The improved performance of the McLaren car has wiped away Lewis Hamilton's testng day blues. Photograph: Paul Gilham/Getty Images Th ere was finally something to cheer about for Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton yesterday, as the pair banished their testing days blues and finished one-two in the second practice session before 's Australian Grand Prix.
The McLaren pair have looked gloomy ever since their testing sessions in Barcelona, where the car was left standing by the superior pace of Red Bull and Ferrari, and even Mercedes looked more menacing at the end.
Yesterday's opening session was again dominated by Red Bull but in the second session the British drivers fought back, with Button topping the timings by 0.132sec ahead of Hamilton, with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso in third place.
The relevance of all this will not be known until Saturday's qualifying. And the Red Bulls ran a substantial part of the second session without their adjustable rear wings. So it is a guessing game, with fuel loads another variable.
But yesterday's run was encouraging for Button and Hamilton and went some way to vindicating the claims of team principal, Martin Whitmarsh, that McLaren had found an extra second since Barcelona.
"For the first time this year nothing has gone wrong, which is great, and now we have to build on that, said Button. "We have reliability, which is something we haven't had all winter, so to finally have a car in which we can do as many laps as we want is great. The feeling is so much better, the car feels a lot more complete, one that we can really make some progress with."
Sounding a note of caution, Button added: "Although I hope we can improve further, we're not going to get carried away. I know Red Bull weren't using their rear wing when they set their quick laps, so they have another five or six-tenths [of a second] available to them."
After ditching their radical exhaust system for a more conventional unit, McLaren seem to have got back on track in the nick of time.
The result was so positive it had Hamilton dreaming of emulating Michael Schumacher's record haul of seven world titles.
With five world champions on the grid this season, Hamilton will have his work cut out just trying to win his second crown, yet at least time is on his side.
"I could be here even longer [than the 42-year-old Schumacher]. My Dad looks just as young as Michael. He could be racing right now. I know that I will look younger than my Dad because I've worked harder on my fitness. That's what I keep telling him."
And Hamilton said even after the disappointments of the past two seasons he could win more titles. "I have no number. There is no limit, the sky's the limit. As many as I can in the period of time I am here. Look at Sébastien Loeb, look at Rossi, Michael [Schumacher], legendary racers from their sports, I'd love to be a part of that. I wouldn't rule it out but wouldn't say eight is what I want.
"I've always wanted to win three world championships like Ayrton Senna and emulate what he did. That would be a start. But winning two is going to be hard enough. I can't rule anything out. I love racing. So as long as I'm fit and I'm enjoying what I'm doing then it's not a job. And I'm good at it and will continue to do it.
"When I met Mr Mandela he told me that he was 92 years old and he was still learning today. It's pretty strange to imagine that he has much more to learn. So I know that I have a long road ahead of me with a lot of things to learn.
"But I haven't won a second world championship yet. I'm trying focus on my approach to this weekend, to the season, how I'm going to win this championship."
Hamilton, who finished third on his Formula One debut here in 2007 before winning the following year, added: "This has always been a good circuit for me.
"It suits my driving. It's like a halfway house between a street circuit and a normal circuit. It's a track that works quite well for my aggressive driving style."
Hamilton appeared particularly chipper when he added: "I feel happy, I feel fit, I feel healthy. For some reason I feel happier than I've ever been."I just feel mega-fit right now, the fittest I've ever been, which is good. I'm healthy, my girlfriend is here, my Dad's coming this weekend, obviously working with Paul [di Resta], my brother is racing next week. My parents are good, the family is good ... I haven't really got much to complain about."
The 26-year-old Williams driver Pastor Maldonado is one of six new faces in Formula One this season. Photograph: Martin Philbey/EPA Tyres
Pirelli return to Formula One after a 20-year absence, taking over from Bridgestone with the mandate of making races less predictable. The Italian company have been asked to supply rubber that degrades faster than that supplied by Bridgestone and, as a consequence, requires teams to make more pit stops. Pre-season testing suggests drivers will have to make a minimum of two stops per grand prix and possibly three or four depending on how their tyres behave. This should, in theory, lead to multiple changes of the race lead. Moveable rear wings
Perhaps the most controversial change. In order to encourage and aid overtaking, drivers trying to pass a rival at a corner can open a slot on their rear wing and adjust one of the flaps. This reduces drag and increases speed on the following straight. All teams have a 600-metre window during which they can use this tactic, although they are free to do it as much as they want in practice and qualifying, when it gives a lap-time advantage of roughly 0.5 seconds. Kers
This season sees the return of the Kinetic energy recovery system (Kers). It was used in 2009 before being dropped last year due to the poor uptake and because of pressure from the FIA for all teams to cut costs. The system recovers kinetic energy that would otherwise be lost during braking and stores it in batteries. It can then be used during acceleration to boost a car's speed for roughly seven seconds a lap, giving the driver an extra 80hp. Every team will use it in 2011 apart from Lotus, Hispania and Virgin. Team orders
The controversy caused by Ferrari telling Felipe Massa to make way for Fernando Alonso at last season's German grand prix led to a review of F1's ban on team orders, which had stood since 2002, when again Ferrari were centrally involved. It was deemed that despite the sanction, orders have continued to be issued by teams and so such a stance is pointless. The FIA decided to lift the ban, meaning teams can publicly alter the placing of their drivers mid-race without fear of censure. Drivers
It is another year of changing faces on the grid with six teams going into the new season with different drivers from last year. Renault have replaced Robert Kubica, who was seriously injured during a rally in Italy that could have ended his career, with the experienced and reliable Nick Heidfeld, while Williams have recruited the Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado, Force India the exciting Briton Paul di Resta, Sauber Sergio Pérez, of Mexico, Hispania the returning Indian Narain Karthikeyan and Virgin Racing Jérôme d'Ambrosio, the first Belgian F1 driver since Thierry Boutsen retired in 1993. Commentary box
Martin Brundle replaces Jonathan Legard as the BBC's lead man with his role as co-commentator being taken by David Coulthard. The 51-year-old Brundle has commentated on 231 grands prix since ending his 12-year F1 career in 1996 while Coulthard joined the BBC as an analyst soon after ending his 14-year spell as a driver in 2008, during which time he won 13 races, 12 of them with McLaren.
Red Bull say Germany's Sebastian Vettel is relaxed and confident about having a world title on his CV. Photograph: Srdjan Suki/EPA Sebastian Vettel is an accomplished and amusing impressionist but there are some who view his impersonation of a Formula One world champion as one of the least convincing additions to his repertoire.
They point to the fact that last year he was the default champion who only lifted the prize after the implosion of Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso in the final race of the year in Abu Dhabi, after which he led the points table for the first time all season. Some even argue that he is both impetuous and a wastrel.
Certainly, his infamous challenge on Webber, his Red Bull team-mate, in Turkey was an example of the former, and his collision with Jenson Button at Spa was certainly clumsy. A wastrel? Well, the first eight of his 10 pole positions produced only three victories and he was careless with the safety car in Hungary.
There are many reasons why some have not totally accepted Vettel. Most neutrals would have preferred the title to go to Webber, the laconically humorous and self‑deprecating Australian whose easy‑going nature masks fierce determination. They argue that Vettel is not even the best driver at Red Bull. Webber certainly made fewer mistakes last season, even though he did not have enough fizz to last to the end.
Perhaps it is the fact that the German has been dubbed "Baby Schumi" that puts some off, suggesting, as it does, another period of tedious and possibly ruthless dominance, with a dash of hauteur.
Vettel thinks comparisons with his compatriot are premature. "What Michael achieved is very special, in many ways," he said. "It will surely take some time. You don't set yourself the target as being I want to win eight world championships, just to be better than the best guy in history was. You never know what will happen in the future.
"Everything needs to come together. You need to be in the right place in the right time. There are not many people who win the championship, even fewer who win it more than once. There's a reason why a couple of guys won it more than one time, but it's difficult to predict. You have to take it step by step."
Even so, Vettel, the youngest champion in Formula One history at 23 years and 134 days, could be on the brink of becoming the sport's youngest multiple champion and it is high time his thrilling talent was properly celebrated.
While it is true that in Red Bull he has the slickest outfit in Formula One behind him it is equally true that the sport's pace-setters chose the prodigy from Heppenheim as the best man to demonstrate their pre-eminence.
Vettel's challenge this season is to win over his curiously large number of doubters, to prove that he is not only a great talent but a great champion, too.
Christian Horner, Red Bull's team principal, is not one of those doubters. "It's easy to forget that Sebastian has completed only 62 grands prix, and within those he's won 10 and the world championship as well, at only 23 years of age," he says. "What I've noticed about him coming into this season is that he now has that world championship on his CV, he has another year's experience.
"I think if anything it has relieved some pressure from him because there was always that expectation that he's got to do it this year, he's got to do it this year … He's achieved that in 2010 so he's coming into 2011 pretty relaxed and pretty confident, and with that bit more experience, so he's in good shape."
He is in such good shape that Red Bull have signed him until the end of 2014, ending any immediate interest from Ferrari and Mercedes. The expectation that Vettel will become even better, adding maturity and judgment to his astonishing speed, would be enough to drag down the spirits of his rivals, if they weren't such a tough and egocentric bunch.
"He's still so very young," says Horner. "But he's got a very wise head on young shoulders. He's a very grounded guy. It hasn't gone to his head. The success of being a Formula One winner and champion can have it's distractions. But he seems very focused on his part of the job in terms of driving and hasn't allowed himself to be distracted by some of the other trappings of success. You will see him continue to evolve over the next few years."
Far from being lucky, Horner argues that Vettel was one of the unluckiest drivers on the grid last season. "Sebastian had a lot of bad luck at the beginning of the year. You've only got to think back to the first races in Bahrain and Australia where we had issues with a spark plug and a wheel nut. And then, in Korea, he was so cruelly robbed of victory with an engine failure.
"So if you look at it over a season he was the standout and deserving driver and while both Mark and Fernando had exceptional years I think they would agree that on balance Sebastian came out a deserving winner over the course of the year."
Vettel has yet to convince the public he is among the best on the grid. Schumacher has that accolade and Alonso too. Lewis Hamilton, who still has not been given credit for his astonishing rookie season in 2007, before he won the championship the following year with such aggression and brio, also makes the grade.
And Vettel, who like Hamilton has won one title, will surely join them. He starts the new season as the clear favourite to become the first champion to retain the championship since Alonso in 2006.
If he does, even his detractors will have to acknowledge that he is among the most important talents the cacophonous old game has ever produced.
Red Bull say Germany's Sebastian Vettel is relaxed and confident about having a world title on his CV. Photograph: Srdjan Suki/EPA Sebastian Vettel is an accomplished and amusing impressionist but there are some who view his impersonation of a Formula One world champion as one of the least convincing additions to his repertoire.
They point to the fact that last year he was the default champion who only lifted the prize after the implosion of Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso in the final race of the year in Abu Dhabi, after which he led the points table for the first time all season. Some even argue that he is both impetuous and a wastrel.
Certainly, his infamous challenge on Webber, his Red Bull team-mate, in Turkey was an example of the former, and his collision with Jenson Button at Spa was certainly clumsy. A wastrel? Well, the first eight of his 10 pole positions produced only three victories and he was careless with the safety car in Hungary.
There are many reasons why some have not totally accepted Vettel. Most neutrals would have preferred the title to go to Webber, the laconically humorous and self‑deprecating Australian whose easy‑going nature masks fierce determination. They argue that Vettel is not even the best driver at Red Bull. Webber certainly made fewer mistakes last season, even though he did not have enough fizz to last to the end.
Perhaps it is the fact that the German has been dubbed "Baby Schumi" that puts some off, suggesting, as it does, another period of tedious and possibly ruthless dominance, with a dash of hauteur.
Vettel thinks comparisons with his compatriot are premature. "What Michael achieved is very special, in many ways," he said. "It will surely take some time. You don't set yourself the target as being I want to win eight world championships, just to be better than the best guy in history was. You never know what will happen in the future.
"Everything needs to come together. You need to be in the right place in the right time. There are not many people who win the championship, even fewer who win it more than once. There's a reason why a couple of guys won it more than one time, but it's difficult to predict. You have to take it step by step."
Even so, Vettel, the youngest champion in Formula One history at 23 years and 134 days, could be on the brink of becoming the sport's youngest multiple champion and it is high time his thrilling talent was properly celebrated.
While it is true that in Red Bull he has the slickest outfit in Formula One behind him it is equally true that the sport's pace-setters chose the prodigy from Heppenheim as the best man to demonstrate their pre-eminence.
Vettel's challenge this season is to win over his curiously large number of doubters, to prove that he is not only a great talent but a great champion, too.
Christian Horner, Red Bull's team principal, is not one of those doubters. "It's easy to forget that Sebastian has completed only 62 grands prix, and within those he's won 10 and the world championship as well, at only 23 years of age," he says. "What I've noticed about him coming into this season is that he now has that world championship on his CV, he has another year's experience.
"I think if anything it has relieved some pressure from him because there was always that expectation that he's got to do it this year, he's got to do it this year He's achieved that in 2010 so he's coming into 2011 pretty relaxed and pretty confident, and with that bit more experience, so he's in good shape."
He is in such good shape that Red Bull have signed him until the end of 2014, ending any immediate interest from Ferrari and Mercedes. The expectation that Vettel will become even better, adding maturity and judgment to his astonishing speed, would be enough to drag down the spirits of his rivals, if they weren't such a tough and egocentric bunch.
"He's still so very young," says Horner. "But he's got a very wise head on young shoulders. He's a very grounded guy. It hasn't gone to his head. The success of being a Formula One winner and champion can have it's distractions. But he seems very focused on his part of the job in terms of driving and hasn't allowed himself to be distracted by some of the other trappings of success. You will see him continue to evolve over the next few years."
Far from being lucky, Horner argues that Vettel was one of the unluckiest drivers on the grid last season. "Sebastian had a lot of bad luck at the beginning of the year. You've only got to think back to the first races in Bahrain and Australia where we had issues with a spark plug and a wheel nut. And then, in Korea, he was so cruelly robbed of victory with an engine failure.
"So if you look at it over a season he was the standout and deserving driver and while both Mark and Fernando had exceptional years I think they would agree that on balance Sebastian came out a deserving winner over the course of the year."
Vettel has yet to convince the public he is among the best on the grid. Schumacher has that accolade and Alonso too. Lewis Hamilton, who still has not been given credit for his astonishing rookie season in 2007, before he won the championship the following year with such aggression and brio, also makes the grade.
And Vettel, who like Hamilton has won one title, will surely join them. He starts the new season as the clear favourite to become the first champion to retain the championship since Alonso in 2006.
If he does, even his detractors will have to acknowledge that he is among the most important talents the cacophonous old game has ever produced.
It might just be possible to love Fernando Alonso again. Photograph: Crispin Thruston/Action Images Fernando Alonso was the most welcoming man in Victoria on Thursday. He embraced his Ferrari support team and the new season. He even welcomed the pile of new regulations, surviving dark glares from Mark Webber as the Australian complained that drivers faced too much multi-tasking this season.
There was some irony in his enthusiasm for fresh strategies, which will mean more pit-stops, for it was a pit-stop error which cost him and Ferrari the world title last year. If a driver is as good as his last race then Alonso must be judged a moderate one indeed since he limped home seventh in Abu Dhabi in November and blew a third world title when it was there for the taking.
Little wonder he is anxious to return to action, even in the heavy rain and chilly wind of Albert Park, if only to part-erase his unhappy memories of last season's final race in the desert. "I'm just happy to be here, to be racing again," he said. It's been a long wait since Abu Dhabi last year. And of course we didn't race in Bahrain.
"I will be fighting for the world championship. That is the history and the power of Ferrari. It's about winning races for us. At the start of the season there are five or six teams going for the championship. After three or four races, maybe that will be down to two or three teams. I'm sure we will be there until the last moment."
With the new, fast-degrading tyres from Pirelli, the return of Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (Kers) and the adjustable rear wing there is much for the driver to think about this year – too much in the opinion of some – but the Spaniard is relaxed about the innovations. "These past weeks, there has been a lot of talk about the possible difficulty of managing all the controls we have in the car, especially on the steering wheel," he said. "Quite frankly, I don't think there will be any problems. When all is said and done, we are professional drivers and we have to be capable of adapting to any situation. We'll see more pit-stops and strategy will be the key to the final result. And qualifying on Saturday will be of less value because now there will be so many factors on the track on Sunday."
A quick look at recent results would suggest to followers of the scarlet car that the team is less in need of the new movable rear wing and the return of Kers than a simple burglar alarm. Both Felipe Massa (2008) and Fernando Alonso (2010) might claim that it took a nifty piece of larceny to deprive them of the world title in those seasons. That means that the biggest and most charismatic team of all – and size and charisma is boasted the length of paddock – have not won the world title since the Iceman Kimi Raikkonen triumphed in 2007. Four years is a long wait for such a team and it explains why the intensity of their desire is even more pronounced than ever.
It is, perhaps, time to learn to love Alonso all over again. He was adored when he won those world titles with Renault in 2005 and 2006. At 24 he was the youngest world champion, beating Emerson Fittipaldi's record, though his record was surpassed by Lewis Hamilton and then Sebastian Vettel.
Alonso brought an end to Michael Schumacher's run of seven titles, including five in succession between 2000 and 2004, a sequence which became not only monotonous but which was also resented by some of the sport's purists, since it elevated the German – statistically at least – ahead of equally good, or even greater drivers, such as Ayrton Senna and Jim Clark. But Alonso was not loved for what followed. He went to McLaren for the 2007 season but, expecting to be treated as the No1 driver as the double world champion, was immediately unsettled by Lewis Hamilton's rookie brilliance.
He returned to Renault in 2008 but then there was Crashgate and the team was back in fourth in the constructors' world championship and then eighth in 2009.
Last year there were some unusual errors from Alonso. He got into a spin in Australia, jumped the start in China and crashed in Monaco. But this winter the highest paid driver in Formula One (an estimated £30m a year) has been working hard at the Ferrari headquarters.
Even though last season ended in ultimate despair Alonso proved, as vividly as in any other, that he is a great driver. And, more than that, he also proved himself to be an outstanding leader of the Ferrari team. This could be the year he and his team return to glory.
It might just be possible to love Fernando Alonso again. Photograph: Crispin Thruston/Action Images Fernando Alonso was the most welcoming man in Victoria on Thursday. He embraced his Ferrari support team and the new season. He even welcomed the pile of new regulations, surviving dark glares from Mark Webber as the Australian complained that drivers faced too much multi-tasking this season.
There was some irony in his enthusiasm for fresh strategies, which will mean more pit-stops, for it was a pit-stop error which cost him and Ferrari the world title last year. If a driver is as good as his last race then Alonso must be judged a moderate one indeed since he limped home seventh in Abu Dhabi in November and blew a third world title when it was there for the taking.
Little wonder he is anxious to return to action, even in the heavy rain and chilly wind of Albert Park, if only to part-erase his unhappy memories of last season's final race in the desert. "I'm just happy to be here, to be racing again," he said. It's been a long wait since Abu Dhabi last year. And of course we didn't race in Bahrain.
"I will be fighting for the world championship. That is the history and the power of Ferrari. It's about winning races for us. At the start of the season there are five or six teams going for the championship. After three or four races, maybe that will be down to two or three teams. I'm sure we will be there until the last moment."
With the new, fast-degrading tyres from Pirelli, the return of Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (Kers) and the adjustable rear wing there is much for the driver to think about this year too much in the opinion of some but the Spaniard is relaxed about the innovations. "These past weeks, there has been a lot of talk about the possible difficulty of managing all the controls we have in the car, especially on the steering wheel," he said. "Quite frankly, I don't think there will be any problems. When all is said and done, we are professional drivers and we have to be capable of adapting to any situation. We'll see more pit-stops and strategy will be the key to the final result. And qualifying on Saturday will be of less value because now there will be so many factors on the track on Sunday."
A quick look at recent results would suggest to followers of the scarlet car that the team is less in need of the new movable rear wing and the return of Kers than a simple burglar alarm. Both Felipe Massa (2008) and Fernando Alonso (2010) might claim that it took a nifty piece of larceny to deprive them of the world title in those seasons. That means that the biggest and most charismatic team of all and size and charisma is boasted the length of paddock have not won the world title since the Iceman Kimi Raikkonen triumphed in 2007. Four years is a long wait for such a team and it explains why the intensity of their desire is even more pronounced than ever.
It is, perhaps, time to learn to love Alonso all over again. He was adored when he won those world titles with Renault in 2005 and 2006. At 24 he was the youngest world champion, beating Emerson Fittipaldi's record, though his record was surpassed by Lewis Hamilton and then Sebastian Vettel.
Alonso brought an end to Michael Schumacher's run of seven titles, including five in succession between 2000 and 2004, a sequence which became not only monotonous but which was also resented by some of the sport's purists, since it elevated the German statistically at least ahead of equally good, or even greater drivers, such as Ayrton Senna and Jim Clark. But Alonso was not loved for what followed. He went to McLaren for the 2007 season but, expecting to be treated as the No1 driver as the double world champion, was immediately unsettled by Lewis Hamilton's rookie brilliance.
He returned to Renault in 2008 but then there was Crashgate and the team was back in fourth in the constructors' world championship and then eighth in 2009.
Last year there were some unusual errors from Alonso. He got into a spin in Australia, jumped the start in China and crashed in Monaco. But this winter the highest paid driver in Formula One (an estimated £30m a year) has been working hard at the Ferrari headquarters.
Even though last season ended in ultimate despair Alonso proved, as vividly as in any other, that he is a great driver. And, more than that, he also proved himself to be an outstanding leader of the Ferrari team. This could be the year he and his team return to glory.
Gloucester's wing Tom Voyce celebrates the LV Cup final victory over Newcastle at Franklins Gardens, Northampton. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA Tom Voyce is suffering a severe case of swings and roundabouts. Just now the Gloucester wing is struggling to find time to go wild boar shooting in Turkey. Now shooting is something Voyce loves and not so long ago he could have vanished for a month without anyone at Gloucester missing him. Not now, though. The invitation will have to wait.
From being a bystander as Gloucester pushed their way up the Premiership table, Voyce has suddenly moved to the very heart of a team that is eyeing a place in the end of season play-offs as they prepare to play Harlequinson Saturday, and his tries have also helped win the club their first bit of silverware in eight years. How times change.
From the start of the season until well after Christmas, Voyce could not get a game worthy of note. The best he managed were starts in the either in the early rounds of the Amlin or LV Cups. In the league there wasn't even a place on the replacements' bench. For a former England player with two Heineken Cup medals in his pocket, plus three championships and other assorted silverware, it was starting to look like the end of an illustrious career. The family farms in Cornwall beckoned. "I thought there might not be so much for me here," said Voyce after training this week. "It was weird because I never doubted myself, but we had three or four good wings and I had to just sit patiently." Which is what he did.
Christmas came and went, as did Voyce's 30th birthday in January with James Simpson-Daniel and Lesley Vainikolo ever present on the Gloucester wings unless the 21-year-old flyer Charlie Sharples was drafted in to give the England Test players a rest. Voyce did not get a sniff unless it was Agen or Rovigo. He did not even make the LV Cup team for La Rochelle either home or away.
The best Voyce, a wing with a career record of scoring better than twice in every three games, could manage was a try in the 60-7 walloping of Agen and another, also in the cup, against Leeds. "I didn't want people to think my career was ending because I was only 29 and I believed I had a lot of rugby in me, but it was just the question of getting that opportunity.
"I was fortunate at being the age I was and what I had gone through with Wasps and Bath had made me strong mentally and rugby changes quickly. You think of Steve Borthwick, he was England captain one day and then he was nowhere to be seen. That's how the sport can be and I've got to say I was fortunate."
Voyce admits that his "good fortune" were the injuries which Simpson-Daniel and Vainikolo suffered, allowing him to make his first start in the Premiership against Wasps, the team he had left to join Gloucester 18 months earlier. Since then he had hardly stopped playing and scoring.
He got two against his other former club, Bath, and on Sunday took only seven minutes to open Gloucester's account in the LV Cup final against Newcastle. It was pure Voyce, the wing stepping between would-be tacklers to force his way over the line. "I may have had six months when I wasn't playing any rugby. Now look at me again. I've been fortunate to win another trophy and I'm enjoying everything," says Voyce, who has not missed a start since that Wasps win. Best of the lot, though, was Bath and the chance to silence a few doubters.
In the middle of those early-season difficulties, Voyce's father died suddenly and Bath was the first game his mother had seen since the death. "There was a little bit there because it was the first time mum had come to watch a game since dad died. The whole family was there and it was a great place to put the doubters away," said Voyce who was at Bath for six years after being spotted as a 15-year-old playing in Truro. "People were questioning whether I had lost my pace, but with the second try I just wanted to put two fingers up to them. I learned from Shaun [Edwards, head coach at Wasps, where Voyce also played for six seasons] that when your back is against the wall that's when you like to play best. When you get it easy you can sit back and relish the stuff, but I love it when someone says I can't do something. I'll go to ten times the lengths to prove them wrong."
Which is some clue to how Voyce got through the bad times and how he plans dealing with the considerable changes which are happening at Gloucester following the death of their owner Tom Walkinshaw. With Walkinshaw's heirs and advisers settling on strict budgetary limits, Gloucester are losing some of their prime assets. Dave Attwood, one of the stars of England's summer tour of New Zealand and Australia, is heading for Bath; Nicky Robinson, currently in the form of his life and man of the match in last weekend's final, is moving to Wasps; while the England prop Paul Doran-Jones has signed for Northampton, leaving Voyce a senior voice at a time of change.
"Gloucester is going through a changing phase – monetary things like that," says Voyce, "but there is fierce competition for places and that competition [last weekend's final] has given everyone a taster. It was nice for me, but it was so much better for the boys that hadn't won anything before. Now, guys like Luke Narraway have got a taster and if they are against Leicester or Saracens in a final, which we hope to be, they now know how it feels."
Sale's Charlie Hodgson, centre, may not have found a way past Leeds with the ball but was unstoppable with the boot. Photograph: Paul Thomas/Action Images Neil Back declared himself confident of keeping Leeds in the Premiership after defeat at Sale dealt another blow to their survival hopes.
Charlie Hodgson landed five penalty goals from as many attempts to settle a fraught encounter in which Back's side fully played their part.
Leeds, who have spent the season rooted to the foot of the table, scored two well-worked tries from Henry Fa'afili and Michael Stephenson and were largely dominant up front in the opening half.
Yet Hodgson, who has dug Sale out of so many holes in his 11 years at Edgeley Park, converted three penalties before the break and another two after the restart to ease his side's relegation fears.
Leeds at least picked up a losing bonus point but they are six points from safety with only five matches remaining, yet Back remained defiant about emulating last year's great escape.
The Leeds head coach said: "It's all about belief and commitment, and at the moment we've got huge belief and a very committed squad. It's possible to stay up. We went through it last year and I believe we will get the job done this year as well."
Sale will sorely miss Hodgson when he joins Saracens at the end of the season and how Leeds must wish they had a player with such unerring accuracy in his boots.
Hodgson's opposite number, Adrian Jarvis, missed three penalties in the opening 40 minutes – two of which cruelly rebounded off a post – and then failed to convert Stephenson's late try.
Back said: "If they go over we would have been walking away with four points instead of one but I've got no issue with him [Jarvis]. The good thing with Jarvo is that he will act with confidence when a penalty is awarded and that's what you want from a player."
Back – who also lost England hooker Steve Thompson to a foot injury – said: "I believe that if we can get a result against Exeter at Headingley next Sunday then we can go to Newcastle the following week for a game that could decide the destiny of both clubs." Sale MacLeod; Cohen, Bell, Tuilagi (Tonetti, 34), Cueto; Hodgson, Peel (Cliff, 75); Imiolek (E Roberts, 28), Briggs (M Jones, 78), Thomas, C Jones (Cox, 63), Lewaravu, Gaskell, McMillan (Seymour, 54), Koyamaibole. Pens Hodgson 5. Sin bin Cueto (78). Leeds Stephenson; Blackett, Fa'afili (Tadulala, 78), Burrell, Wackett; Jarvis, Mathie; MacDonald (Hardy, 32), Thompson (Freer, 55), Swainston (Gomez, 62), Browne, Hohneck (Paul, 71), Myall, Fourie, To'oala (Oakley, 66). Tries Fa'afili, Stephenson. Con Jarvis. Referee W Barnes (RFU). Attendance 6,972.
Dan Carter of Crusaders during a training session at the Royal Artillery Company in London. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images This weekend could finally resolve one of rugby's oldest arguments. For the first time in the professional era a Super 15 fixture is being played in the northern hemisphere, permitting a direct comparison with European domestic fare. Quality or candyfloss? Super or so-so? It should be an instructive 80 minutes.
In one sense everyone is already a winner, with transplanted Crusaders v Sharks fixture set to raise significant funds for victims of the Christchurch earthquake. But given Twickenham is staging a competitive game involving a host of All Blacks and Springboks, it is not simply about the money. Is the Super 15 a more satisfying product than the Heineken Cup? Are southern skill levels superior?
Among those keen to expand a few blinkered minds is the All Black captain, Richie McCaw, sidelined by injury but still an interested onlooker. "It is an opportunity for people to see at first hand what it's all about," he said, acknowledging the existence of "differing opinions" on the substance of Super 15 rugby. "When you compare it to the Premiership and what-not, Super 15 gets played in our autumn which is the best time to play. The ball is usually dry and you get good conditions. I firmly believe that has an impact on the style of rugby you can play.
"A couple of years ago there was a lot of kicking and the game was dominated by defence. The [Super 15] teams seemed to go away and put a lot of effort into the attacking side. The style of play changed quite rapidly; it doesn't seem to change as much in the northern hemisphere."
With the glorious weather this week having hardened up the Twickenham ground, conditions should suit both sides as they attempt to show their hosts how it should be done. There is a school of thought that more attritional European methods produce doughtier teams when the knock‑out stages of the World Cup come around. That debate will rumble on regardless of this game, although the Crusaders' backline is not noticeably fragile. Alongside the peerless Dan Carter and the thunderous Sonny Bill Williams will be Robbie Fruean, among this season's hottest Super 15 properties, while Kieran Read, Brad Thorn and Owen Franks are scarcely weak links.
The Sharks will also be slightly travel-weary, having played in Perth, Melbourne and Hamilton over the past three weeks. They have beaten the Crusaders once in their past five attempts and will be looking to their Springbok forwards Bismarck du Plessis and Ryan Kankowski to generate some momentum.
Neutrals among a likely crowd of around 35,000 will settle for a glimpse of Carter in full flight, one of rugby's great joys regardless of the backdrop. If the game is as eventful as the Melbourne Rebels' 42-25 win over the Hurricanes – the Rebels trailed 17-0 at one stage before surging back with Danny Cipriani kicking 14 points – there will be even fewer complaints. Crusaders I Dagg; S Maitland, R Fruean, S Williams, Z Guildford; D Carter, A Ellis; W Crockett, C Flynn, O Franks, B Thorn, S Whitelock, G Whitelock, M Todd, K Read (capt). Replacements Q MacDonald, B Franks, C Jack, J Poff, K Fotuali'i, M Berquist, A Whitelock. Sharks L Ludik; O Ndungane, S Terblanche, M Bosman, L Mvovo, J-L Potgieter, C McLeod; J Smit (capt), B du Plessis, J du Plessis, S Sykes, A Hargreaves, K Daniel, W Alberts, R Kankowski. Replacements E van Staden, T Mtawarira, G Mostert, J Botes, C Hoffmann, A Jacobs, JP Pietersen. Referee S Walsh (New Zealand).
Dan Carter of Crusaders during a training session at the Royal Artillery Company in London. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images This weekend could finally resolve one of rugby's oldest arguments. For the first time in the professional era a Super 15 fixture is being played in the northern hemisphere, permitting a direct comparison with European domestic fare. Quality or candyfloss? Super or so-so? It should be an instructive 80 minutes.
In one sense everyone is already a winner, with transplanted Crusaders v Sharks fixture set to raise significant funds for victims of the Christchurch earthquake. But given Twickenham is staging a competitive game involving a host of All Blacks and Springboks, it is not simply about the money. Is the Super 15 a more satisfying product than the Heineken Cup? Are southern skill levels superior?
Among those keen to expand a few blinkered minds is the All Black captain, Richie McCaw, sidelined by injury but still an interested onlooker. "It is an opportunity for people to see at first hand what it's all about," he said, acknowledging the existence of "differing opinions" on the substance of Super 15 rugby. "When you compare it to the Premiership and what-not, Super 15 gets played in our autumn which is the best time to play. The ball is usually dry and you get good conditions. I firmly believe that has an impact on the style of rugby you can play.
"A couple of years ago there was a lot of kicking and the game was dominated by defence. The [Super 15] teams seemed to go away and put a lot of effort into the attacking side. The style of play changed quite rapidly; it doesn't seem to change as much in the northern hemisphere."
With the glorious weather this week having hardened up the Twickenham ground, conditions should suit both sides as they attempt to show their hosts how it should be done. There is a school of thought that more attritional European methods produce doughtier teams when the knock‑out stages of the World Cup come around. That debate will rumble on regardless of this game, although the Crusaders' backline is not noticeably fragile. Alongside the peerless Dan Carter and the thunderous Sonny Bill Williams will be Robbie Fruean, among this season's hottest Super 15 properties, while Kieran Read, Brad Thorn and Owen Franks are scarcely weak links.
The Sharks will also be slightly travel-weary, having played in Perth, Melbourne and Hamilton over the past three weeks. They have beaten the Crusaders once in their past five attempts and will be looking to their Springbok forwards Bismarck du Plessis and Ryan Kankowski to generate some momentum.
Neutrals among a likely crowd of around 35,000 will settle for a glimpse of Carter in full flight, one of rugby's great joys regardless of the backdrop. If the game is as eventful as the Melbourne Rebels' 42-25 win over the Hurricanes – the Rebels trailed 17-0 at one stage before surging back with Danny Cipriani kicking 14 points – there will be even fewer complaints. Crusaders I Dagg; S Maitland, R Fruean, S Williams, Z Guildford; D Carter, A Ellis; W Crockett, C Flynn, O Franks, B Thorn, S Whitelock, G Whitelock, M Todd, K Read (capt). Replacements Q MacDonald, B Franks, C Jack, J Poff, K Fotuali'i, M Berquist, A Whitelock. Sharks L Ludik; O Ndungane, S Terblanche, M Bosman, L Mvovo, J-L Potgieter, C McLeod; J Smit (capt), B du Plessis, J du Plessis, S Sykes, A Hargreaves, K Daniel, W Alberts, R Kankowski. Replacements E van Staden, T Mtawarira, G Mostert, J Botes, C Hoffmann, A Jacobs, JP Pietersen. Referee S Walsh (New Zealand).
England's Shontayne Hape looks for a way through the Ireland defence in the Six Nations. He will be watching Bath's game against Leicester from the bench. Photograph: Julien Behal/PA The England centre Shontayne Hape has been dropped to the bench by Bath for Saturday's meeting with the champions, Leicester, at the Recreation Ground, even though they have injury problems in the midfield with Olly Barkley and Matt Carraro ruled out.
Bath have chosen an untried midfield combination in the Leicester old boy Sam Vesty, who has played for most of the season at fly-half, at 12, Hape's international position, and the emerging Ben Williams, who has been preferred at outside-centre with Matt Banahan, who played at 13 for England in Dublin last weekend, on the right wing.
Hape, who is leaving Bath for London Irish in the summer, has been a controversial selection by England, not least because of his lack of experience at inside-centre. Bath's preference for a footballing 12 against the team who knocked them out at the play-off stage in 2009 and 2010 indicates a varied tactical approach.
Leicester have included four of their five current England internationals, Ben Youngs, Toby Flood, Dan Cole and Tom Croft while the second-row Louis Deacon was not considered because of an achilles tendon injury. The England captain and former Leicester flanker, Lewis Moody, is still out with the knee ligament problem that left him watching the Six Nations from the touchline. "It is a game I desperately wanted to be involved in and I am bitterly disappointed I am not playing," said Moody, who hopes to make his comeback at Saracens next Sunday. "The guys have come on leaps and bounds in the last few months and it is good to have Matt Banahan back because he has been on fire."
Northampton's England quartet, Ben Foden, Chris Ashton, Dylan Hartley and Tom Wood return for Sunday's meeting with Wasps at Franklin's Gardens. The Saints have lost their past three home matches in the Premiership, but their opponents have not won away from Wycombe in the league since November.
The former England full-back Josh Lewsey, who this week came out of retirement with Wasps hit by injuries behind the scrum, has not been included in the 23 for Northampton but he has been registered for the Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final against Harlequins next month.
The England full-back Delon Armitage, who missed the Six Nations because he was serving an eight-week suspension after an altercation with a drugs officer on New Year's Day, returns for London Irish's meeting with Exeter at the Madejski Stadiumon Saturday.
Graham Henry says New Zealand will have to improve up to 15 per cent to win the World Cup on home soil later this year. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Reuters
The New Zealand coach Graham Henry would have preferred England to have clinched the grand slam in Dublin last weekend because he believes they will be stronger contenders in the World Cup later this year after the defeat against Ireland.
England are bidding to become the first team to reach three successive World Cup finals after winning the tournament in 2003 and finishing runners-up to South Africa four years later. Henry believes they are a better team now than they were in 2007.
"England are improving and they will be a force in the World Cup," said Henry. "The defeat to Ireland will not do them any harm at all, which is annoying. It will be a wake-up that will make them an even better side. They have reached the last two finals, but they are stronger now than they have been for years."
The All Blacks have not won the World Cup since the inaugural tournament in 1987, each failure greeted with increasing anguish. "There is huge expectation on us, which is right and proper," said Henry.
"It is not a hurdle and we are hugely excited by the opportunity. We have to improve by 10 to 15 per cent on last year and we have to be strong mentally. One of the lessons of 2007 [when New Zealand suffered their earliest exit, at the quarter-final stage] is you have to be able to handle surprises. We did not four years ago."
Henry has been watching the Six Nations, the Heineken Cup and the domestic league tournaments with interest from afar. "I do not have a negative view of rugby in Europe," said the former Wales coach. "The games in the two hemispheres are contrasting largely because of the different weather conditions.
"We have the chance to move the ball more and develop outstanding athletes: Super 15 rugby is entertaining and an attractive product, but Europe produces closer contests with the weather generally worse."
Henry was born in Christchurch and said the All Blacks would have a World Cup training camp in the city which will not stage any matches because of the impact made by last month's earthquake. "It is very sad, but it was a logical decision," he said. "It is a rugby-mad city and it is important that we rub shoulders with the people of Christchurch."
Henry said he expected France, New Zealand's World Cup nemesis who are in the All Blacks' group, to be a force in the autumn and felt Ireland and Wales would be a handful. He admitted he did not have back-up to Daniel Carter at fly-half but would not consider Nick Evans, the Harlequins No10, unless he returned to New Zealand permanently.
Henry also said he thought Leicester's New Zealand-born No8, Thomas Waldrom, who is eligible to play for England through his grandmother, was a player of international quality.
Josh Lewsey has been working as a management consultant but will rejoin Wasps until the end of the season. Photograph: David Davies/PA Archive/Press Association Ima Josh Lewsey has come out of retirement to rejoin Wasps on a short-term contract until the end of the season.
The World Cup winner, who has been working as a management consultant, has accepted an approach from the London club who were seeking back three cover.
"This is a fantastic short-term signing and I have no doubt Josh will make a huge contribution to the squad in what's left of the season," said Wasps interim director of rugby, Leon Holden.
Lewsey won 55 caps for England between 1998 and 2008.
Twice Over and Tom Queally take a spin around the track at Meydan in preparation for the Dubai World Cup. Photograph: Ali Haider/Epa Henry Cecil has achieved too much, and endured too much, to allow a single race to get under his skin, even if it is worth $10m (£6.2m). But as he has prepared to saddle Twice Over, the favourite, for the Dubai World Cup at Meydan on Saturday, it has been hard to escape the conclusion that there are 10,000,001 reasons why he is unusually eager to succeed.
Cecil's trademark nonchalance and gentle self-deprecation when interviewed by the media have always hidden a fiercely competitive streak that runs from his head to the toes of his Italian loafers. That will to win has carried him through a long series of professional and personal setbacks, and last year's Dubai World Cup, the first to be run at Meydan, still nags at him as one that got away.
There was no doubting how strongly Cecil fancied Twice Over 12 months ago, but he drew a wide stall, got caught on the outside around the first turn and eventually finished 10th of the 14 runners. Flat trainers rarely look beyond the end of the season when making plans for their horses, but Cecil was talking about the World Cup as early as last July, when Twice Over won the Eclipse at Sandown, and now the opportunity has arrived to set the record straight.
Attention to detail is a hallmark of all the great trainers and Cecil has left nothing to chance. This time around, Twice Over has been here for several weeks to acclimatise and had a prep race, too, in a Group Two event this month, which he won by nearly three lengths. Cecil's blacksmith has also refined special shoes to protect Twice Over's delicate feet, and even from his base in Newmarket, where he has been preparing his horses for the new Flat season, the trainer has been in constant touch.
"I wish I could have spent more time over here," Cecil said on Friday, "but we've got 130 horses at home and the season is less than three weeks away."
"Having had things go wrong [last year], we don't want to leave on that note and the main thing is to come back and try to get it right. The important thing is to adapt to the [synthetic] surface, so we tried something different, coming out here and having a race, and hopefully we've got the timing right.
"I've kept him on the surface rather than going on to the grass or the training tracks. He's handling it much better through the experience, he's definitely adapted himself well now, which he hadn't last year and he's actually better in every way."
Cecil has always relied on his eyes and instincts when training his horses rather than some of the modern aids employed by other trainers. When a South African journalist asked him whether Twice Over is heavier this year, which would be a routine question for many modern trainers, Cecil replied that he did not have a clue, since he never weighs his horses. "It sounds very amateurish, but I like to think that by looking at my horses I know when they're well," he said. "Sorry."
Twice Over's work is not timed either. "When I gallop my horses, I don't use stopwatches or anything like that," Cecil said. "I don't know whether they're working at 30mph or five miles per hour. Everything is done within themselves, I don't really let them down."
Twice Over, then, will go to the starting gate at this ultra-modern racecourse on Saturday with the benefit of a very traditional training programme behind him, but one that has been overseen by the most accomplished British trainer of the last 40 years.
Just over a week ago, Cecil demonstrated that, to him, every race matters when he saddled Plato – who looked fit and well enough to run in a Derby – to win a charity event at the Cheltenham Festival. Now he has a chance to win the world's richest race for the first time, with a horse who has become one of his favourites.
"You do get very attached to them," he said. "He's been a very good friend and helped me a lot. Good horses help make successful trainers and jockeys. If I have bad horses, I'm a bad trainer in the eyes of the world.
"He's better in every way than he's ever been. If you turned him into a human, how old would he be? He'd be 60-odd, wouldn't he, or 55? He's probably improved with age a lot more than I have."
Twice Over may have drawn poorly but he is a multiple Group One winner trained by a master and deserves to start favourite. Odds of 11-4 are quite cramped, though, in a race that comes close to living up to its name.
Cape Blanco, part of Aidan O'Brien's first team of runners here for six years, will be a tough opponent if he adapts after a much briefer chance to acclimatise, while Buena Vista and Victoire Pisa are top-class in Japan. If one horse has been underestimated by the market, though, it is probably Gio Ponti (5.35), from the US, who was the runner-up to Zenyatta in the 2009 Breeders' Cup Classic. At 10-1, he is a very credible each-way bet, while in the supporting races, Champ Pegasus (4.50), another American runner, is a big price in the Sheema Classic and Wigmore Hall (3.45) can win for Michael Bell in the Dubai Duty Free. I Want Revenge (1.50), a strong favourite for the 2009 Kentucky Derby until he was withdrawn on the eve of the race, looks the class act in the Godolphin Mile and Euroears (3.05) should go close in the Golden Shaheen.
Henry Cecil in the winners enclosure after a victory at the Cheltenham this year. Photograph: Tom Jenkins There are mistakes and then there are disasters. I often have lunch with [racehorse owner] Prince Khalid Abdullah in London. I'll never forget one time I was sitting opposite him at the Dorchester. They have very tall glasses full of water. I went to get the salt and, being clumsy, I touched my glass and it just went whoosh, all over the prince. It absolutely soaked him and they were running around taking his jacket, mopping him up. Obviously, I felt quite embarrassed. "Henry," he said, "I think you're the first trainer I've had who's thrown a glass of water over me."
As a trainer, one of the biggest problems is accurately assessing the ground. You can walk round a racecourse and convince yourself it's all right, but it's very different for a 1,000lb horse going at 38 miles an hour. I remember walking around Ascot once and thinking it was OK, but then a couple of my horses had problems and one of them pulled a tendon.
My one real regret is not entering Chalon for the 1,000 Guineas in 1982. Chalon was rather mature and a little bit backward and I thought she wouldn't be ready, so I ran her in a condition race at the same meeting instead. Later in the season she went on to win the Coronation Stakes at Ascot, but I think she would definitely have won the Guineas at a canter.
You always learn from mistakes, don't you? I wouldn't say one improves as one gets older necessarily, but you've seen more and you do things differently. Horses can't talk so you've got to be a bit of a psychiatrist.
Years ago I had a horse I thought was good, but the stable lads said something was wrong with him. I warmed him up but by the time I'd got him trackside he was jumping and kicking. Obviously, something was hurting him and it turned out he'd fractured his pelvis. The moral of that was when in doubt about something, stop. My late father-in-law once told me that and I've taken it with me ever since. Henry Cecil was guest of honour for the first Cancer Research UK St Patrick's Day Derby – http://supportus.cancerresearchuk.org/events
Jamie Spencer rides Cape Blanco in a gallop at Meydan racecourse on Thursday during preparations for the Dubai World Cup. Photograph: Ali Haider/EPA When Aidan O'Brien throws a saddle across three runners here at Meydan racecourse on Saturday night, it could draw a line under one of the more enduring disagreements in sport.
It is six years since O'Brien, who trains for John Magnier's Coolmore Stud syndicate, last ran one of his horses in Sheikh Mohammed's emirate. His absence, though no one concerned will ever confirm it, was evidence of the frost that descended on the relationship between the most powerful bloodstock operations in racing in the autumn of 2005.
It is one of the more puzzling sporting disagreements too, in part because, while rumours abound, few people beyond Magnier and Sheikh Mohammed themselves know for sure why the dispute arose, but also because it is bad for business. In their own ways, both Magnier and Sheikh Mohammed take a fiercely commercial approach to life – Dubai's skyline is testament to that – yet the Sheikh's refusal to buy Coolmore-bred yearlings at the bloodstock sales since September 2005 is a brake on the market that, in the end, drags at his own Darley Stud breeding operation as well.
But the appearance of Cape Blanco in Saturday's Dubai World Cup, the most valuable race of the season and one that Sheikh Mohammed conceived and developed, could signify that business links between Coolmore and Dubai are about to be revived. If so, it will be a victory for common sense, but a little of the credit too may belong to Dr Jim Hay, a recent recruit to the very short list of owners at O'Brien's Ballydoyle yard.
Hay, a Scot who now lives in Dubai, owns horses with his wife, Fitri, has been a significant new arrival in the bloodstock market in recent years, and recently bought significant shares in both Cape Blanco and Fame And Glory, O'Brien's 2010 Coronation Cup winner. Hay plays down suggestions that the couple have helped to bring a thaw between Magnier and the Sheikh – "don't overegg it", he said on Thursday – but he does acknowledge that the relationship has room for improvement. "It's no secret that there are strains between the folk in Ireland and the folk here," Hay said. "You could maybe see this [Cape Blanco's Dubai World Cup entry] as a move that could bring the two sides together.
"These squabbles are just part of life, they come, they go. I think hopefully in the years to come we'll see a lot more of the [Irish] folks with top-class horses here, which must be good for Dubai. It should be win, win, win."
Hay, who has a PhD in chemical engineering and worked for BP for 27 years, acquired Fosroc, a specialist chemical supplier, in 2002 and has been an owner for the best part of a decade. Buying into horses trained by O'Brien, though, is a significant new step.
"I first got involved with Coolmore by buying horses from them," Hay says. "Things are always changing rapidly, and opportunities that might not have existed 10 years ago can now appear.
"Anybody who is in any way associated with Coolmore can only see it as an enormous honour. I gave my wife Vincent O'Brien's biography the other day and told her in particular to read the section on the formation of the [Coolmore] syndicate with the Sangsters. There's a fantastic quote in there, Sangster went to see Lord Derby and said 'I know I'm going to be really serious for horses, tell me what I should do'. He told him two things. 'Firstly, find the best trainer you can find, secondly you have to start thinking one million at a time.' And that's where we are now.
"I've seen a few things saying that the reason they sold [Cape Blanco] to us was that they've gutted the horse and bottomed him out. If you go to Ballydoyle, Aidan has got this amazing collage on the wall of the 2001 season. Twenty-three Group One winners, you can't get your eyes off it. And if you actually look at it in detail, you'll find that a lot of these were older horses. He knows that he wants to do that again, only get 24, or 25. That's what drives him, and he can't do it unless he's got a few older horses."
The Hays have already invested millions in horseflesh, but this is not a wild splurge by a wealthy man with more money than sense. Purchases include around a dozen impeccably-bred fillies destined to form the basis of their own breeding operation, and every decision is carefully weighed.
"Racing for us is a serious business," Hay said. "We have a whole range of investments for our family group, which range from boring things like government gilts at one end all the way through to horse racing at the high-risk end. The returns are potentially huge, and unlike many other investments you can have fun at the same time.
"Everything we do will have a 15-year strategy, and we run our racing the same way. We will have a long-term strategy, and a five-year business plan to back it up. We have board meetings at which we discuss everything. It can be difficult for many of the board members to get their heads around. This is extremely high stakes but the returns on it are huge if it works."
Jamie Spencer rides Cape Blanco in a gallop at Meydan racecourse on Thursday during preparations for the Dubai World Cup. Photograph: Ali Haider/EPA When Aidan O'Brien throws a saddle across three runners here at Meydan racecourse on Saturday night, it could draw a line under one of the more enduring disagreements in sport.
It is six years since O'Brien, who trains for John Magnier's Coolmore Stud syndicate, last ran one of his horses in Sheikh Mohammed's emirate. His absence, though no one concerned will ever confirm it, was evidence of the frost that descended on the relationship between the most powerful bloodstock operations in racing in the autumn of 2005.
It is one of the more puzzling sporting disagreements too, in part because, while rumours abound, few people beyond Magnier and Sheikh Mohammed themselves know for sure why the dispute arose, but also because it is bad for business. In their own ways, both Magnier and Sheikh Mohammed take a fiercely commercial approach to life Dubai's skyline is testament to that yet the Sheikh's refusal to buy Coolmore-bred yearlings at the bloodstock sales since September 2005 is a brake on the market that, in the end, drags at his own Darley Stud breeding operation as well.
But the appearance of Cape Blanco in Saturday's Dubai World Cup, the most valuable race of the season and one that Sheikh Mohammed conceived and developed, could signify that business links between Coolmore and Dubai are about to be revived. If so, it will be a victory for common sense, but a little of the credit too may belong to Dr Jim Hay, a recent recruit to the very short list of owners at O'Brien's Ballydoyle yard.
Hay, a Scot who now lives in Dubai, owns horses with his wife, Fitri, has been a significant new arrival in the bloodstock market in recent years, and recently bought significant shares in both Cape Blanco and Fame And Glory, O'Brien's 2010 Coronation Cup winner. Hay plays down suggestions that the couple have helped to bring a thaw between Magnier and the Sheikh "don't overegg it", he said on Thursday but he does acknowledge that the relationship has room for improvement. "It's no secret that there are strains between the folk in Ireland and the folk here," Hay said. "You could maybe see this [Cape Blanco's Dubai World Cup entry] as a move that could bring the two sides together.
"These squabbles are just part of life, they come, they go. I think hopefully in the years to come we'll see a lot more of the [Irish] folks with top-class horses here, which must be good for Dubai. It should be win, win, win."
Hay, who has a PhD in chemical engineering and worked for BP for 27 years, acquired Fosroc, a specialist chemical supplier, in 2002 and has been an owner for the best part of a decade. Buying into horses trained by O'Brien, though, is a significant new step.
"I first got involved with Coolmore by buying horses from them," Hay says. "Things are always changing rapidly, and opportunities that might not have existed 10 years ago can now appear.
"Anybody who is in any way associated with Coolmore can only see it as an enormous honour. I gave my wife Vincent O'Brien's biography the other day and told her in particular to read the section on the formation of the [Coolmore] syndicate with the Sangsters. There's a fantastic quote in there, Sangster went to see Lord Derby and said 'I know I'm going to be really serious for horses, tell me what I should do'. He told him two things. 'Firstly, find the best trainer you can find, secondly you have to start thinking one million at a time.' And that's where we are now.
"I've seen a few things saying that the reason they sold [Cape Blanco] to us was that they've gutted the horse and bottomed him out. If you go to Ballydoyle, Aidan has got this amazing collage on the wall of the 2001 season. Twenty-three Group One winners, you can't get your eyes off it. And if you actually look at it in detail, you'll find that a lot of these were older horses. He knows that he wants to do that again, only get 24, or 25. That's what drives him, and he can't do it unless he's got a few older horses."
The Hays have already invested millions in horseflesh, but this is not a wild splurge by a wealthy man with more money than sense. Purchases include around a dozen impeccably-bred fillies destined to form the basis of their own breeding operation, and every decision is carefully weighed.
"Racing for us is a serious business," Hay said. "We have a whole range of investments for our family group, which range from boring things like government gilts at one end all the way through to horse racing at the high-risk end. The returns are potentially huge, and unlike many other investments you can have fun at the same time.
"Everything we do will have a 15-year strategy, and we run our racing the same way. We will have a long-term strategy, and a five-year business plan to back it up. We have board meetings at which we discuss everything. It can be difficult for many of the board members to get their heads around. This is extremely high stakes but the returns on it are huge if it works."
White Moonstone, Godolphin's 1,000 Guineas favourite, is reported to be 'exactly where we want her at this stage'. Photograph: Sean Dempsey/PA Godolphin, the world's most powerful racehorse ownership operation, will boycott all races, even Group One events, which fall below the Horsemen's Group tariff on prize funds this season, it was announced on Wednesday.
Simon Crisford, Godolphin's racing manager, singled out the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury on 14 May as a race that will need to raise its purse significantly to attract a Godolphin runner, and also said that the operation will send horses from their Newmarket stables to maiden races in France rather than nearby Yarmouth if the tariff is not met.
Crisford was speaking after nearly 40 of the operation's prospects for 2011, including the potential Classic contenders White Moonstone and Saamidd, had cantered during their annual media morning. He said Godolphin does not support the tariff to increase Sheikh Mohammed's return from racing, but to guarantee a stable future for all workers in the racing industry.
"We will not be running in any below-tariff races whatever the situation and Frankie [Dettori, Godolphin's retained jockey] will not be riding in any, not when he's riding for us anyway," Crisford said.
"Basically, this is all about stable staff. Of course the owners need prize money but this whole thing is about lots of British stable staff being made redundant if this whole thing isn't sorted out. Prize money filters all the way down through the industry to every single person who is part of the backbone of the British racing industry. They are the cogs in the wheel that make it turn.
"We like Newmarket as a base but you might see a lot more of our horses racing overseas. If England doesn't have the races for us, we will find them elsewhere. Poet's Voice [winner of the QEII Stakes] and Rewilding [third in the Derby] are obvious horses to race back in England, but not below tariff.
"If we have to get a run into a horse and we can't run them at Yarmouth, we will take them to France. In this day and age of travel, it's not so difficult. It needs a bit more paperwork, but it can be done, and it will be done. It's not just about maiden races either, you would need to be looking at races like the Lockinge, too.
"We will enter horses if they are below tariff in case they are up to tariff by the time of the final declarations but if they are not, our horses won't run."
The lead set by Godolphin, founded by Sheikh Mohammed in 1992, is expected to be followed by other members of the Maktoum family, several of whom have three-figure strings in training in the UK.
Last year's Lockinge Stakes, which had a total value of just under £200,000 against a new tariff of £256,000, had no Godolphin representative and only one runner owned by a member of the family, Ouqba, the runner-up. However, Godolphin has won the race five times since 1998.
Stephen Higgins, Newbury's managing director, held out little hope that the track will be able to meet the prize-money demand of the Horsemen's Group. "We haven't got the ability to raise it to the tariff value," he said. "The current value is above the minimum value [set by the British Horseracing Authority]. We are in constant dialogue with the Horsemen, trying to understand how their figures were reached. When Godolphin are back from Dubai perhaps we will speak to them, to try to explain why we are not in a position to reach the tariff as set."
On the track at Al Quoz on Wednesday Saamidd, a 33-1 shot for the 2,000 Guineas, looked particularly strong and well as he breezed. Crisford said White Moonstone, the 7-1 favourite for the 1,000 Guineas on 1 May, is "exactly where we would want her at this stage".
Twice Over was edged out to 11-4 from 9-4 by Coral for Saturday's Dubai World Cup at Meydan after being allotted stall 12 of 14, one wider from where he started when unplaced in last year's race.
The new British Champions Series of races will begin on 30 April with the 2,000 Guineas, won last year by Makfi. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images The Middle-Eastern influence on British horse racing has increased further after the British Champions Series, the latest attempt to bring some coherence and wider appeal to the Flat racing calendar, unveiled Qatari investment group Qipco as its title sponsor in a multimillion pound deal.
Securing a title sponsor was seen as an important prerequisite to launching the series, which claims ambitions to become the Formula One or Champions League of the horse racing world.
Karl Oliver, chief executive of the Series, said Qipco's involvement would help towards its aim of broadening its appeal through an easy-to-understand series of 35 races in five categories, building to a climax at Ascot in October with the Champion Stakes, run for the last time at Newmarket last year.
The investment group, owned by six brothers who are members of the Qatari royal family, owns a portfolio of interests including Qatar Bloodstock.
"They share the same values and vision as we do, they're looking to establish themselves internationally and improve their profile," said Oliver. "They see the British Champions Series as a great platform but they also understand horse racing."
He said the deal "ticked a third major box" after securing terrestrial and international TV rights deals. Coverage of the series will be split between the BBC, which has 19 races, including the five climactic races on the £3m British Champions Day, and Channel 4, which will broadcast 16.
Oliver insisted that not having all the races with a single broadcaster – the driving force behind an earlier aborted attempt to provide some coherence to the Flat season through the Sovereign Series – was not a problem. He pointed to the way the Champions League retains coherent branding no matter who broadcasts it.
"It's about driving wider engagement from a more general sports audience that follows football, cricket, rugby and Formula One. Racing hasn't always given enough of a reason to follow it.
"My principle objective is to get racing on their radar by giving them something that is simple and easy to follow. It is the best of British Flat racing, 35 races over 28 days with a clear beginning and a clear finale with the British Champions Day at Ascot."
As part of the deal, Qipco will be the official partner at the opening day of the series at the Guineas Festival at Newmarket, the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood and the climactic day at Ascot.
Oliver insisted that other sponsors of existing races included in the series would not be disadvantaged by Qipco's overall naming rights deal because the visibility of their races would also be enhanced. The deal is for just two years, which Oliver said would give both sides a chance to assess its value.
The new British Champions Series of races will begin on 30 April with the 2,000 Guineas, won last year by Makfi. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images The Middle-Eastern influence on British horse racing has increased further after the British Champions Series, the latest attempt to bring some coherence and wider appeal to the Flat racing calendar, unveiled Qatari investment group Qipco as its title sponsor in a multimillion pound deal.
Securing a title sponsor was seen as an important prerequisite to launching the series, which claims ambitions to become the Formula One or Champions League of the horse racing world.
Karl Oliver, chief executive of the Series, said Qipco's involvement would help towards its aim of broadening its appeal through an easy-to-understand series of 35 races in five categories, building to a climax at Ascot in October with the Champion Stakes, run for the last time at Newmarket last year.
The investment group, owned by six brothers who are members of the Qatari royal family, owns a portfolio of interests including Qatar Bloodstock.
"They share the same values and vision as we do, they're looking to establish themselves internationally and improve their profile," said Oliver. "They see the British Champions Series as a great platform but they also understand horse racing."
He said the deal "ticked a third major box" after securing terrestrial and international TV rights deals. Coverage of the series will be split between the BBC, which has 19 races, including the five climactic races on the £3m British Champions Day, and Channel 4, which will broadcast 16.
Oliver insisted that not having all the races with a single broadcaster the driving force behind an earlier aborted attempt to provide some coherence to the Flat season through the Sovereign Series was not a problem. He pointed to the way the Champions League retains coherent branding no matter who broadcasts it.
"It's about driving wider engagement from a more general sports audience that follows football, cricket, rugby and Formula One. Racing hasn't always given enough of a reason to follow it.
"My principle objective is to get racing on their radar by giving them something that is simple and easy to follow. It is the best of British Flat racing, 35 races over 28 days with a clear beginning and a clear finale with the British Champions Day at Ascot."
As part of the deal, Qipco will be the official partner at the opening day of the series at the Guineas Festival at Newmarket, the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood and the climactic day at Ascot.
Oliver insisted that other sponsors of existing races included in the series would not be disadvantaged by Qipco's overall naming rights deal because the visibility of their races would also be enhanced. The deal is for just two years, which Oliver said would give both sides a chance to assess its value.
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