John ‘Shark’ Hanlon has confirmed star chaser Hewick will line up in the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase on Boxing Day – but is on the hunt for a new jockey, with regular rider Jordan Gainford out injured.

Some of Hewick’s finest hours have come in the hands of Gainford, who has formed a brilliant association with the eight-year-old and was in the saddle when the duo tasted American Grand National glory in 2022.

However, he has missed out on Hewick’s last three outings through injury and, although Hanlon is adamant the ride remains Gainford’s when fit, the young pilot once again faces a spell on the sidelines following an injury suffered at Naas last week.

“Hewick goes to Kempton for the King George, we’ve made up our minds this morning,” said Hanlon.

“We don’t know who is riding him yet, as Jordan Gainford got hurt, but we will wait and see.

“Jordan won’t be back in time, but hopefully he will come back all right, he got a bad fall. I was talking to him and he was happy and I told him Hewick will be his ride whenever he comes back, but he won’t be there for Kempton.

“We will just have to work out who will be there and who won’t be there and I have a few names at the top of my head, but we will have to wait and see.”

James Owen’s Burdett Road is on track for his Coral Finale Juvenile Hurdle bid at Chepstow after his Cheltenham form received a significant boost on Saturday.

The three-year-old was formerly trained on the Flat by both Roger Varian and Michael Bell, notably taking the Golden Gates Stakes at Royal Ascot in June for the latter.

His final run on the level was a third-placed effort in the Group Three Winter Hill Stakes at Windsor in late August, after which he was gelded and sent to Owen for a juvenile hurdling campaign.

At Huntingdon in November, he was an instant success in his new career, taking a two-mile contest by an effortless 12 lengths, with the whole field strung out behind him.

Burdett Road was then stepped markedly up in level for the Grade Two JCB Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle at Cheltenham later the same month and was an impressive winner again under Harry Cobden, accelerating up the hill to secure a six-and-a-half-length victory over Jack Jones’ An Bradan Feasa.

Burdett Road became the Triumph Hurdle favourite as a result of that win, whereas Jones began to eye the Fred Winter for his well-regarded runner-up.

Both of those aspirations began to take shape at the weekend, as An Bradan Feasa returned to Cheltenham to contest a class two edition of the JCB Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle series and prevailed by three lengths.

Owen was pleased to see the prior Prestbury Park form boosted and intends to press on with his plan of running Burdett Road in the Finale Juvenile Hurdle at Chepstow on December 27, a Grade Two in which the Gredley family have been successful before with another former Flat horse in Allmankind.

“He’s really good, I’m very happy with him,” said Owen. “He’s been training well and I was really pleased to see the horse he beat win his trial at Cheltenham at the weekend.

“It was nice and Burdett Road has trained very well himself at home since, he’s schooled well and the plan is to go to the Finale on the 27th (of December) at Chepstow – all being well.

“If the ground was really deep, we might think differently, but that’s the plan at the moment.

“He had a busy enough Flat campaign, so I’d say he’d only have one more run before Cheltenham, hopefully that’ll be at Chepstow. We want to go to Cheltenham with a fresh horse.

“That’s the route Tim and Mr (Bill) Gredley want to go, that’s the route they went with Allmankind.

“I know it’s a Grade Two now but it’s still good prize money and if we didn’t end up going there, we’d probably end up going back to Cheltenham for the trials day during January.”

Harry Kane racked up his 20th Bundesliga goal in a record 14 games as he fired Bayern Munich to a 3-0 win over Stuttgart on Sunday.

Here, the PA news agency looks at the exploits of the England captain – and his international team-mate Jude Bellingham, who scored again for Real Madrid the same night.

Kane shatters record

Kane’s double against Stuttgart took him to 20 goals in the German top flight 50 per cent quicker in terms of matches than the previous record, held since the Bundesliga’s inaugural season in 1963-64 by Uwe Seeler.

The late Hamburg and West Germany striker scored 20 in his first 21 league appearances for his hometown club and 30 in 30 that season, taking his Hamburg tally to 297 in 267 games after several prolific years in the Oberliga Nord before the formation of the new national top flight.

His record came under threat in 2020 from another name familiar to Premier League fans as Erling Haaland made a mid-season move to Borussia Dortmund from Red Bull Salzburg. The Norwegian scored 11 in 15 games in the remainder of that season and began 2020-21 with 10 in seven.

He therefore missed out on Seeler’s record by one game before passing 20 in style with four in a 5-2 win over Hertha Berlin.

Kane, though, has produced an unprecedented start.

He netted on his Bundesliga debut against Werder Bremen and scored twice against Augsburg before being shut out by Borussia Monchengladbach.

A goal against Bayer Leverkusen made it four in four games, followed by a hat-trick against Bochum. Goals against RB Leipzig and Mainz took him to nine in eight games.

He scored eight in his next three, successive hat-tricks against Darmstadt and Dortmund and a brace against Heidenheim, and also scored against Cologne before Sunday’s historic double.

In all he has three hat-tricks and three doubles and has scored in 11 of his 14 league appearances. Four Champions League goals take his Bayern total to 24 in 21 appearances.

The last man to score 20 goals or more in the first half of a Bundesliga season was Kane’s predecessor in Bayern’s number nine shirt, Robert Lewandowski, who had 22 in 2020-21 and went on to score 41 in the season – breaking Gerd Muller’s Bundesliga record of 40, also for Bayern in 1971-72. Muller in 1968-69 was the only other player to reach 20 by this stage.

Golden Boy Bellingham

Bellingham’s form this year earned him Tuttosport’s Golden Boy award in November and the Kopa Trophy at October’s Ballon d’Or ceremony, awarded respectively to Europe and the world’s best young player.

A stunning start to his LaLiga career has raised the possibility of the 20-year-old pushing for the main Ballon d’Or award in future seasons, with Sunday’s opener in Madrid’s 4-1 win over Villarreal being his 17th goal in 20 appearances for the Spanish giants.

That includes 13 in 15 league games, with doubles against Almeria, Osasuna and bitter rivals Barcelona, the latter to earn a last-minute Clasico win after Barca had led 1-0.

He has also scored Champions League goals against Union Berlin, Braga and in both meetings with Napoli to further justify his claim to Zinedine Zidane’s old number five shirt at the Bernabeu.

Champ is poised to make his reappearance in the Howden Long Walk Hurdle after featuring among the 10 confirmations for this weekend’s Ascot showpiece.

The Nicky Henderson-trained 11-year-old was the Long Walk champion in 2021 which was the last time the race was held at its traditional home of Ascot, but he had to settle for third when the race was rearranged for Kempton’s Boxing Day card 12 months ago.

The Cheltenham Festival scorer was last seen finishing a well-held fifth at Aintree in the spring but is reported to be in good heart ahead of his belated return to the track.

“He’s a great old horse, Nicky is happy with him and the plan is, all being well, to go there,” said owner JP McManus’ racing manager Frank Berry.

“He runs well fresh so you would hope he would run well.

“He enjoys Ascot and has run some good races around there and Nicky is happy with him at the minute.”

Last year’s race went to Emma Lavelle’s Paisley Park who has been something of a permanent feature in the Grade One contest in recent years, now seeking a fourth victory.

That would make the popular 11-year-old the joint most successful horse in the race’s history, tied with the great French raider Baracouda in the record books.

Paisley Park showed the fire still burned brightly when a fast-finishing second to Jeremy Scott’s Stayers’ Hurdle runner-up Dashel Drasher in Newbury’s Long Distance Hurdle and the duo will do battle once again.

Meanwhile, it was Botox Has who got the better of Dashel Drasher at Wetherby before that and he is one of two in the race for Gary Moore alongside the enigmatic Goshen.

Paul Nicholls’ recent course winner Blueking d’Oroux is two from two at Ascot and will step up in trip attempting to continue his fine start to the current campaign, while Dan Skelton’s West Balboa is another on a steep upwards curve and throws her hat into the mix having impressed at Aintree on her return last month.

Marie’s Rock is one of the more notable names missing from the list of possibles, with owners Middleham Park Racing relying on the second Ditcheat candidate, Red Risk.

Fergal O’Brien’s Crambo and Nigel Twiston-Davies’ Gowel Road are the others that remain in contention.

The 2023 BBC Sports Personality of the Year winner will be announced during a live show on Tuesday at MediaCityUK in Salford.

The six nominees have been revealed, with Mary Earps the favourite to succeed fellow England footballer Beth Mead.

Here, the PA news agency takes a closer look at those in the running.

The 30-year-old Manchester United and England goalkeeper helped the Lionesses reach the World Cup final in Australia in August. Spain ran out 1-0 winners to prevent England adding to their European crown, but Earps, who saved a penalty in the final and kept three clean sheets during the tournament, was awarded the Golden Glove.

The second-highest England Test wicket-taker with 604 scalps, 37-year-old Broad announced his retirement on July 29 on the penultimate day of the fifth and final Ashes Test against Australia at the Oval. He signed off in dramatic fashion, hitting a six off his final ball faced and taking a wicket with his final delivery to secure a win that resulted in the series being drawn, with Australia retaining the Ashes.

The three-time British flat racing champion jockey triumphed in two British classics this year, winning the 2000 Guineas on Chaldean and the Oaks on Soul Sister. Milan-born Dettori, 52, announced in December 2022 that he would retire after 2023 but in October he revealed plans to move to California and continue to race in the United States and on the international circuit.

The Liverpool-born heptathlete came back from injury to win her second world title in Budapest this year. She claimed her first world crown in Doha in 2019. Her build-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was undermined by an Achilles injury and it flared up during the 200 metres, forcing her to pull out. The 30-year-old bounced back with a Commonwealth Games title in Birmingham last year and then conquered the world again in Hungary.

The Northern Irishman was Europe’s top-scorer, winning four out of five matches, as the team bounced back from their heaviest defeat to the United States in the 2021 to triumph in this year’s Ryder Cup – the fifth time he has won the event. Four-time major champion McIlroy, 34, also registered 13 top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour in 2023, won the Scottish Open, retained the Race to Dubai and spent time in the world number one spot.

World number one wheelchair tennis player Hewett this year was singles champion at both the Australian Open and US Open and runner-up in the French Open and Wimbledon tournaments, while in doubles, he claimed three out of the grand slam titles alongside Gordon Reid. The 26-year-old also helped Great Britain win the World Team Cup.

Durham chief executive Tim Bostock says the club are “100 per cent committed” to bringing a Hundred team to the north east and would be ready to take part in an expanded tournament as soon as 2025.

Consultations over the future direction of the competition, which has divided opinion since its launch three years ago, are ongoing and a decision on proposals for new, external investment is expected in the coming months.

The likeliest outcome would see the sale of stakes in the eight existing sides and there is also support for expanding the field to 10 teams.

Durham are currently affiliated to the Yorkshire-based Northern Superchargers but, with around 90 miles between Chester-le-Street and Headingley, they are eager to branch out on their own.

Bostock is an unabashed supporter of the tournament and is busily preparing a pitch to join the fray at the earliest opportunity.

“We are 100 per cent committed to bringing a franchise here to the north east,” he told the PA news agency.

“We pitched for it originally and I think we were close. We don’t have a divine right, that would be complacent, but we are very confident we would be able to mobilise very quickly.

“The north of the country cannot be ignored and we have an international ground ready to go; the facilities and infrastructure are in place.

“We’ve got to make the business case, put our best foot forward and make sure the ECB can’t turn us down.

“I don’t think we need to get too hung up on when you move to 10 teams, that could be 2027/28, why not go to nine first? If I go to the ECB in six months’ time and say, ‘we have a very powerful backer, we’re ready to go’ there’s no reason the ECB won’t make us the ninth team.

“People are sports mad in the north east and we sell out every international we get, which is one of things they look at when awarding teams. I have no doubt if we got one as part of any expansion it would be brilliantly supported. We’ve got a following wind behind us, to say the least.”

There are county cricket fans who remain stridently opposed to the entire concept of the Hundred but Bostock insists its commercial potential is unparalleled in the domestic game. The Bridgepoint private equity group offered the ECB a reported £400million for a 75 per cent share of the competition in 2022 and overseas interest would be high if individual teams went on the market.

Bostock believes his region is well placed to cash in and argues that a fresh influx of cash would be a lifeline that would prop up the rest of the national framework.

“There’s probably no bigger strategic decision to be made than this one. You’re not going to please everybody but you’ve got to get it right,” he said.

“This is the silver bullet, game-changer for the game. Despite all the criticism, I’m yet to see another product three years on from start up that is thought to be worth £750m.

“That money will sustain 18 counties, accelerate the growth of the women’s game and support recreational cricket. The economic reality is that without the advent of the Hundred and the huge investment it’s going to bring, it’s unlikely we’d still have 18 counties in five years’ time.

“We need to make sure the Hundred is monetised to become recognised as the second best short-form competition in the world, after the IPL. To do that, you’ve got to pay the money that attracts the best players and for that we need investment.

“As a destination, the north east is well placed. We’ve seen the Saudis have bought Newcastle United just down the road and you don’t need to be a brain surgeon to see they are building a portfolio.

“We are very confident we could attract a lot interest.”

Mary Earps is the bookmakers’ odds-on favourite to be voted the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year for 2023 on Tuesday night.

Earps was a key part of the England football team which reached the Women’s World Cup final in the summer, having been crowned champions of Europe in 2022.

She has been shortlisted for the prestigious BBC prize alongside former cricketer Stuart Broad, jockey Frankie Dettori, athlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, tennis player Alfie Hewett and golfer Rory McIlroy.

Earps saved a penalty from Spain’s Jenni Hermoso in the World Cup final, but the Lionesses slipped to a 1-0 defeat in Sydney. The 30-year-old was awarded the FIFA Golden Glove as the tournament’s best goalkeeper.

In September she was also voted England’s women’s player of the year and helped her club Manchester United finish second in the Women’s Super League last season with 14 clean sheets.

Her future at United is uncertain, however, with Earps’ contract with the club due to expire next summer.

Earps also hit the headlines early on at the World Cup when she spoke about the hurt she felt that sportswear manufacturer Nike had not made her England goalkeeper’s replica jersey available to purchase before the tournament.

After mounting pressure, the sports brand released her green long-sleeved Lionesses shirt and it sold out in five minutes. Earps told Sky News at the weekend she thought the company had learned its lesson.

“On this topic, they know that they got this wrong and that’s why they’ve done this correction – a big company like Nike, they wouldn’t do that if they didn’t know it wasn’t right and that there was an injustice there,” Earps said.

“They did the right thing and I can’t thank the public enough for their support and we wouldn’t be in this position without it.

“I was really ‘um-ing and ah-ing’ whether to use my voice and to speak on it or not. I thought I was just speaking for a niche of goalkeepers, but it turned out to be support from much wider group of people.

“I think from that, collectively, we’ve really changed the world, so thank you to everyone.”

Broad announced he was retiring from cricket during the fifth Ashes Test in the summer and bowed out in spectacular fashion. The 37-year-old hit a six off his final ball and took the final wicket as England won the match to level the series, though Australia retained the urn.

Dettori, 52, secured a series of big wins in his farewell year in UK racing, including the 2000 Guineas on Chaldean and the Oaks on Soul Sister. He is set to continue riding in the United States next year.

Johnson-Thompson claimed the world heptathlon title for the second time in Budapest in the summer after a calf injury wrecked her hopes of Olympic glory in Tokyo in 2021.

Hewett won seven wheelchair tennis singles tournaments in 2023, including the Australian and US Open titles. He also secured the doubles titles at the Australian and French Opens plus Wimbledon alongside partner Gordon Reid.

McIlroy was a key part of Europe’s victorious Ryder Cup-winning team in October and finished in the top 10 at three of the year’s four majors.

Former Liverpool player and manager Kenny Dalglish will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the ceremony in Salford on Tuesday night.

David Raya believes his battle with Aaron Ramsdale to be first-choice goalkeeper at Arsenal has made them both better players.

Spain international Raya is currently Mikel Arteta’s preferred option between the sticks and he became the first goalkeeper this season to keep a Premier League clean sheet against Brighton as the Gunners won 2-0 on Sunday to go top of the table.

Second-half goals from Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz secured the points for Arsenal, with Raya returning in goal after Ramsdale played in the 1-1 Champions League dead-rubber group game against PSV Eindhoven on Tuesday.

Since breaking into the side in September, Raya has unquestionably become Arteta’s number one as debate and argument reigns over who should fill the position long-term.

Raya, though, feels the fierce competition has improved both himself and England international Ramsdale.

Asked if the battle has made him a better goalkeeper, Brentford loanee Raya replied: “Of course, and I think I have made him a better goalkeeper.

“I think that battle – I wouldn’t say battle, it’s just pushing each other in training, trying to help each other.

“If we see with each other when we are training that we can help each other, that’s how we are and that’s how we do. That’s the GK union that from the outside that you see.

“He is a top, top goalkeeper and a top, top team-mate. I hope he can say the same about me! We are team-mates, we are fighting for one position.”

Next up for Arsenal is a trip to face Liverpool at Anfield in a game where victory would put some space between the sides at the top of the table – where Aston Villa also feature after their comeback win over Brentford.

“Of course it is a massive game for any of the top teams playing against Liverpool away from home,” added Raya.

“I think comparing the last time I played there with Brentford and what we are going to face on Saturday is completely different. I think obviously they (the fans) will be more on top of us now, especially as we are fighting to be on top of the Premier League.

“It is going to be very, very important but we don’t have to focus on the atmosphere. We have to focus on ourselves and the football, and win the match.”

Brighton, meanwhile, will be looking to recover from one of their worst performances of the campaign to date.

Roberto De Zerbi’s visitors managed just one shot on target at the Emirates Stadium as they were roundly beaten – with captain Lewis Dunk calling for a response against rivals Crystal Palace on Thursday.

“I think obviously, we’re disappointed,” he said.

“We had to do the dirty side of the game, where we usually control the game and have plenty of the ball but Arsenal stopped us doing that. We’ve just got to brush ourselves down, we’ve got a massive game on Thursday and we need to move on.”

Jonny Evans was pleased by Manchester United’s hard-fought, morale-boosting point at Liverpool as Erik ten Hag’s men blocked out the memories of last season’s 7-0 Anfield annihilation.

Pressure and scrutiny has increased as the Dutchman’s difficult second season has worn on, with last weekend’s 3-0 home humbling by Bournemouth the nadir of a wretched campaign.

A lifeless 1-0 home loss to Bayern Munich followed on Tuesday night, with United exiting the Champions League and European football just days before a daunting trip to in-form rivals Liverpool.

Jurgen Klopp’s men had won every home match this season and had 34 attempts on Sunday, but Andre Onana pulled off eight saves as the visitors dug deep to secure a much-needed 0-0 draw.

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“We’ll take the point,” experienced centre-back Evans said. “I think we are obviously seventh in the league at the moment, but we were eighth going into the match. Liverpool were top.

“It was a hard-fought point. They dominated the game in terms of being around our box, but we probably had two of the best chances.

“I’ve played games here where you have to grind it out. You don’t always come to Anfield and play well.

“I’ve been a part of this club in the past – even back then, in 2013, we got a win here but the game was very difficult. You have to grind it out.

“It’s a battle, really. It is a game of moments, big moments in the game. We’ll come away, take the point, and move on.”

Sunday match was United’s first trip to Anfield since March’s 7-0 thumping – the largest defeat for either side in this fixture.

Evans was among the United fans watching through his fingers on that occasion and, having returned to the club over the summer, said the whole squad put that loss to the back of their minds.

“I think you block it out by not listening to that,” the 35-year-old academy product said.

“I think we have our own responsibilities going into the game and every game is a chance to win. We always go into every game thinking we are going to win.”

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk certainly did not believe that judging by his comments after a frustrating afternoon, claiming only one team tried to win and United were “buzzing” with a point.

“It is their home patch, they’ve got a good record here and they are playing well,” Evans said.

“They are at the top of the league, they’ve got some dangerous players. We’ll take the point, we defended our box well and move on from it.”

Evans impressed alongside Raphael Varane in the heart of an injury-hit defence, with Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof, Lisandro Martinez and Tyrell Malacia ruled out for a game that ended with Diogo Dalot’s sending-off.

“When you are defending on the edge of your box, there are always fine margins at that point,” he said.

“When you come away with a clean sheet after defending like that, it is always enjoyable.”

Asked if this can be the start of something, Evans said: “I think you can take this game in isolation, Man United versus Liverpool is a big match.

“I think we can take the fact that we have been able to defend our box as something we have probably… in the last three or four weeks when we have had to defend our box, we haven’t done that well enough.

“It is something we have discussed, so we take that out of it. Take confidence from it.”

Holders Manchester City will face FC Copenhagen in the last 16 of the Champions League.

Arsenal, the current Premier League leaders, will take on Portuguese side Porto in the first knockout round.

The ties, the first legs of which will take place in February 2024, were confirmed after the draw at the Swiss headquarters of organiser UEFA in Nyon on Monday.

Brighton and Liverpool both saw their long scoring streaks ended on Sunday, leaving Tottenham to chase the Premier League’s records.

Here, the PA news agency looks at how the trio compare to the best of the Premier League era.

Brighton’s wings finally clipped

The Seagulls’ 2-0 defeat to Arsenal ended a 32-game scoring run and a Premier League record 20 consecutively in which they had both scored and conceded.

The latter sequence covered every fixture this season and the final four of last term, since their clean sheet in May’s 3-0 win over the Gunners.

The last time they had failed to score was way back in February, a 1-0 defeat at home to Fulham, with that 32-game stretch marking the fourth-longest in the Premier League.

Arsenal themselves hold the record, 55 games from May 2001 to November 2002 which covered the last game of 2000-01, the entirety of their 2001-02 title-winning season and the first 16 games of the following campaign’s second-placed finish, before losing 2-0 to Manchester United who went on to win the league.

United had a scoring run of 36 games from December 2007 to November 2008, matched by Liverpool between March 2019 and February 2020 for a distant second place behind Arsenal, with Brighton next up under impressive manager Roberto De Zerbi.

Brighton scored 66 goals in those 32 games, winning 15 and drawing eight with nine losses.

Spurs left standing

Liverpool were held to a goalless draw by Manchester United in Sunday’s late game to halt their own scoring run at 26 games.

Since another 0-0 in April against Chelsea, Jurgen Klopp’s side had scored 63 goals across 18 wins, seven draws and one defeat before their 34 shots proved insufficient to break down a stubborn United side at Anfield.

That leaves Spurs as the only side whose current scoring streak stretches to double figures, and at 29 games after beating Nottingham Forest 2-0 it ranks joint-fifth in Premier League history.

Manchester City also had a run of 29 between December 2018 and September 2019, before a shock 2-0 home defeat to Wolves, with Spurs losing 1-0 to the same opponents before embarking on their current run.

Beginning in March in Antonio Conte’s penultimate match in charge and continuing through the chaotic end to last season, under the caretaker stewardship of first Cristian Stellini and then Ryan Mason, Spurs have kicked on under new boss Ange Postecoglou this term.

They have scored 59 goals in the 29 games, with a record of 14 wins, six draws and nine defeats.

Scoring against Everton, Brighton and Bournemouth in their remaining fixtures of 2023 would take them alongside Albion’s 32 in the Premier League list, with the chance to chase down second-placed Liverpool and Man Utd  by February’s return fixture with the Seagulls.

After Spurs, the longest current streak belongs to Bournemouth, who had scored in eight straight games prior to Saturday’s fixture against Luton. They also found the net before that match was abandoned.