth odds-on to record her second Festival win following last year’s Triumph Hurdle success.

Such was the impression she made on her comeback, plenty have suggested Lossiemouth should be heading for the Champion Hurdle, a notion Fry is unsurprisingly fully behind.

He quipped: “I don’t know what they’re thinking, I think it’s a no-brainer to go for the Champion Hurdle. If anything is going to give Constitution Hill a race it must be her, surely!

“I can understand where they’re coming from (going for the Mares’ Hurdle), but they’ve all got to get there and in six weeks anything can happen.

“We know the trip on Saturday is short of our best and we prefer slower ground as well. Hopefully we get conditions in our favour and the more testing it is the better, basically.”

Glasgow wing Kyle Rowe has declared himself ready to step into the Scotland starting line-up in the absence of the injured Darcy Graham for Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations opener away to Wales.

The 25-year-old has scored seven tries so far in his first season since returning to Warriors following the demise of previous club London Irish last summer, including three in his last two outings before meeting up with Gregor Townsend’s squad.

Edinburgh wing Graham will miss at least the first two matches of the championship, in Cardiff and at home to France, with a quad issue.

Townsend must decide whether to replace Scotland’s joint second-highest try-scorer of all time with Rowe, who has one injury-stunted cap to his name, his Glasgow team-mate Kyle Steyn, who has just returned after three months out, or the uncapped Sale flyer Arron Reed.

“You never want to see anyone getting injured, but Darcy’s injury has given me an opportunity to potentially get a starting spot,” said Rowe. “If not, I’m just looking to get better as a player and person over this period. My main goal is to try and get as many games in the Six Nations as possible.

“Glasgow and Scotland are pretty similar in terms of attack and defence so it’s a pretty seamless transition from one set-up to another.

“I feel like what I’ve done over the course of the first half of the season has put me in good stead for potential selection.

“It’s about taking the confidence I’ve got in my game at the minute and bringing it to Scotland.”

The Scotland squad are currently training in Spain before travelling to Wales on Thursday, and Rowe acknowledges he faces a stiff challenge in the days ahead as he bids to prove he deserves the chance to add to his solitary cap.

“The back three is such a competitive area, even with Darcy being out,” he said. “We’ve got Duhan (van der Merwe), Blair (Kinghorn), Kyle, myself, Arron and Ross McCann, who are all capable of playing at the top level.

“All of the players in the back-line can score tries, so we’re pretty dangerous. We all go into training looking to prove to the coaches we can train and play at this level, so we’ll see what happens.”

Rowe’s Scotland debut away to Argentina in July 2022 lasted just 10 minutes after he damaged his ACL and part of his MCL, sidelining him for the entirety of last season.

“It was one of the worst injuries I could get,” he said. “It was very mixed emotions for me that day. It was a very proud moment for myself and my family and then to basically have that all taken away from me was pretty devastating.

“Not everybody does their ACL but you get those big injuries from time to time and it was devastating that my big injury had to come during my first cap for Scotland.”

After recovering from injury, Rowe was included in Scotland’s pre-World Cup training squad last summer before being cut from the final 33 for the showpiece in France.

“If I had come back a little bit quicker, I might have had an outside chance. but during the summer when I was coming into training I knew in my heart and my head that it was only a slim chance and it was a long shot that I was going to go to the World Cup,” he said.

“I didn’t hold any grudges or anything about not getting selected, I knew it was a long shot.

“I’m back in the squad now which is really good so I’m just looking to build on what I’ve done in the first part of the season and get a game for Scotland.”

Marie-Louise Eta praised Union Berlin’s display in their victory against Darmstadt after the history-making assistant coach stood in for media duties on Sunday.

Union beat relegation rivals Darmstadt 1-0 to move five points clear of the Bundesliga’s bottom three in the absence of suspended first-team coach Nenad Bjelica, who started a three-match ban after shoving Bayern Munich winger Leroy Sane on Wednesday.

Danijel Jumic took charge in Bjelica’s stead, with fellow assistant Eta – who this season has become the first female coach to be actively involved at a men’s team in Bundesliga and Champions League history – assisting him on the sideline and handling the post-match press conference.

“We’re delighted that we were able to put in such a good performance,” she said.

“We did what we set out to do on the pitch.”

The 32-year-old former Germany youth international was named as an assistant first-team coach at the capital club earlier this season.

A Women’s Champions League winner with Turbine Potsdam in 2010, Eta had previously worked in the youth set-up at Union.