Sean Bowen looks real McCoy at Cheltenham in emulating legend’s never-say-die ride
On an afternoon for the National Hunt diehards here on Friday, as Storm Claudia battered racegoers and runners alike, one rider’s refusal to be cowed by either the elements or circumstance was a beacon in the gloom,There were distinct echoes of Tony McCoy’s famous never-say-die ride on Wichita Lineman as Sean Bowen niggled, coaxed and cajoled the novice chaser Wade Out around two circuits of Cheltenham, and it was only in the final moments of a race that took nearly seven minutes to run that Bowen’s mount appeared to have any realistic chance of winning,Wade Out was last of the four remaining runners heading out onto the final circuit, and from there he scarcely jumped a single fence with any fluency or speed,Several times, he appeared to be dropping away, only for Bowen to roust him back onto the coattails of his three rivals,His final flat spot came on the run down the hill, and this time, it seemed that it was surely all over for Wade Out, as One Big Bang and Isaac Des Obeaux were clearly going much better as they eased clear.
But as the final fence loomed and the leaders started to tire, Bowen and Wade Out appeared from the gloom to challenge on the inside, and despite another untidy jump, an indefatigable jockey and his equally determined mount were three lengths clear at the line.“He was lazy, he didn’t jump because he was lazy and probably the ground didn’t help him,” Bowen said.“He did a lot wrong and still managed to win.I was on nothing two out and at the last, and I was a bit annoyed there was nothing there, but then he got to the front and had a look around again.So he’s a good horse, you just have to try and get the best out of him.
”If Bowen and Wade Out supplied the grit on Friday’s card, it was L’Eau du Sud, in the Grade Two Shloer Chase, that provided the quality.Dan Skelton’s chaser, a close fourth in last year’s Arkle Trophy after jumping the last in front, came home on a tight rein and 15 lengths in front of Jonbon, the winner of the race for the past two years.“We had him prepared for today and we’re super-happy with what we’ve seen,” Skelton said, “It means we’re going to head down that Grade One route and what a joy to be able to look forward to it.“We’ll go to the Tingle Creek [at Sandown in December] and then map it out.The mistake I made last year, I didn’t want to say it at the time but I kind of knew in my heart going away from Warwick [on 8 February], that we shouldn’t have run him there and gone straight to the Arkle [in March].
But it got him more experience, and we’ll look forward not back.”Saturday’s card at Cheltenham, featuring the Paddy Power Gold Cup, will be subject to a precautionary inspection at 7.30am after Friday’s stormy conditions.“We’ve still got further rain to come,” Jon Pullin, the clerk of the course, said on Friday.“Having opened it up, it makes sense to have a look in the morning.
“The forecast is saying it should be drying up from 1am and we do know that once this track gets a bit of a window without any rain, it does start to drain and hopefully that will be the case.”Just 6lb separates the entire field according to Timeform’s ratings for the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham on Saturday, and Friday’s heavy rain will ensure that the first big handicap chase of the new jumps season will be a test for horses and punters alike.Paul Nicholls’s Il Ridoto has been a fixture in the track’s two-and-a-half mile handicap chases for the past three seasons and has form figures of 4-3-1 in the last three running’s of Saturday’s feature.He beat several fellow Cheltenham regulars 12 months ago, however, and faces a different challenge this time around from an assortment of promising second-season chasers.Thecompanysergeant, second in the valuable Plate Handicap Chase on the New course here at the festival in March, is a leading player on that form, but must now carry a big weight in demanding ground, while Sam Thomas’s Vicenzo, another with an obvious chance on his progressive chase form, is unproven at the trip on testing going.
With more rain forecast, it could pay to look towards the bottom of the weights and Paul Nolan’s Conyers Hill (2,20), sixth in the Grand Annual over two miles at the festival in March, is an interesting each-way option at around 16-1,He is just seven races into his chase career, acts on heavy ground and his handy racing weight of 11st 1lb could make all the difference at the business end of a gruelling contest,Uttoxeter 12,07 Reinado 12.
42 Queenofthejukebox 1,17 Gold Clermont 1,52 Passing Kate 2,27 Jasmine d’Airy 3,02 Drayton Flyer 3.
37 Eastern Fire Wetherby 12.15 Great Notions 12.50 Get On George 1.25 Hara Kiri 2.00 Meetmebythesea 2.
35 Glen Road 3,10 Cueros 3,43 CerendipityCheltenham 12,35 Hallelujah U 1,10 Kelce 1.
45 Be Aware 2.20 Conyers Hill (nap) 2.55 Long Draw 3.30 Kap Boy (nb) 4.00 Divine Diva Cheltenham 1.
45: Dan Skelton has shown his knack for turning 130+-rated handicap hurdlers into even better chasers twice in the last four runnings of this race, with L’Eau du Sud and Third Time Lucki, and last year’s Greatwood Handicap Hurdle runner-up, Be Aware, arrives with a very similar profile.Cheltenham 2.55: The time of the handicap hurdle over track and trip at the October meeting suggests that it is the strongest form on offer.and though third-home Supremely West is a logical favourite at around 7-4, Long Draw was less than three lengths further back, equally likely to come on for his seasonal debut and better than twice the price at around 6-1.Wetherby 3.
10: Cueros was an emphatic 14-length winner first time up over hurdles and is marginally preferred to another useful prospect in Fresh Perspective,Cheltenham 3,30: Having switched stables from Paul Nicholls to Olly Murphy over the summer, Kap Boy was a convincing winner on his first start his new yard at Perth last time and goes well on testing ground,Wetherby 3,43: Cerendipity made a solid return to action behind the promising Be Aware last month and can race off the same mark here.
UK firms can win a significant chunk of the AI chip market | John Browne
The UK is in a uniquely promising position, far too little understood, to play a lucrative role in the coming era of artificial intelligence – but only if it also grabs the opportunity to start making millions of computer chips.AI requires vast numbers of chips and we could supply up to 5% of world demand if we get our national act together.Our legacy in chip design is world-class, starting with the first general-purpose electronic computer, the first electronic memory and the first parallel computer. Today we have Cambridge-based Arm, a quiet titan designing more than 90% of the chips powering phones and tablets globally.With such a pedigree, it is not idle daydreaming for British companies to win a significant chunk of the AI chip market; 5% is a conservative, achievable ambition
EU investigates Google over ‘demotion’ of commercial content from news media
The EU has opened an investigation into Google Search over concerns the US tech company has been “demoting” commercial content from news media sites.The bloc’s executive arm announced the move after monitoring found that certain content created with advertisers and sponsors was being given such a low priority by Google that it was in effect no longer visible in search results.European Commission officials said this potentially unfair “loss of visibility and of revenue” to media owners could be a result of an anti-spam policy Google operates.Under the rules of the Digital Market Act (DMA), which governs competition in the tech sectors, Google must apply “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions of access to publishers’ websites on Google Search”.Commission officials said the investigation was not into the overall indexing of newspapers or their reporting on Google Search, just into commercial content provided by third parties
Anthropic announces $50bn plan for datacenter construction in US
Artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced a $50bn investment in computing infrastructure on Wednesday that will include new datacenters in Texas and New York.“We’re getting closer to AI that can accelerate scientific discovery and help solve complex problems in ways that weren’t possible before,” Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, said in a press release.Building the massive information warehouses takes an average of two years in the US and requires copious amounts of energy to fuel the facilities. The company, maker of the AI chatbot Claude, popular with businesses adopting AI, said in a statement that the “scale of this investment is necessary to meet the growing demand for Claude from hundreds of thousands of businesses while keeping our research at the frontier”. Anthropic said its projects will create about 800 permanent jobs and 2,400 construction jobs
Waymo announces that its robotaxis will drive freeways for the first time
Alphabet’s Waymo said on Wednesday that it would begin offering robotaxi rides that use freeways across San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, a first for the Google subsidiary as it steps up expansion amid global and domestic competition in the self-driving industry.Freeway rides will initially be available to early-access users, Waymo said. “When a freeway route is meaningfully faster, they can be matched with a freeway trip, providing quicker, smoother, and more efficient rides,” it said.Waymo, which already operates in parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, is also extending operations to San Jose, including Mineta San Jose international airport, the second airport in its service area after Phoenix Sky Harbor.The move comes as Tesla expands its robotaxi service with safety monitors and drivers, and Zoox – backed by Amazon – offers free robotaxi rides on and around the Las Vegas Strip
A tax roadmap for electric cars | Letters
Rachel Reeves’s proposal to introduce a pay-per-mile tax levy on electric vehicles is idiotic, especially suggesting that hybrid vehicles will have a reduced rate and still pay the usual road tax (Rachel Reeves considering pay-per-mile tax for electric vehicles in budget, 6 November). Furthermore, requiring drivers to predict their yearly mileage in advance and then pay or reclaim the difference for actual mileage depending on whether they have underestimated or overestimated it is too cumbersome. If the DVLA is to oversee the collection/repayment system, it will undoubtedly need to recruit more staff or outsource the arrangement, with all the attendant pitfalls that would entail.The fairest way for the taxation of all motorists is to abolish the road tax and introduce a road toll system, as used on the Dartford crossing and the M6 toll road. Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) would need to be an essential feature
Tech companies and UK child safety agencies to test AI tools’ ability to create abuse images
Tech companies and child protection agencies will be given the power to test whether artificial intelligence tools can produce child abuse images under a new UK law.The announcement was made as a safety watchdog revealed that reports of AI-generated child sexual abuse material [CSAM] have more than doubled in the past year from 199 in 2024 to 426 in 2025.Under the change, the government will give designated AI companies and child safety organisations permission to examine AI models – the underlying technology for chatbots such as ChatGPT and image generators such as Google’s Veo 3 – and ensure they have safeguards to prevent them from creating images of child sexual abuse.Kanishka Narayan, the minister for AI and online safety, said the move was “ultimately about stopping abuse before it happens”, adding: “Experts, under strict conditions, can now spot the risk in AI models early.”The changes have been introduced because it is illegal to create and possess CSAM, meaning that AI developers and others cannot create such images as part of a testing regime
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Labour must accept that the two-party age is over and embrace PR | Letters