Inter Milan defender Matteo Darmian insists they will need the “right attitude” to beat Real Sociedad and finish first in Group D of the Champions League.
Inter have already qualified for the last 16 of the tournament and came back from three goals down to draw 3-3 with Benfica last time out.
The comeback enabled them to keep their undefeated streak going in the competition this season but they will need victory to ensure they top the group.
Tuesday’s opponents have also qualified but need to avoid defeat at San Siro to ensure they go through as group winners.
Former Manchester United defender Darmian knows the hosts face a challenge.
He told a press conference: “Tomorrow, we’ll go out there, as we have always have done since the start of the season, and try to win, but we know it won’t be easy.
“We want to win and we’ll need the right attitude and desire to do so.
“We already knew before the start of the group how difficult it was to play against Real Sociedad. They are a strong, organised team with great pace and quality.
“They’ve shown this throughout the group stages and deservedly qualified, too. We want to win so we can finish top of the group.”
Inter reached the Champions League final last season before losing the final against Manchester City 1-0.
Darmian insists they are learning from what went wrong last season in a bid to go one step further.
He continued: “As I said before, we have tried to learn from last year’s mistakes and have been working in the best possible way since day one.
“We have a great squad; we have so far shown that, but the season is still long and we must keep pushing on as we are.
“I don’t think much has changed, we always try to play the best we can and with the right determination to take home the win.
“Last year, we couldn’t get a consistent run together but this year we’re trying not to repeat the mistakes of last season.”
The 34-year-old is one of the experienced members in the squad and has played his part in helping the club keep an impressive 12 clean sheets in all competitions so far this season.
Asked whether this period is the best moment of his career, Darmian said: “I don’t think there is a secret; I don’t know if this is the best moment of my career.
“I’m certainly pleased to receive this trust from everyone; it’s something that pushes me every day to give more and more.
“When the coach selects me to play, I always try to give my best and help the team achieve its goals.
“This is a healthy and strong squad; we feel good around each other and we also transmit that out onto the pitch. We are on the right path and we must keep carrying on as we are.”
Girona are continuing to upset the big guns in Spain’s top flight.
Sunday’s stunning 4-2 win at Barcelona means Real Madrid, city rivals Atletico, Barca and Real Sociedad – all leaders of their Champions League groups – continue to trail in the wake of the team from Catalonia.
Here, the PA news agency provides some detail about Los Blanquivermells, who have lost just once in 16 matches this season and top the table by two points.
– Do they have trophy-winning pedigree?
No, unless you count lower league titles and regional cups.
This is only Girona’s fourth campaign in Spain’s top flight, with last season’s 10th-placed finish equalling their previous best in 2013.
Who are the club owned by?
Girona are part owned by the City Football Group (CFG), who own Manchester City.
CFG bought a 44.3 per cent stake in the club in 2017 with the Girona Football Group and now own 47 per cent.
Have they spent much money?
Not a significant amount. Ukraine forward Artem Dovbyk, whose opener in Sunday’s win at Barca was his seventh goal in just 10 LaLiga matches, reportedly became the club’s record signing when he joined from Dnipro for around £7million in August.
Who is their manager?
Miguel Angel Sanchez Munoz, better known as Michel, led Rayo Vallecano to LaLiga in 2018 and repeated the feat two years later with another unfashionable club, Huesca.
As a player, he was a midfielder who played more than 180 games in LaLiga, most of them with Rayo.
Do they have any recognisable players?
Considering the ownership, a Manchester City link is not unexpected.
Defender Eric Garcia and midfielder Aleix Garcia played for the defending champions, while Brazilian Yan Couto – in his third stint on loan with Girona – is a City defender.
Former Tottenham goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga and ex-Manchester United defender Daley Blind are also regulars in the team.
And what about their captain?
Cristhian Stuani, now 37 and once of Middlesbrough, continues to catch the eye.
The Uruguayan international’s double in the closing stages of their last home match, against Valencia, turned defeat into another victory – their 12th in 15th games – and had most of the 13,343 fans at Estadi Montilivi continuing to dream of a top-four finish.
One in five players at this year’s Women’s World Cup were the targets of online abuse.
New data published by FIFA found 152 players out of 697 whose social media accounts were actively monitored received targeted discriminatory, abusive or threatening messaging during the finals.
Homophobic, sexual and sexist abuse accounted for more than half of the abusive posts identified by FIFA’s Social Media Protection Service (SMPS).
Players at the finals in Australia and New Zealand were found to be 29 per cent more likely to be targeted for online abuse than their counterparts at the men’s finals in Qatar.
Players at the finals were given the opportunity to opt in to the SMPS moderation service, which can intercept and hide abusive messages from view.
SMPS scanned more than five million social posts in total, with 102,511 posts flagged by AI for human review. Of those, 7,085 were subsequently verified as discriminatory, abusive or threatening and reported to platforms.
While United States and Argentina players suffered the highest volume of abuse, the FIFA data found there were 637 verified instances of abuse linked to the final between England and Spain.
The study found spikes in abusive posts and messages linked to the news that members of Britain’s Royal Family would not attend the match, and to a good luck message from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The conduct of Spanish FA president Luis Rubiales following the final created a significant spike in abusive and misogynistic content, FIFA found.
Rubiales was banned for three years in October after he kissed Spain midfielder Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the medal presentation, having earlier grabbed his genitals in celebration of Spain’s victory while stood in the stadium’s VIP box.
The report contained a quote from Colombia’s Leicy Santos which read: “If there is one thing that footballers suffer from the most, apart from losing, it is all the abusive comments – the taunts, the insults.
“Beyond what we do as professional footballers, we are people. Some players are able to put up with the outrageous abuse we receive online, but other
players aren’t. It is a very sensitive issue when it comes to mental health.”
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said: “There can be no place on social media for those who abuse or threaten anyone, be that in FIFA tournaments or elsewhere.
“Through the Social Media Protection Service – which was introduced one year ago, with the support of FIFPRO – FIFA has helped reduce the exposure of players, teams and officials to online abuse and hate speech by reporting and hiding more than 400,000 comments.
“Discrimination has no place in football and no place in society. Together, we say: No discrimination!”
The analysis found that 67 per cent of the abusive posts originated from North America, with 21 per cent coming from Europe.
FIFA said all of the verified instances of abuse were reported to social media platforms but said the platforms’ response to dealing with abusive content was “sporadic”.
Evidence on the identity of account holders, where viable, has been presented to member associations and law enforcement agencies, FIFA said.
Jamaica’s Mariah Gordon made history on Saturday with the country’s first ever Gymnastics gold medal at the Pan American Hopes Tournament at the National Indoor Sports Centre in Kingston.
Gordon took home gold in the 11-12 Uneven Bars category ahead of Colombia’s Gabriela Herrera and Panama’s Aylin Lan.
Gordon had a 3.600 score for difficulty and an 8.633 score for execution for an overall score of 12.233, 0.067 more than Herrera and 0.433 more than Lan.
Jamaica also secured another medal through Zuri Mantadara-Clarke in the 11-12 Vault category. Mantadara-Clarke produced an overall score of 12.566 to finish fourth overall behind Panama’s Lan (12.600), Venezuela’s Mia Morales (12.700) and Puerto Rico’s Amaia Lebron (12.900).
Jamaica also finished fourth in the overall team standings with a score of 87.097. Colombia won the team title with 93.931 ahead of Venezuela (91.464) and Argentina (88.897).
Giovinco is likely to head for the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day after coming off second best in clash with Stay Away Fay at Sandown last week.
With The Changing Man unseating his rider and outsider Conkwell Legend unable to land a blow, it turned into a straight shootout between two of the country’s most exciting staying novices.
Lucinda Russell’s Giovinco appeared to be travelling better than the Paul Nicholls-trained Stay Away Fay for much of the home straight, but the latter ultimately outstayed his rival in testing conditions.
Speaking at Ayr on Monday, Russell’s partner and assistant Peter Scudamore revealed Giovinco’s preparation for Sandown had not been entirely trouble-free and hopes he can turn up in better shape on the King George undercard.
“I think he’ll go to Kempton on Boxing Day. He hadn’t had a straight run to get to Sandown, (but) I thought Stephen (Mulqueen) gave him the most magnificent ride and he jumped brilliantly,” Scudamore told Racing TV.
“I was disappointed given how well he was going at three out and two out that he didn’t actually win. If you’d said to me beforehand we’d finish that close to him (Stay Away Fay) I’d have bitten your hand off, but when you watch him three out and he’s still cantering I thought he would win.
“Kempton’s a little bit easier track and I hope we have a bit better preparation. I see Noel George’s horse from France (Il Est Francais) is coming across and I think Paul has got another very good one (Knappers Hill).
“It’s not going to be easy, but on the other hand there’s nowhere else we can go with these horses.”
In its ongoing efforts to speed up the pace of play in international cricket, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has introduced a stop clock, on a trial basis, in Full Member Men’s ODI and T20I matches (approximately 59 fixtures) between December 2023 and April 2024.
The trial will start with the first T20I match between the West Indies and England on 12 December in Barbados.
The stop clock will restrict the amount of time taken between overs, meaning that the bowling team will need to be ready to bowl the first ball of their next over within 60 seconds of the previous over being completed. Failure to do so for the third time in an innings (following two warnings) will result in a five-run penalty being imposed against the fielding team.
Wasim Khan, ICC General Manager – Cricket said: “We are continually looking at ways to speed up the pace of play across international cricket.
“The stop clock trial in white ball international cricket follows the introduction of a successful new playing condition in 2022, which resulted in the fielding team only being allowed four fielders outside of the inner circle if they were not in a position to bowl the first ball of their final over in the stipulated time.
“The outcomes of the stop clock trial will be assessed at the end of the trial period.”
Joseph O’Brien is pondering the options for Grade One scorer Banbridge ahead of his impending return to the track.
A Cheltenham Festival winner over hurdles in 2022, the seven-year-old made a real impression in his novice chasing season, winning at Cheltenham in the autumn and chasing home El Fabiolo in the Irish Arkle before securing big-race success at Aintree in the spring.
Soft ground and the persistent wet weather has so far seen him kept under wraps this season, but O’Brien is eager to get his campaign up and running and is mulling over the numerous upcoming options.
A step up to three miles could be on the cards if electing to run in either Leopardstown’s Savills Chase (December 28) or the Savills New Year’s Chase at Tramore, while a trip to Kempton for the Coral Silviniaco Conti Chase on January 13 is another possibility.
“He’s in good shape and he has a few options over the Christmas period and into the new year and when we find the suitable race for him he will be ready to make his reappearance,” said O’Brien.
“He has the entry at Leopardstown and there is also the Silviniaco Conti at Kempton in the new year and there’s the race on New Year’s Day at Tramore. There are different races over the next month or so that are all possibilities.
“We’re looking forward to getting him back out.”
O’Brien is also planning a Christmas appearance for taking Fairyhouse scorer Nurburgring, who will take the next step up the juvenile hurdling ladder in Leopardstown’s Grade Two Knight Frank Juvenile Hurdle on December 26.
He added: “I’m very pleased with him and I thought he was quite impressive as well (at Fairyhouse).
“The plan for him is he is likely to go to Leopardstown at Christmas time for the juvenile hurdle there.”
Aston Villa's head coach, Unai Emery, has moved to calm concerns over the fitness of Jamaican sensation Leon Bailey after the winger was substituted at halftime during their pivotal 1-0 victory over Arsenal at Villa Park.
Bailey, who provided the crucial assist for John McGinn's seventh-minute goal, raised eyebrows when he did not emerge from the tunnel for the second half.
Emery addressed the situation in the post-match press conference, providing insight into Bailey's condition. Despite the initial worry among Villa fans, Emery hinted that fatigue rather than injury might be the reason for the substitution.
"He was tired, completely tired! Hopefully, he's not injured, but I don't know exactly," Emery reassured, offering a glimmer of hope regarding Bailey's well-being.
Bailey's impactful performance against Arsenal came on the heels of his winning goal against Manchester City last Wednesday night. His ability to make a difference in crucial matches has quickly endeared him to Villa supporters.
However, the Jamaican international has battled injury concerns since joining Aston Villa from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2021. Despite these challenges, Bailey has remarkably missed just one league match throughout the season, sitting out the 6-1 win over Brighton and Hove Albion back in September.
The timing of Bailey's potential setback raises questions about his availability for the upcoming Europa Conference League clash against Zrinjski on Thursday night.
The hope is that Bailey's early substitution against Arsenal was a precautionary measure to manage fatigue rather than a recurrence of his injury struggles. As Villa pursues success on multiple fronts, including European competition, the fitness of key players like Leon Bailey remains a critical factor in their aspirations for a successful campaign.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has taken a new role with RedBird Capital Partners as a senior adviser to AC Milan’s ownership and management.
The 42-year-old retired from football following Milan’s final game of the last Serie A season, but has returned to the club in his first job since his playing days as an adviser to the management and owners.
Ibrahimovic will serve as a senior adviser to the ownership, which is led by RedBird and longstanding partners the New York Yankees.
The former Sweden striker will play a key role with the club, dealing with their sporting and business operations to help the club build on the success since Redbird took ownership the club.
Ibrahimovic will work with the playing side, which includes development and high-performance training, while having a say in Milan’s commercial business and supporting special projects, including the building and development of the club’s new stadium.
The American investment firm, which also has stakes in Liverpool’s owner Fenway Sports Group, took over the Italian club in 2021 and helped them win the Serie A title in 2021-22 while taking the club back into the Champions League.
Ibrahimovic will work alongside RedBird founder Gerry Cardinale as well as first-team coach Stefano Pioli and chief executive Giorgio Furlani.
Ibrahimovic told the club website: “I am extremely grateful to be joining both RedBird and AC Milan in these important and influential roles.
“RedBird has partnered with some of the greatest athletes, teams and business figures in the world to create businesses with meaning and impact. I look forward to contributing to their investing activities across their sports, media and entertainment properties.
“My love for the Rossoneri will never die, and the opportunity to be a part of its future in a meaningful way is something I could only have dreamed of.
“I have greatly admired the commitment, passion and hard work RedBird and Senior Management have demonstrated since acquiring the club. This is not a decision that I take lightly – it is one which is very important and personal to me and my family.
“I’ve thought long and hard about the first steps in my post-playing career, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to start that journey as a member of RedBird and AC Milan. For me and my family, this is truly a homecoming with the cherished club where I ended my playing career and am now starting my next chapter.”
Aston Villa’s stunning home form stretched to a club-record 15 games as Saturday’s success against Arsenal took them into elite Premier League company.
Here, the PA news agency takes a look at fortress Villa Park.
Record run
Going into their midweek game against Manchester City, Villa’s run of 13 home league wins dating back to last season was already their longest of the Premier League era – but with the champions and their main challengers coming to Birmingham back-to-back, the fun looked set to end.
Instead, winners from Leon Bailey and John McGinn saw Villa kick on to the longest run in their history as their resurgence under manager Unai Emery gathers pace.
Crystal Palace, Brighton and Fulham, twice apiece, Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest, Newcastle, Tottenham, Everton, West Ham and Luton are their other victims.
They have scored 39 goals – conceding only seven, and never more than one in a game. Ollie Watkins is their top scorer in that time with nine goals, one ahead of Douglas Luiz.
Elite company
Villa’s streak ranks among the five longest home winning runs in the Premier League era, with Emery matching Pep Guardiola’s recently concluded streak of 15 with City – who won 10 straight to end last season and their first five this term before draws with Liverpool and Tottenham.
Next in Villa’s sights is Manchester United’s 19 successive home wins between October 2010 and October 2011 – a far cry from United’s current home form.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s side had the chance to stretch their run to 20 and a full year with maximum points at Old Trafford, only for the run to end in astonishing style as Mario Balotelli inspired City to a 6-1 derby romp.
City hit 20 earlier in their current era of dominance, Roberto Mancini’s side with a perfect Etihad Stadium record from March 2011 to March 2012 when Sunderland, vanquished 5-0 earlier in the sequence, drew 3-3 – the only two points dropped on home soil that season by Mancini’s title-winners.
The record belongs to Liverpool, who won their final seven home games of 2018-19 as they pushed champions City all the way and then their first 17 of their title-winning 2019-20 season – again, the 1-1 draw with Burnley that ended the run marked their only dropped points at home.
They went on to win their next eight and went 68 league games, and over three-and-a-half years, unbeaten at Anfield before remarkably then losing six in a row – a warning to Villa regarding how suddenly things can change.
Good omens
Villa top this season’s home league table with eight wins from eight. Liverpool also have a perfect record but from seven games, while Newcastle have won seven out of eight.
They are third outright with 35 points, only the fifth time in their history they have had such an impressive record after 16 games.
The other occasions when, converting to three points for a win, they would have been on 35 or more are their 19th-century title-winning seasons of 1898-99 and 1899-1900, a runner-up finish in 1910-11 and their most recent title in 1980-81.
Shoaib Bashir – a rookie spinner with “world class” potential – has been handed a shock call-up for England’s new year Test tour of India, just six months after making his first-class debut for Somerset.
The 20-year-old off-spinner only made his LV= Insurance County Championship bow in June but has been fast-tracked to the very highest level after just six senior red-ball appearances.
Bashir’s track record is wafer thin – with 10 wickets to his name at an average of 67 – but he impressed on a recent England Lions training camp in the United Arab Emirates and will travel as one of three uncapped players in a 16-strong squad.
The others, Lancashire’s left-arm spinner Tom Hartley and Surrey quick Gus Atkinson, have represented their country in white-ball cricket and were fancied to make the five-match trip.
Director of men’s cricket Rob Key heads the selection panel that made a similar call 12 months ago when drafting 18-year-old leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed for the tour of Pakistan.
Ahmed, who also travels as one of four frontline slow bowlers, went on to take a five-wicket haul on debut in Karachi and Key insists investing in promising individuals is the correct course – particularly in a discipline that is notoriously under-served by the domestic game.
“Life is always about how good someone’s good is, not how bad their bad is,” he said.
“He’s very raw – he’s going for experience as much as anyone else, albeit we won’t be afraid to play him if required. This is the start of his journey, where we will hopefully see a world-class spinner in the future.
“He’s got one of the higher release points in the game, he just looks like everything that you see in a classical off-spinner: a bit of real craft, a bit of real guile and a decent character as well.
“It can be different if you’re bowling at Virat Kohli out in India in front of 50,000 people but we feel like his character is very solid and he looks like his ceiling is very high.
“It’s very hard, especially for spinners in English cricket to judge them on their numbers as such. You’re not going to expect your spinner to average 24 with the ball in county cricket, you’re trying to see something else and back their character. You want to see how the ball comes out of their hand and make those judgements. You’re going more to the art of selection, rather than the science of selection.”
England may need to continue thinking creatively when it comes to balancing their XI in India, with Key admitting there is next to no chance of captain Ben Stokes being able to bowl so soon after surgery on a longstanding left-knee issue.
Stokes is currently recovering and, while hopes are high he will be ready for the first Test on January 25 in Hyderabad, it will be as a specialist batter.
“The surgery has been a success and we expect him to be fit but we are not expecting him to be able to bowl at that point,” said Key.
“We never had him down to be bowling in India. We won’t try to rush through it. It does make it trickier but, as long as you know that, you can come up with a plan.”
Senior spinner Jack Leach is fit again after a stress fracture of the back saw him miss last summer’s Ashes series, but Chris Woakes drops out following his player-of-the-series efforts against Australia and may have played his last overseas Test.
Hartley, a tall left-armer who England feel can cause problems by spearing the ball quickly into the pitch, has effectively been selected over the more experienced Liam Dawson.
The Hampshire veteran was touted for a possible return after an excellent domestic season but has been left to pursue franchise opportunities. Will Jacks, the big-hitting Surrey all-rounder currently on England white-ball duty in the Caribbean, has also been left out and will take up T20 deals over the winter.
Wicketkeeper Ben Foakes travels despite losing the gloves to Jonny Bairstow against Australia and could be a strong candidate to break back into the first choice XI given the importance of the role in the sub-continent.
With Stuart Broad retired, there are four fast bowlers chosen: James Anderson, Ollie Robinson, Mark Wood and Atkinson.
England squad for Test tour of India: B Stokes (c), R Ahmed, J Anderson, G Atkinson, J Bairstow (wkt), S Bashir, H Brook, Z Crawley, B Duckett, B Foakes (wkt), T Hartley, J Leach, O Pope, O Robinson, J Root, M Wood.
In a splendid affair at the luxurious Marriott Hotel in Aventura, the Pan American Sport Organization (PASO) held its Gala Awards Ceremony recently, hosting a distinguished guest and 400m hurdles gold medalist, Jaheel Hyde, who was celebrated for his remarkable achievement at the 2023 Pan American Games.
The event became more than a gala; it transformed into a Wolmerian reunion, bringing together Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) President Christopher Samuda, and JOA Secretary General/CEO, Ryan Foster, both maroon and gold alumni and esteemed PASO commission members.
The reunion was elevated with the presence of Jaheel Hyde, a Wolmer's Boys' School alumnus, whose stellar performance on the international stage earned him the prestigious 400m hurdles gold.
Jaheel Hyde, adorned with numerous gold medals from his junior endeavors and the 2022 Commonwealth Games silver in Birmingham, now sets his sights on the grandest stage of all—the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The gala served as a moment of recognition for Hyde's historic achievement, marking his first gold at the senior level in international competition.
As Hyde basks in the glory of his Pan Am Games triumph, the journey continues, with the Paris Olympics looming on the horizon. Eager to add another illustrious chapter to his sporting journey, Hyde prepares to face formidable competitors, aspiring to clinch the coveted gold medal and etch his name in the annals of sporting history.
Love Envoi is pencilled in for a Sandown return after her second-placed performance in the relocated Fighting Fifth on Saturday.
The seven-year-old was back in action after 224 days off the track, her final run of last season being a beaten effort at Punchestown where she picked up an injury.
Prior to that she was enjoying a very successful campaign, however, winning twice at Sandown before being finding just the great Honeysuckle too good in the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.
The complexion of the Fighting Fifth changed twice before the race, firstly because of the relocation of the contest from Newcastle to Sandown and secondly because of the withdrawal of leading hurdler Constitution Hill.
Without Nicky Henderson’s champion in the line-up the Harry Fry-trained Love Envoi started at 6-4 with only Jamie Snowden’s You Wear It Well more fancied as the 5-4 favourite.
Love Envoi was held up in last place in the early stages of the race and did not jump fluently to start with, but as the contest unfolded she stayed on to chase home Hughie Morrison’s veteran Not So Sleepy, who was an eight-length winner at 9-1.
The runner-up is owned by Noel Fehily Racing Syndicates and the former jockey was not disheartened by the performance after a significant lay-off for the mare.
“She’s fine, she did well to finish second but she was a bit slow and ring rusty early on,” he said.
“Then when she got into it she actually ran a good race in the end.
“The first two she jumped really up in the air and slow, she was definitely ring-rusty but she warmed up into it and came from a long way back.
“Overall it was a good run. I wouldn’t think the ground had anything to to do with it, I’d be surprised if it did.
“Harry always said she was only just about ready to start so I think she will come on plenty for the run.”
One of Love Envoi’s Sandown successes last term was the Listed Unibet 3 Uniboosts A Day Mares’ Hurdle in early January, a race that she will now target again.
Fehily said: “We’ll head to Sandown for the mares’ hurdle she won last year, all roads lead back there at the minute.”
The Fehily syndicates also had another runner-up at the meeting as Insurrection came home second in the Grade Two Betfair Beacons Winter Novices’ Hurdle.
The Paul Nicholls-trained gelding was making his second start over obstacles after an easy win on debut last month, lining up at Sandown a 5-2 chance under Harry Cobden.
He looked the winner for almost all of the race and was only passed on the run to the line as Dan Skelton’s Deafening Silence headed him before the post.
“We were very happy with him, he looked the winner jumping the last but he just didn’t quite stay on that ground up the hill,” said Fehily.
“He’s a lovely young horse, he jumps for fun, we were very impressed with him.
“We don’t have any plans at the minute, we’ll give him a week or two and then make plans, it’ll be after Christmas and new year probably.”
Baroness Dido Harding will become senior steward of the Jockey Club next year, making her the first woman to hold the role in the organisation’s 273-year history.
The unpaid position is currently held by Sandy Dudgeon, whose term expires in July when Harding will take over, chairing the Jockey Club’s main board, which sets the strategic direction of the organisation and oversees the executive functions.
In 2017, Harding, 56, was appointed to the board of stewards of the Jockey Club, which owns high-profile racecourses such as Epsom, Newmarket, Cheltenham and Aintree, having been a member since 2004.
She is a former chief executive of TalkTalk and initially oversaw the government’s test-and-trace programme during the coronavirus pandemic.
She also rode more than 25 winners as an amateur jockey and owned 1998 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Cool Dawn, the horse she had ridden the previous year to finish second in the Festival hunter chase.
More recently she won the Magnolia Cup in 2017, winning Goodwood’s charity race at the third attempt having previously finished second twice.
She was in the winner’s circle at the end of last month, when the Robert Walford-trained Hipop Des Ongrais won at Hereford.
“As a lifelong racing enthusiast, it is a huge privilege to be appointed senior steward,” said Harding.
“The Jockey Club holds a unique position to both protect the sport’s heritage and tradition and also to innovate to attract and delight racegoers of the future to ensure horseracing can thrive for generations to come.”
Dudgeon added: “Dido has been a terrific asset to the board of stewards since she joined in 2017. She has brought a wealth of experience, deep knowledge of the industry and a lifelong enthusiasm for our sport. I would like to wish her every success as senior steward when she takes up the role in July next year.”
In other Jockey Club news, Grand National-winning rider Sam Waley-Cohen will join the board of stewards from January 1, 2024, while the late Queen’s granddaughter Zara Tindall has become a member, as has racing presenter Rishi Persad.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
