Making Headway bids to provide the burgeoning training partnership of Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero with a significant pre-Cheltenham boost in the Betfair Imperial Cup at Sandown.

The Cheshire-based team will not send many runners to the Cotswolds next week but do have a major bullet to fire in the form of stablemate Iroko, winner of the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Hurdle 12 months ago and this time a serious player in the Turners Novices’ Chase.

Making Headway himself holds Cheltenham engagements in the Coral Cup and the Martin Pipe, but for now all eyes are on this weekend’s Sandown feature, the traditional appetiser to the Festival.

The six-year-old has enjoyed a fine first season over hurdles, with wins at Carlisle in October and Newbury last month sandwiching two creditable efforts in graded company, and Greenall feels he has plenty going for him on Saturday.

“He’s an improving horse who has run in some good races and run well,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s the deepest Imperial Cup there’s ever been, the favourite of Ben Pauling’s (Jipcot) won well at Huntingdon the other day but that was a lesser race, so he needs to step up again.

“We’ve got some good form with some good horses. He’s obviously inexperienced and needs further, but soft ground and the stiff finish at Sandown will suit him.”

Pauling is another trainer who can look forward to sending a small but select team to Cheltenham following an excellent recent run of form.

As well as saddling Jipcot, who carries a 7lb penalty for a comfortable win at Huntingdon last Sunday, the Naunton Downs handler has another leading contender in the form of Bad, who has been placed in four similarly competitive handicaps already this season and is due a change of luck.

“Jipcot has always been a horse who we knew had ability but had just been struggling to get exactly where we wanted him. It looks like the application of a hood and tongue-tie seems to have worked the oracle,” said Pauling.

“It’s quite a quick turnaround, but he didn’t have to do an awful lot to win at Huntingdon and he goes there in good form.

“I’m looking forward to seeing him back in some decent company. I’m not sure the 7lb will be too much of an issue and it’s been a case of getting his head in the right place really.”

On Bad, he added: “I was confident that going up in trip with him was the right thing to do, but with the ground being how it is and how it is going to ride on Saturday, he will be a stout stayer over two miles and I’m looking forward to seeing how he gets on.”

Paul Nicholls is hoping French recruit Sans Bruit can raise his game after what was an underwhelming debut British introduction at Doncaster in January.

“He didn’t quite get the trip at Doncaster where he was a bit keen on his debut for us on his first time since a wind op,” the champion trainer told Betfair.

“He should appreciate stepping back in distance to two miles and he has plenty of decent form on soft ground in France, where he won five times over hurdles.

“We are running him in a hood to try to help him relax and he looks to have a nice each-way chance.”

Sans Bruit will be partnered by Harry Cobden, but jockeys’ championship rival Sean Bowen is confident of clawing one back aboard Olly Murphy’s Go Dante.

A winner at Cheltenham in December, he was a respectable third in the Betfair Hurdle last month and goes to post off the same mark.

“It was a very good run at Newbury and he’ll enjoy the track and ground at Sandown,” said Bowen.

“He’s really progressed with each run this season and I’m really looking forward to riding him. He’ll love conditions and everything should suit.”

The sole Irish-trained contender is David O’Brien’s Minx Tiara, who was last seen filling the runner-up spot after leading for a long way in a Listed handicap hurdle at Leopardstown.

O’Brien, who trains around 15 horses at his base in Piltown, said: “Minx Tiara has come out of her run at the Dublin Racing Festival very well and seems in great form.

“The prize money is so good at Sandown and the owners are mad keen for a day out – they are a great bunch of lads and have had a lot of fun over the years. She is nine years old now and there might not be that many more chances to travel with her.

“Hopefully this is a good opportunity for her while she is in such good form. I thought she was well-handicapped, although I am a little bit worried that the English handicapper has given her an extra 9lb compared to her mark in Ireland and she is up 11lb overall for her run at Leopardstown.

“Sean and Danny (Mullins) who have both ridden her said with the form she is in at the moment, there could be a nice prize in her. Hopefully, she has an each-way chance.”

Jamie Snowden is excited to see Ga Law strut his stuff at the Cheltenham Festival after connections paid the required supplementary fee to add him to Thursday’s Ryanair Chase.

The eight-year-old is a dual winner over fences at Prestbury Park, landing last season’s Paddy Power Gold Cup and another lucrative handicap on his most recent visit in late January.

Ga Law was not beaten when fifth behind Envoi Allen in last year’s Ryanair and as Snowden feels he is in a better place mentally and physically this time around, he was added to the field at Friday’s confirmation stage at a cost of £15,000.

“The original entries for the Ryanair came out before Trials day at Cheltenham in January and he was very impressive that day, winning off a big weight. The handicapper has now put up to a point where it makes sense to have a crack at this,” said the trainer.

“We were fifth in the Ryanair last year when we were perhaps not in the same sort of form that we’re in now. We obviously won the Paddy Power that winter, but we took a nasty fall in the Sky Bet Chase and he probably wasn’t in the same kind of form that he’s in now 12 months ago and he still ran a belter.

“We do feel he’s in far better order now and hopefully he can go a few places better.

“Obviously Envoi Allen won it last year and the reports are that he’s in great order this time around as well. It certainly looks a competitive race, but forgetting the opposition, we hope that we’re coming into it in far better form than we did last year.”

Ga Law and Envoi Allen are among 12 horses in contention for the Ryanair, with Banbridge, Star Star and Capodanno also among the leading contenders.

Willie Mullins has confirmed El Fabiolo for the two-mile-five-furlong contest, but he is expected to line up as a hot favourite for the Queen Mother Champion Chase the previous afternoon.

The other feature on day three of the Festival is the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle, with Gordon Elliott’s ante-post favourite Teahupoo one of 18 confirmations.

Elliott has also left in Irish Point, but has raised the possibility of him being switched to Tuesday’s Champion Hurdle, while Flooring Porter is on course to bid for a third Stayers’ Hurdle after his trainer Gavin Cromwell confirmed his intention to switch his stable star back to the smaller obstacles.

Grand National hero Noble Yeats (Emmet Mullins) is another major challenger from Ireland, while the home team includes 2019 Stayers’ Hurdle hero Paisley Park (Emma Lavelle) and his Long Walk conqueror Crambo (Fergal O’Brien).

Grey Dawning (Dan Skelton), Ginny’s Destiny (Paul Nicholls) and Iroko (Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero) are the three chief British-trained contenders for the opening Turners Novices’ Chase, with Willie Mullins leaving in Facile Vega, Gaelic Warrior, Il Etait Temps and Sharjah.

The Ryanair Mares Novices’ Hurdle, meanwhile, promises to be one of the races of the week, with Elliott’s Brighterdaysahead, the Mullins-trained Jade De Grugy and O’Brien’s Dysart Enos all set to put their unbeaten records over obstacles on the line.

Mother and daughter Georgie and Olive Nicholls team up at Sandown on Saturday for what would be a famous success with Thank You Ma’am on Mother’s Day weekend.

The five-year-old has acquitted himself well under rules so far, placing third in a bumper and finishing the runner-up in his last three hurdle starts.

On each occasion he has met with and been beaten by a smart-looking rival, with Paul Nicholls’ Fire Flyer defeating him at Wincanton and Harry Derham’s Fourofakind finishing half a length ahead at Hereford last time out.

Champion trainer Paul is Nicholls’ ex-husband and Derham is her nephew, and the rivalry with the former will be reignited as Fire Flyer also runs in the European Breeders’ Fund Betfair ‘National Hunt’ Novices’ Handicap Hurdle Final.

The race is run over two and a half miles and is worth over £45,000 to the winner, with Fire Flyer set to carry top-weight and Thank You Ma’am under a bottom-weight further reduced by the 7lb claimed by his rider Olive, daughter of both trainers in question.

“He’s been a bit unlucky, he’s been second in his last three races and each time he’s just bumped into a really nice horse,” Nicholls said of her runner.

“One trained by Paul, my ex-husband, and the other trained by Harry Derham, who is my nephew, so if I could get rid of my own family he’d have won twice!

“He’s been running very consistently, he’s stepping up to two and a half (miles) and he’ll appreciate that.

“He’s not too fussy on the ground, it’s going to be very testing but he’s getting plenty of weight off the top horses and Olive takes another 7lb off his back.

“I had quite a funny conversation with Paul, I called him and said ‘well, we’ll end up getting 21lb off you’ and he said ‘mine’s rated 127 and I think he should be rated 137’. I said ‘well that’s not helpful, thanks for that!’. We did have a giggle.

“Sandown is a stiff track, the ground will be testing and they’ll need to get every bit of the two and a half. Weight is definitely even more advantageous when you’ve got testing ground.”

Thank You Ma’am is named in honour of the late Queen and is owned by a syndicate named The Posh Pundit Racing Club who know the gelding as Leroy.

“He’ll need to be at his very best but we’d love to see him put a good run in, it’s a really fun syndicate with a nice bunch of people,” said Nicholls.

“He’s a lovely horse and he’ll provide a lot of fun for them.”

Olive is her mother’s assistant as well as an amateur rider and is particularly fond of Thank You Ma’am, aboard whom she will aim to supply an early Mother’s Day gift.

“I’ve promised mum for Mother’s Day we’re going to take Leroy to the next level and hopefully he’ll get a taste for winning as he’s got the ability,” she said.

“He is the yard favourite and is the perfect horse for the club as he has buckets of ability and is unbelievably social.

“In fact he has even been to the pub a couple of times to celebrate winning the locals a huge sum after coming third at 125-1.”

Jane Chapple-Hyam could saddle her first Cheltenham Festival runner on a rare foray to the National Hunt scene if Stavvy sneaks into the Weatherbys Champion Bumper.

Although most commonly associated with big-race success on the Flat, Staavy earnt his shot at Prestbury Park glory when cruising to a nine-length success at Southwell last month.

That was his handler’s first ever victory under National Hunt rules and the intention is for the four-year-old to be declared for the Grade One event, even though his spot in the final line-up is not guaranteed, with a safety factor of 24 meaning seven of the 31 confirmed entrants could miss out.

Chapple-Hyam is hoping for some good fortune at declaration time on Monday to enable herself and her staff the chance to experience the Festival for the first time, having enjoyed plying their trade amongst the jumps fraternity with Stavvy this winter.

She said: “I haven’t got a runner just yet as he needs two not to declare, so I’m going to have to wait and see!

“The plan is to run but we have a ballot number and we need two not to run, so it’s not certain just yet.

“The staff have enjoyed it and it has been good fun. It’s been a wet winter and it has given the yard a bit of flavour and something to enjoy which has been good.

“He won well at Southwell considering there was an odds-on shot in the field. It was heavy ground and that shows that if Cheltenham was to go slow or dead, then he is able to handle that.”

“The owners have enjoyed watching him progress and he was bought to be a Flat runner, but he is showing us enough to have a go at this. If he gets in, he won’t let us down.”

Stavvy was ridden to victory at Southwell by Bryony Frost, who has also encroached on Flat territory recently to put the big-race outsider through his paces at home in Newmarket.

Chapple-Hyam is hoping the 28-year-old will be available to do the steering if making the cut for Wednesday’s Grade One event – with the gelding available at odds of 100-1, the same price Mudawin was when landing the Ebor for the Australian native in 2006.

She added: “Bryony is jocked up at the moment but it all depends what Mr Nicholls does with his three entries and he obviously has first call – so that’s another thing I will have to sit and wait on and I just have to wait for her agent to let me know if she is available or not.

“As long as the horse stays fit and well until Wednesday, we hope to be competing and I hope Bryony is available to ride him because she has sat on him twice (on course) and has come and ridden him here at home in Newmarket.

“Mudawin won the Ebor at 100-1, so it’s never say never.”

Owner Rich Ricci insists the Mares’ Hurdle remains “Plan A” for Lossiemouth at next week’s Cheltenham Festival, despite the increasing clamour for her to take on the boys in the Unibet Champion Hurdle.

Winner of the Triumph Hurdle 12 months ago, the Willie Mullins-trained five-year-old was so impressive on her reappearance on Cheltenham’s Trials day card in late January that many called for her to take on the mighty Constitution Hill in Tuesday’s feature event.

While the Mares’ Hurdle was immediately put forward as her most likely objective, the subsequent defection of the reigning champion led to Mullins saying he supposed “a conversation will be had” regarding the possibility of switching Lossiemouth to the big one.

However, with Mullins now responsible for the red-hot favourite for the Champion Hurdle in the form of last year’s runner-up State Man, it appears almost certain Lossiemouth will be taking the perceived easier option on the same afternoon.

“We all know that five-year-olds have a challenging record in the Champion Hurdle and we learned a lot last year with Vauban – look how he struggled and he’s a fine horse,” Ricci told Sky Sports Racing.

“This year we said to ourselves ‘let’s just take our time with the mare, she’s very young’ – she had a hard season last year and she didn’t run until Trials day this season.

“The plan was always to run in the Mares’ Hurdle, keep one eye on the Champion in case it cut up, but the intention has always been to run in the Mares’ and hopefully if she’s good enough come back and have a real go at the boys next year.

“I know a lot people would be thinking about running her in the Champion Hurdle, but if you look at her best ratings and times not one of them would have won a Champion Hurdle in the last 10 years, so I think we’re doing the right thing.

“We’ll keep an eye on the Champion Hurdle in case it cuts up further, but I think Plan A is to run in the Mares’ Hurdle.”

Lossiemouth will be tackling two and a half miles for the first time on Tuesday, but Ricci is optimistic her stamina will last out over the extra distance.

He added: “She seems to be maturing and settling a bit, the trip is a slight concern as she’s never won over it, but they all think she’ll get it and on breeding she should get it.

“She’s certainly our best chance of the week, so we’re looking forward to seeing her on Tuesday.”

Another Ricci-owned star set to be in action on the opening day of the Festival is Gaelic Warrior, who is poised to drop back in trip for the Arkle Trophy.

Although the six-year-old has displayed a preference for going right-handed, he has finished second at Cheltenham in each of the past two years and Ricci hopes he can put a disappointing run at the Dublin Racing Festival behind him.

“He’s a nut job and a bit of a knucklehead at the racecourse,” he said.

“He jumps a bit right and prefers going right-handed and probably the easiest thing to do with him is to take him to Fairyhouse and Punchestown, but there’s only one Cheltenham Festival so we’ll take our chance again.

“He’s run there twice and run well twice. We’re leaning at the moment towards running him in the Arkle.

“I don’t know what happened the last day, no one can explain it, he just sort of spat the dummy. He seems to be back in better form and I’m hoping you’ll see a much better performance than you did at the Dublin Racing Festival.”

Monkfish looked a genuine Gold Cup contender after winning the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase three years ago, but subsequently spent two years on the sidelines.

He notched his first win since his return in the Galmoy Hurdle at Gowran Park in late January and while the Stayers’ Hurdle remains an option, Mullins has suggested he may belatedly get his tilt at Gold Cup glory next Friday.

Ricci added: “Willie keeps talking about the Gold Cup, (but) we haven’t engaged much on Monkfish.

“It would appear to me that the natural race would be the Stayers’ Hurdle as he hasn’t jumped a fence in public over the last three years and he was very good the last day in the Galmoy. That being said, if it comes up soft he may go for the Gold Cup, that’s what Willie is intending to do at the moment.

“We won’t talk about it until next week, but the fact that Willie is talking about that, given the level of the competition (in the Gold Cup), means the horse is in great nick and in great form.

“We always thought he was a Gold Cup horse and maybe this is the year he’ll take his chance.”

The Ricci squad also includes Allegorie De Vassy, who will look to go one better than last year in the Mares’ Chase, and popular veteran Sharjah, who has been placed twice in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham and this year looks set to contest the Turners Novices’ Chase.

The owner believes Bialystok has a “great each-way chance” in the County Hurdle and that Mercurey may “outrun his odds” in the Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle.

Richard Hannon possesses a strong hand in Saturday’s BetMGM Lady Wulfruna Stakes at Wolverhampton – but stresses Group One performer Shouldvebeenaring will not be in optimum condition for his seasonal reappearance.

Owned by Middleham Park Racing, the four-year-old sets a clear standard on what he achieved last season, finishing the campaign by placing in top tier events both at Haydock and ParisLongchamp.

He drops to Listed level for his return to action, but with many big days and a long summer ahead of him, Hannon has warned the mount of Sean Levey will not be fully tuned up for his Dunstall Park appearance.

Hannon said: “He’s going to need it badly, it is going to be quite a busy year for him and we’re just giving him a run to get him ready for some of the bigger races later in the year.

“He’ll enjoy having a run round there and he might still win, but I imagine he will improve massively on this whatever he does.”

Hannon has won this race twice in the last four years and is also represented by 2021 champion Mums Tipple, who although well held after meeting trouble in running at Lingfield recently, is expected to come on for the run in the hands of Hollie Doyle.

“Mums Tipple has had the advantage of having a run and he won’t be far away, he’s working great,” continued Hannon.

While both Shouldvebeenaring and Mums Tipple are proven performers, Geoff Oldroyd’s Doctor Khan Junior is very much taking a step into the unknown on his first try in Pattern company.

Proven in the West Midlands, the five-year-old is unbeaten in his last four outings – all on the all-weather – and his handler feels there is no better time than the present to test the waters at a higher level.

“He just keeps progressing and we’ve got to the stage now where he is rated 99 and it is probably going to be hard in handicaps,” explained Oldroyd.

“There aren’t that many races around for him at the moment, so we’re just going to pop him up into a Listed race and see how we get on.

“He likes Wolverhampton and comes alive around there, so while he’s healthy and in good nick, it’s probably a good time to find out if he is good enough to go up in that grade.”

Another attempting to make her mark at this level is Nine Tenths, who has always been a consistent performer for trainer William Haggas and owners St Albans Bloodstock and having gained black type when second to Dear My Friend at Lingfield last month, will now bid to go one better.

“She’s quite lightly raced for a four-year-old but she has been very consistent and I think she has only been out of the first four once in her career to date,” said the owners’ racing manager Richard Brown.

“She got her black type last time which is important and she looks to have a fair chance of getting some more. Whether that is winning black type though, I don’t know and we will find out.

“Richard Hannon’s horse will be hard to beat on the ratings, but she’s fit and well and ready to go and we’ve obviously got William (Buick) on board which is always a great help. We’re hoping for a big run and she goes there match fit, which we hope will give us some bit of advantage.”

Course-and-distance winners Misty Grey (David O’Meara) and Intervention (Mick Appleby) complete the sextet heading to post for this seven-furlong feature.

Although growing up in touching distance of Prestbury Park, Noel George will be attempting to land a blow for France when Milan Tino becomes the first horse he will saddle at the Cheltenham Festival.

His father Tom George has sent out both Galileo (Royal & SunAlliance Novices’ Hurdle, 2002) and Summerville Boy (Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, 2018) to strike at the showpiece meeting from the Slad training base where George Jr learnt the ropes.

However, the younger George has swapped the Cotswolds for Chantilly, where alongside Amanda Zetterholm he has formed a formidable Anglo-Swedish training partnership that is taking French racing by storm.

It is the exploits of superstar chaser Il Est Francais that first alerted a British audience to George and Zetterholm’s training talents, but the JP McManus-owned juvenile Milan Tino is the source of the duo’s Cheltenham dreams as he prepares for a shot at the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle on the opening day of Festival action.

George said: “He did his last piece of work on Tuesday and worked very nicely. He is heading over on Sunday and we’ve got our fingers crossed for a good run.

“It’s our first Cheltenham Festival runner and it’s a real dream. The fact we are coming over from France with one with a live chance is really exciting.”

Milan Tino is no stranger to Cheltenham having visited twice already this season, each time finishing third and only having Triumph Hurdle favourite Sir Gino and the highly-talented Burdett Road ahead of him in his most recent trip to Prestbury Park on Festival Trials day.

He has also finished in the money in competitive juvenile heats at Auteuil and George is hoping the handicapper has given the four-year-old a real chance of what can be classed as a rare Festival success for France.

“To start with he was off 136 because of his French form and the handicapper seems to think off his English runs he is now 126, so I hope we have a few pounds in hand I guess,” continued George, with Milan Tino a best price of 8-1 at Cheltenham.

“Sir Gino I knew before from when he ran in the Prix Wild Monarch and he has always been a bit special and Burdett Road is also obviously a very good ex-Flat horse, so we go there with a live chance and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Whilst most sports are now moving to develop and promote their women’s game independently of the men’s, racing has the rare distinction of allowing both sexes to compete directly against one another.

The majority of jockeys are male, but there has been breakthrough after breakthrough in the women’s ranks and responsible for much of that progress is the great talent of Hollie Doyle.

Doyle is not just a supreme female jockey, but a leading rider regardless of gender and is one of only a handful of jockeys to enjoy a retained role as the go-to for Imad Al Sagar’s Blue Diamond Stud.

It is aboard their star mare Nashwa that she has enjoyed great success in recent seasons, winning three Group Ones and collecting several placings at the top level in a career that looks set to continue when the Flat season really starts next month.

John and Thady Gosden train Nashwa but Doyle is the stable jockey for Archie Watson, for whom she has registered countless victories aboard big names such as Glen Shiel, Outbox and last year’s Royal Ascot scorer Bradsell.

With a stable jockey position and a retainer, Doyle could be expected to take only a limited book of outside rides, but her CV proves she is in demand whenever available and she is the rider associated with Alan King’s top stayer Trueshan.

Her status would also grant her the right to sit out the lower quality meetings and choose not to travel the length and breadth of the country for all-weather rides, but Doyle is arguably one of the hardest-working riders in the weighing room and took just shy of 800 rides last year in Britain alone.

During the window that determines the British Flat jockeys’ championship, she rode 89 winners last season, finishing fifth behind William Buick, Oisin Murphy, Rossa Ryan and her husband, Tom Marquand.

In addition to that, she has plied her trade in almost every significant racing jurisdiction that exists and last year brought home prize money from Japan, France, Germany, Sweden and Italy – something she does not take for granted.

“I get loads of support from everyone and it’s really nice to feel that I have such an open book of trainers that are willing to use me,” she said.

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“It is great to have the association I have with Imad Al Sagar and it’s even better that Nashwa is in training for another year, and that’s something to look forward to for the season ahead already.

“I’m really lucky, I’m attached to Archie’s stable and always busy in that regard, he has a nice team of horses to go forward with.

“I’ve been riding all around the world, I did a stint in Japan and I thoroughly enjoyed that – it’s something I’ll be hoping to do a lot more of.

“It’s great as it’s always hard to go to a new jurisdiction and pick up some good rides, you have to take it all in and adapt to the style of racing riding there.”

Hayley Turner broke many barriers at a time when there was some reluctance to use female jockeys, with her success then paving the way for younger riders like Doyle.

“Hayley was a massive trailblazer for everyone, especially when I was young and she was really at the peak of her career,” she said.

“She definitely carved out a path and that’s had an impact on us all.”

Managing director of the Netball Super League Claire Nelson hopes netball can “capitalise on this moment for women’s sport” as it strives for professionalisation.

England Netball announced last year that the Super League will be relaunched in 2025 with the vision of clubs playing in bigger venues, enhancing live and TV audience experience and providing closer competition.

Professionalisation will also aim to provide “advancements in the elite environment to ensure players can choose and experience rewarding careers in netball”.

Nelson was appointed to her role in April last year having previously worked for Netball Scotland and Strathclyde Sirens and hopes netball can “capitalise” on its moment.

She told the PA news agency: “We have some amazing targets. We talk about our 10-year strategy, but we want to win golds on the world stage at World Cups and we want to build the most competitive, commercially vibrant, captivating league in the world.

“When you look at what we have as foundations, they’re so good and everything we’re doing now is to actually capitalise on this moment for women’s sport, but more importantly for our sport.

“This is a moment for netball, our bounce back post-COVID has seen us absolutely smashing our participation and membership numbers – we’re a big sport.

“We’ve now got this professionalisation opportunity where we can go into bigger arenas and take our sport to more households.”

The Super League is already three games into the 2024 season ahead of next year’s relaunch and Severn Stars and Manchester Thunder are the only unbeaten teams, sitting three points ahead of defending champions Loughborough Lightning.

The sport’s professionalisation ambitions follow in the footsteps of other women’s sports which are continuing to flourish at the highest level and Nelson believes netball is the “biggest untapped opportunity”.

“For me, netball’s the biggest untapped opportunity in women’s sport bar none,” she added.

“We’re in this moment where women’s sport is front and centre, so people are wanting to see, to experience, to consume, to support women’s sport.

“Then what we bring to the table is the opportunity to blank canvas, create this product which actually is an intersect from what happens on a court to what’s happening digitally and how we can become more lifestyle and music and fashion and entertainment, how we can unlock the talent potential in our athletes and tell their stories.”

Domestic professionalisation can only be helped by England’s Vitality Roses, who continue to enjoy success on the international stage.

The Roses earned an historic gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in a dramatic final against Australia and they finished third in the World Cup on home soil in 2019.

More recently, England took silver in their maiden World Cup final appearance in South Africa last year and Nelson believes the Roses are the “pinnacle” of England Netball’s aims.

She said: “This is the beauty of what we do here at England Netball, we’ve got the whole sport, we’ve got international, we’re going to have professional domestic and then we’ve got grassroots and community.

“All of these should be integrated and they should be complementary and that’s what we’re trying to build – this ecosystem of a sport where everyone can enjoy their experience and thrive in it, but the Roses are absolutely the pinnacle.

“I have to get the best performance programme and competition in the Super League because that is going to ensure that we have Roses success on the world stage. Roses success on the world stage makes people want to show up and support.

“It’s all interconnected and it’s all complementary, it makes my job a whole lot easier when we have great performances from these incredible athletes on the world stage.”

The Grand National remains the world’s most famous race and on International Women’s Day, a woman stands proudly at the helm in Liverpool.

Sulekha Varma was appointed clerk of the course at Aintree in 2019 after gaining years of experience in the racing industry.

As a teenager, Varma went on a work experience placement at the yard of dual Grand National-winning trainer Lucinda Russell. Upon graduation from Edinburgh University she gained a place on the British Horseracing Authority Development Programme, during which she spent time on the news desk at the Racing Post.

After returning to Russell’s yard as racing secretary and working for the Arabian Racing Organisation, Varma then began to take the first steps towards her current career with a trainee role at the Jockey Club that led to spells at Market Rasen, Nottingham, Warwick, Huntingdon and then Hamilton Park.

That experience stood Varma in good stead when the role of clerk of the course at Aintree became vacant and she subsequently became the first woman to hold the position, in the very thick of the action on the world’s most famous and watched day of racing.

“It’s a great honour. I can’t believe it’s been four years already since I took on the role,” she said.

“Working for Lucinda was a great grounding for me in horse racing. Learning about sport from the very grassroots; how a yard operates and what life is like at that end of the sport, and from then I moved into the administration side.

“I did the BHA Development Course in 2006, straight out of university, and my placement was at the Racing Post which was incredible, I got to write a double-page spread for the paper which was something I never thought was going to happen.”

Naturally Varma’s success is the result of drive and hard work, but she credits the industry with being filled with people who are willing to help those looking to advance their career.

“I met a huge number of people who were very willing to help me out, whether it be work experience or just talking through opportunities and learning about the industry,” Varma added.

“I think you have to open doors for yourself, but there are also a lot of people who, if you show enthusiasm and love for the sport, they will also open doors for you.

“Being the first female to fill this role is something that I’ll always treasure. Absolutely.”