Impressive York winner Dragon Leader is likely to stick to chasing the big money for the time being rather than being stepped up in class.

Trained by Clive Cox, the Kennet Valley Syndicates-owned maintained his unbeaten record in scintillating style on the Knavesmire, winning almost £150,000 in the Goffs UK Harry Beeby Premier Yearling Stakes.

In winning by four and a half lengths he evoked memories of Mums Tipple, who streaked away with the same contest in 2019. But rather than take the plunge against Group horses next like he did, Dragon Leader’s connections are happy to stay in similar company for now.

“We’ll let the dust settle, but he is in the Doncaster and the Redcar sales races – both of those are worth a fair few quid – and we’re well weighted in both,” said Kennet Valley director Piers Winkworth.

“We’ll probably go that way, rather than something more ambitious in Pattern company for now, which we might have to do at some point because he looks like a proper, proper racehorse, this Dragon Leader.

“I think for now we will target the money of the sales races rather than Pattern company.”

Desert Hero continues to please William Haggas, as the build-up to a royal runner with a real chance in the Betfred St Leger continues to gather pace.

Haggas, who guided Horse of the Year Baaeed with such expertise last season, is well aware of the attention that will be on the Royal Ascot and Gordon Stakes winner as Doncaster on September 16 draws ever nearer.

The Newmarket trainer took the decision to eschew another outing in the Great Voltigeur at York in preference for keeping the three-year-old fresh.

Having already provided the King and Queen with their first Royal Ascot success, were he to land them a Classic, his name would be etched in Turf history forever.

The King would also be emulating the late Queen as the owner of a St Leger winner, after Dunfermline won at Doncaster in 1977, which was Silver Jubilee year.

“Desert Hero is absolutely fine, he worked Thursday morning and I’m very happy with him,” said Haggas.

“We toyed with the idea of York for the Voltigeur, but in the end we just felt what was the point.”

He added: “I realise that we might be getting a phone call a day from the press, I can feel it coming, but I’d rather that than nothing at all.”

Oleksandr Usyk maintained his unbeaten record with a knockout victory over Daniel Dubois in Poland on Saturday night.

The Ukrainian put down Dubois in the ninth round to retain his WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight belts, although there was controversy over a punch deemed a low blow by the British fighter in the fifth round that left Usyk on the canvas.

Here, the PA news agency looks at what comes next for Usyk.

Could there be a rematch?

There was no rematch clause included in the contract but Dubois and his team were furious about the low blow decision and promoter Frank Warren has already said they will push for the fight to be declared a no contest, or a rematch ordered.

What about Tyson Fury?

Usyk was asked immediately after the fight about the prospect of facing WBC champion Tyson Fury in a unification contest and said he would be ready for it “tomorrow”. Fury is due to fight Francis Ngannou on October 28 in Saudi Arabia, and predicting the 35-year-old’s next move is notoriously difficult.

Who else?

Filip Hrgovic is the mandatory IBF challenger and believes he should be ahead of Fury in the queue to take on Usyk. The undefeated Croatian defeated Demsey McKean on the same card which saw Anthony Joshua knock out Robert Helenius.

Could it be Joshua?

Usyk and Joshua have gone toe-to-toe in two of the most high-profile fights in recent years, with the Ukrainian causing an upset in the first contest and then narrowly retaining the titles he won. A third fight does not appear to be on the cards, though, with Joshua eyeing a clash against Deontay Wilder in a double bill with Usyk-Fury.

Any other options?

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At 36, there must be questions about Usyk’s future in the sport and, if the Fury fight does not happen soon, how long will he hang on? The Ukrainian took up arms in the early stages of the war against Russia and events in his homeland could also be a factor in his next move.

Connections are willing to bide their time after Passenger served a reminder of his quality to give Sir Michael Stoute his 10th win in the Winter Hill Stakes at Windsor.

Owned by the Niarchos family, the son of Ulysses was considered a Derby contender earlier this season and was supplemented for the premier Classic after backing up an impressive debut in the Wood Ditton by finishing third in the Dante at York – a race where many saw the colt as the moral winner following a luckless run on the Knavesmire.

Off the track since disappointing at Epsom, Passenger was dropped back to 10 furlongs for the Windsor Group Three on Saturday evening and showed his class when hitting the front approaching a furlong out in the hands of Richard Kingscote and knuckled down to hold off the challenge of Simon and Ed Crisford’s West Wind Blows.

“We were happy with his performance after a nice break,” said Alan Cooper, racing manager for the owners.

“He’s a Group winner now and hopefully will have learnt a lot from the race.

“It’s too soon to speak about plans and we’ll take our time and go from there.”

In winning the Winter Hill Stakes, Passenger went one better than his illustrious sire who was beaten a short head in the race in 2016.

Like Passenger, Ulysses was both trained by Stoute and contested the Derby during his three-year-old season and having gone on to strike twice at the highest level the following year, it provides plenty of optimism his talented son could follow in his footsteps and still have his best days ahead of him.

“I think it’s a good point and there are definitely similarities in their race programme, the sire and him,” continued Cooper.

“It’s a case of seeing what Sir Michael would like to do. He’ll take his time and nothing is set in stone.

“He’s a horse that has done very well this year and hopefully he will also have a very good year next year.

“He’s a 10-furlong horse that’s for sure. The Dante form is working out well and it is always good to have form working out.”

Via Sistina will head straight for the Prix de l’Opera on Arc weekend following her narrow defeat at Deauville.

So impressive when winning the Group Two Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket in the spring, George Boughey’s star mare subsequently struck Group One gold in the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh.

The five-year-old was out of luck when dropped back from 10 furlongs to a mile in last month’s Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket, but looked set to double her top-level tally on her return to a mile and a quarter in the Prix Jean Romanet, only to be denied in the final stride by Andre Fabre’s Mqse De Sevigne.

While frustrated by the nose defeat, Boughey was delighted with Via Sistina’s performance and is now targeting a return to France on the first Sunday in October.

“We were obviously delighted to see her produce what was arguably another career-best really,” he said.

“The Fabre filly looks progressive and I think we were arguably unlucky in defeat. She was in front a long time as we just wanted to have a clear run at it.

“I think we’ll go straight to the Opera on Arc day and I think we’ll probably ride her with a little bit more patience. We’re always learning in this game and I think just holding on to her a bit longer and using that wicked turn of foot over that trip will suit.

“The Opera has been a long-term target for a long time. The Romanet was the immediate target and is possibly the one that got away, but we’re very proud of her.

“She’s finished first, second and third in three Group Ones this year, having won a Group Two beforehand, so she’s been a real star for us.”

Three weeks after the Prix de l’Opera, Via Sistina could make an appearance on Qipco Champions Day at Ascot, where she is doubly engaged.

She could take on the colts in the Qipco Champion Stakes or step up to a mile and a half for the British Champions Fillies And Mares Stakes.

Boughey is in no rush to nail his colours to either mast at this stage, adding: “Hopefully we’ve got another run or possibly two if she turns up on Champions Day. I think it would be very exciting to see her run on very soft ground as it usually is at Ascot.

“We’ve put her in the Champion Stakes and the Fillies And Mares and I know we ran her over a mile in the Falmouth, but if it did look the right spot for her, I would be interested to see her dropped out stone cold last over a mile and a half on soft ground and waited with.

“She’s by Fastnet Rock out of a Galileo mare, so there’s a chance she might stay, and the fillies’ division would look notably weaker than the Champion Stakes.”

Via Sistina will head straight for the Prix de l’Opera on Arc weekend following her narrow defeat at Deauville.

So impressive when winning the Group Two Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket in the spring, George Boughey’s star mare subsequently struck Group One gold in the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh.

The five-year-old was out of luck when dropped back from 10 furlongs to a mile in last month’s Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket, but looked set to double her top-level tally on her return to a mile and a quarter in the Prix Jean Romanet, only to be denied in the final stride by Andre Fabre’s Mqse De Sevigne.

While frustrated by the nose defeat, Boughey was delighted with Via Sistina’s performance and is now targeting a return to France on the first Sunday in October.

“We were obviously delighted to see her produce what was arguably another career-best really,” he said.

“The Fabre filly looks progressive and I think we were arguably unlucky in defeat. She was in front a long time as we just wanted to have a clear run at it.

“I think we’ll go straight to the Opera on Arc day and I think we’ll probably ride her with a little bit more patience. We’re always learning in this game and I think just holding on to her a bit longer and using that wicked turn of foot over that trip will suit.

“The Opera has been a long-term target for a long time. The Romanet was the immediate target and is possibly the one that got away, but we’re very proud of her.

“She’s finished first, second and third in three Group Ones this year, having won a Group Two beforehand, so she’s been a real star for us.”

Three weeks after the Prix de l’Opera, Via Sistina could make an appearance on Qipco Champions Day at Ascot, where she is doubly engaged.

She could take on the colts in the Qipco Champion Stakes or step up to a mile and a half for the British Champions Fillies And Mares Stakes.

Boughey is in no rush to nail his colours to either mast at this stage, adding: “Hopefully we’ve got another run or possibly two if she turns up on Champions Day. I think it would be very exciting to see her run on very soft ground as it usually is at Ascot.

“We’ve put her in the Champion Stakes and the Fillies And Mares and I know we ran her over a mile in the Falmouth, but if it did look the right spot for her, I would be interested to see her dropped out stone cold last over a mile and a half on soft ground and waited with.

“She’s by Fastnet Rock out of a Galileo mare, so there’s a chance she might stay, and the fillies’ division would look notably weaker than the Champion Stakes.”

Arrest is likely to be Juddmonte’s Betfred St Leger hope after his Newbury success left him on track for the Doncaster Classic.

Trained by John and Thady Gosden, the Frankel colt won won the Chester Vase by a good margin in May when the race was run on soft ground, but could finish only 10th in the Derby at Epsom and fifth in the King Edward VII at Royal Ascot.

Both of those runs were on good to firm ground and on good to soft at Newbury, he looked more at ease when winning the Group Three Geoffrey Freer Stakes by a length and a half in the hands of Frankie Dettori.

The Leger is now on the agenda, but he will require a reasonable amount of give in the ground if he is to run.

“He’s obviously won his trial well and we know he likes a bit of ease in the ground,” said Barry Mahon of Juddmonte.

“I think as long as there’s that ease in the ground, the owners have said they’d like to go the Leger route, so that’s the way we’ll go.”

Juddmonte seem to have another promising horse on their hands in Macduff, a comfortable winner on debut at Newmarket earlier in the month.

The Sea The Stars colt beat a field of well-bred horses and has a notable pedigree himself as he is out of a mare named Present Tense, a half-sister to the great Kingman.

Connections were pleased with his maiden success but there will be little pressure put on him as he is expected to blossom as a three-year-old.

“It was a lovely debut, he’s a nice horse,” Mahon said.

“He’s a big horse, he won’t have a lot of racing this year, Ralph is taking his time and we’ll probably see how he is in the middle of September and pick another race.

“He’s from a good family, his mother is a sister to Kingman. He’s a nice horse that’s just full of potential, next year is going to be his year and I’d imagine that we won’t over-race him this year.”

George Ford admits England must conduct an uncomfortable inquest into Saturday’s Fiji debacle if they are to halt their freefall in time to make an impression on the World Cup.

Twickenham was stormed 30-22 by the Islanders as England fell to a current tier two nation for the first time in their 152-year history, registering a fifth defeat in six matches.

Fiji’s magnificent victory has heightened the sense of crisis at the Rugby Football Union with the pivotal World Cup opener against Argentina on September just two weeks away.

Even the Pool D fixtures against Japan and Samoa are fraught with danger given the depth of England’s current malaise and Ford insists that only by confronting hard truths will disaster be averted in Marseille.

“We don’t want the benefit of the doubt, we know we haven’t played well enough and know the results haven’t been good enough,” Ford said.

“When you lose for England you understand what’s going to come with it. We’re not shying away from that.

“We’re going to stick together and sort ourselves out in terms of making our preparation as good as it can be for Argentina. I’m comfortable we’ll be in a good place.

“What separates good teams from the great is that when things aren’t going well and you need to front a few things up and be honest, you do that.

“Look it square in the face because you can’t ignore those things – if you do then they will come back to haunt you later on.”

Head coach Steve Borthwick repeatedly highlighted the error count and missed tackles when explaining the nation’s first ever loss to Fiji, whose customary magic in attack was matched by tactical cohesion and smart decision-making.

England started like a freight train with Manu Tuilagi and Ollie Lawrence running on to Ford’s fizzing passes, Jonny May crossing in the left corner and the breakdown being bossed by a high-energy pack.

But as a downpour of heavy rain came and went, Fiji took control to expose a defence that has now conceded 30 tries in nine matches under Borthwick.

In recent weeks England have repeatedly stressed the quality of their training, suggesting the performances on a Saturday were an anomaly, but Ford insists practise has also been sub-par.

“Any time you play for England – especially at Twickenham – you you’ve got to pull out on the right side of the scoreboard and unfortunately we had a lot of errors against Fiji,” Ford said.

“We’re making too many errors. Now what the reason for that is I can’t be sure. Maybe it is a little bit of over eagerness or a little bit of inaccuracy, or maybe it is a little bit of understanding.

“It’s probably a little bit of all of it, to be honest. But one thing for sure is we can’t keep doing it.

“When it comes to our plan for Argentina and our understanding of what we need to do to win that game, we’ll be crystal clear on it. I’m more than confident we’ll be able to get it right for that game.

“We understand that we need to make fewer mistakes. There’s an urgency that we need to fix it and get better.

“The way you do that is to be more consistent in training. We’re clearly not consistent in training, there are probably too many errors in training. We’re playing the way we train at the minute, which is not good enough obviously.”

Jamie Ritchie declared Scotland were “ready to go” ahead of the World Cup after a largely encouraging summer campaign ended with a 33-6 win over Georgia.

Gregor Townsend’s team head to France next weekend for the global showpiece on the back of three home wins – all after trailing at half-time – and a narrow defeat away to the host nation from their four warm-up matches.

Captain Ritchie is now relishing the prospect of leading the Scots into the tournament, with their first game against South Africa in Marseille on 10 September.

“I’m really chuffed but probably the predominant emotion now is excitement – we’re just ready to go,” he said.

“I feel we’ve built well. We’ve not had a perfect performance yet but for me that’s a positive thing because we know there’s one coming.

“I’m glad we had a little bit of a tough test in that first half against Georgia. We had to manage ourselves through that and then we stepped up in the second.”

Despite their first-half struggles throughout the summer, Scotland scored 15 tries in their four summer Tests against Italy, France (home and away) and Georgia, with 13 of them coming in the second half.

“Positive,” said Ritchie, when asked to sum up the warm-up campaign.

“I think we’ve shown that we can play really well, we’ve shown that we can come back from adversity, which I think is a really positive thing, and we’ve played some really good rugby.

“We’ve shown how we’ve grown over this period in terms of how we’ve wanted to build when we’ve had this extended period of time together and we’re really clear on how we want to play.

“It’s not been perfect but we’ve had more positive results and positive performances than not and we’re really excited for this first game.”

For all that Scotland go into the tournament in good fettle, their first opponents South Africa have sent out an ominous warning with back-to-back destructions of Wales and New Zealand over the past two weekends.

Ritchie insists his team – who watched the Boks’ 35-7 annihilation of the All Blacks on Friday together in their hotel – will learn from having seen how the world champions are going about their business in the lead-up to the tournament.

“The main thing for us is it’s been great learning for us to see what they might bring to a game,” he said.

“It’s pretty clear how they want to play and for us, we’re looking to exploit that and match them in certain areas so these games have been great for us to learn from them.

“They’ll be riding high off the back of them but we do well with an underdog tag and I’m really excited for it.”

Stand-in captain Iain Henderson insists looming World Cup selection was not a factor in Ireland’s underwhelming performance in scraping past Samoa.

Ireland were far from convincing in rain-soaked Bayonne but ultimately emerged with a 13th consecutive win on the eve of Andy Farrell naming his 33-man squad for France.

Second-half tries from Conor Murray and Rob Herring earned an unconvincing 17-13 success after Samoa battled back to lead following Jimmy O’Brien’s early score.

Six Ireland players are set for disappointment on Sunday afternoon when Farrell announces his final squad.

Yet Henderson, who skippered a mix-and-match line-up at Stade Jean Dauger, does not feel that situation contributed to a disjointed display which almost ended in an upset.

“No and if it did it’s probably one of the adversities that Faz (Farrell) would like us to be tested by,” said the lock.

“That’s not the most difficult thing we’re going to face over the next number of weeks.

“It’s an incredibly strong group of guys and the guys who’ve been waiting to find out their fate have probably carried themselves as well as you could have expected them to throughout training.

“The guys who are nervous about selection, who might be carrying that anxiety have trained well, everyone’s been on time, been as diligent as possible throughout the reviews, staying on top of stuff.

“It’s been a well-prepped Test week for us, so hats off to those guys who’ve been prepping so well.

“I think it’s not that side of things that affected us, it was a handful of other things like conditions, probably great pressure brought by Samoa.”

Head coach Farrell is awaiting injury news on prop Cian Healy.

Veteran loosehead Healy hobbled off in the first half with help from medical staff due to a calf issue, throwing his participation in a fourth World Cup of his career into doubt.

Henderson, who has endured plenty of his own fitness issues in recent times, empathised with his Ireland team-mate.

“I’ve felt it a handful of times this campaign,” he said.

“It’s worse when it’s a team-mate but even watching other guys from other nations who are looking to play at a World Cup, whether it’s their first, second or third, pick up an injury it’s not nice.

“It’s a crescendo of hard work over four years and to see that pulled away from someone in the dying minutes of that four-year cycle is not nice.

“Again, it’s the game we’ve all signed up to and, again, that’s the reason what we do is so special, it means so much to us because it’s so fragile sometimes.”

Norwegian Viktor Hovland is closing in on his first FedEx Cup title as he surged to a six-stroke lead in Atlanta on Saturday.

Hovland started the Tour Championship tournament on eight under par on the handicap system as the number two seed due to his good form over the year, and pushed away from American Xander Schauffele who sits in second place.

He said the tournament has felt like more of a sprint then a marathon but “it’s hard to win the FedEx Cup if you haven’t played well the last few weeks”.

“It’s just a great list of names that’s won the tournament… and it would be awesome to have my name on there.

“Like, putting it all together, I don’t think I’ve ever played this well before, with this stretch, just putting all the short game and stuff together.”

The 25-year-old hit a four under par 66 to finish the day on 20 under, landing five birdies and one bogey to get closer to the 18 million dollar prize that comes with the trophy.

Rory McIlroy won the title last year and holds the most FedEx Cup wins with three, but sits tied for eighth on nine under par.

Hull ended a 74-year wait for a Wembley victory as they came from behind to beat favourites Warrington 12-10 in a classic Challenge Cup final on this day in 2016.

It was Hull’s fourth Challenge Cup triumph, but their first at the national stadium as the Wolves suffered their first defeat in four trips to Wembley under coach Tony Smith.

The agony looked set to continue for the Black and Whites when they trailed 10-0 after an hour, but tries in the last 13 minutes from centre Mahe Fonua and full-back Jamie Shaul brought them level and half-back Marc Sneyd kicked the winning goal to settle a 114th cup final that lived up to all the pre-match hype.

Sneyd was named the Lance Todd Trophy winner as man-of-the match, two years after being substituted in Castleford’s defeat by Leeds, and his joy was in sharp contrast to Warrington’s goalkicker Kurt Gidley, whose simple penalty miss early in the second-half proved costly.

Gidley, who had done much to earn his side their 10-point cushion, kicked just one goal from three attempts and missed the last 22 minutes of the match with a head injury as the Wolves lost their way towards the end.

In a contest of epic twists and turns, Hull were indebted to hooker Danny Houghton’s last-ditch tackle – his 52nd of the match – that denied Warrington second rower Ben Currie what looked like the match-winning try two minutes from the end.

Hull coach Lee Radford said: “This is history-making. So many teams prior to us, so many unbelievable players, have not achieved what we did today. I feel privileged and proud putting this group of players together.

“You can’t manufacture chemistry and friendship. We have been mocked, but that togetherness won us the cup final.

“Throughout this competition we have been clinical and dominant, and nobody can begrudge us taking that cup back to Hull. My greatest achievement is putting that together.

“A mention to Danny Houghton, who came up with that tackle. That is the most important tackle in any game I have been involved in.”

Teoscar Hernandez hit two of the Seattle Mariners’ franchise record-tying seven home runs in a 15-2 drubbing of the Kansas City Royals.

Hernandez hit a grand slam as part of a seven-run third inning and belted a 446-foot shot off infielder Matt Duffy in the eighth.

Josh Rojas, Mike Ford, Julio Rodriguez, Cal Raleigh and Cade Marlowe also homered as the Mariners improved to 10-1 in their last 11 games and remained tied with Texas atop the AL West.

Seattle hit seven home runs in a game for the fifth time, also done in 2002, 1999, 1996 and 1985.

Logan Gilbert didn’t need all the offense as he limited the Royals to one run and two hits in seven innings. He walked one and struck out seven to win his sixth straight decision.

The Mariners broke open the game with three home runs and seven run off 15-game loser Jordan Lyles in the third inning.

Rojas led off with a home run, Hernandez connected for his third career grand slam and Ford’s two-run blast made it 7-0.

Rodgriguez’s fifth-inning solo homer made him just the second player in history with at least 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in his first two seasons.

The other is Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr., who totaled 67 homers and 53 steals over his first two seasons in 2018 and 2019.

Reds get help from balk to cool Diamondbacks

TJ Friedl scored the go-ahead run in the 11th inning on a balk and the Cincinnati Reds pulled out a wild 8-7 win to end the Arizona Diamondbacks’ six-game winning streak.

Arizona trailed 7-4 in the 10th but rallied for three runs, helped by an error from Reds second baseman Matt McLain. Christian Walker’s sacrifice fly tied it at 7.

Cincinnati closer Alexis Diaz suffered just his second blown save of the season, though all three runs were unearned.

Arizona’s Paul Sewald failed to protect a 4-2 lead in the ninth, as Tyler Stephenson doubled home a run before Friedl singled and McLain knocked in the tying run with a soft groundout.

Brewers edge Padres for seventh straight win

William Contreras delivered a two-run double in a five-run fifth inning as the Milwaukee Brewers held off the San Diego Padres, 5-4 for their seventh consecutive victory.

Mark Canha, Brice Turang and Andruw Monasterio opened the fifth with three straight singles.

With one run already home, the Brewers pulled off a double steal and an errant throw by catcher Luis Campusano produced another run. After Christian Yelich walked, Contreras doubled down the left-field line to make it 4-1.

Freddy Peralta struck out nine in 5 1/3 innings and allowed two runs to improve to 5-0 in five starts this month.