26
SUNDAY CHRONICLE, April 15, 2018
Tiger Roll wins dramatic Grand National by a head By Elizabeth Hudson IRISH challenger Tiger Roll won the Aintree Grand National in a photo finish after holding off a late surge by Pleasant Company. The 10-1 chance Tiger Roll, ridden by the experienced Davy Russell, who had never won the race before, surged clear of the rest of the field late on. Tiger Roll tired on the run-in as Pleasant Company (25-1) and David Mullins moved to challenge. But he managed to hold on to win by a head for trainer Gordon Elliott. It is a second win in the race for Elliott, who guided Silver Birch to victory in 2007, while he also trained the third-place finisher Bless The Wings (40-1). The Irish completed a clean sweep of the top four with Anibale Fly (10-1), while Bryony Frost, one of three female jockeys in the race, had an excellent run on Milansbar in fifth. The eight-year-old winner, who has won three times at the Cheltenham Festival in recent years, including in
the cross-country race at last month’s event, had come into the race well-fancied. He is owned by airline tycoon Michael O’Leary, who also triumphed with Rule The World two years ago. RUSSELL’S EXPERIENCE PAYS DIVIDENDS Irishman Russell, the oldest jockey in the race at
March and the news of fellow weighing-room veteran Pat Smullen’s diagnosis with a tumour. Tiger Roll was his 14th Grand National ride, with his third place on Saint Are 12 months ago his previous best finish, and he paid tribute to Smullen afterwards. “This one is for Pat Smullen. I was speaking to him the
family at home. “I was also thinking of all the times my dad cut the grass when I was young and it was the only time of the year I enjoyed picking it up because we would make our own Aintree fences around the garden. “I’ve won this race thousands of times (in my imagination) and I’ve never won it like I’ve won it today. You Irishman Davy Russell is now the winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National.
Tiger Roll (right) just edges out Pleasant Company to win the Grand National at Aintree. (Sky Sports)
38, has had some difficult times over the past couple of months, after the death of his mother Phyllis at the start of
other morning and he’s as tough as nails,” he said. “I was thinking about Pat and my mother and my
watch it on television then you get a chance to ride in it. “He really did tire under me but he was so brave. I
thought I might have been done on the line, and it would have been heartbreaking but this is right up there.” Joy for Frost after memorable first National ride Frost was delighted to finish fifth in her debut Grand National on the Neil King-trained Milansbar. “He is incredible, he made a few mistakes early on and then gave me a wonderful ride,” she said. However, neither she nor fellow female jockeys Katie Walsh and Rachael Blackmore ever looked like becoming the first woman to win the historic race. Walsh was the last of the
12 finishers on the grey Baie Des Iles while Blackmore, like Frost having her first run in the race, fell on Alpha Des Obeaux. Of the 26 who failed to complete the course, Saint Are, ridden by Ciaran Gethings, a late replacement for Adrian Heskin, who took a tumble in an earlier race, was treated on the course and then moved to the Aintree stables for further assessment. The field bypassed Becher’s Brook second time round as jockey Charlie Deutsch was being attended to, but he was not seriously injured. (BBC Sport)
Cricket Australia bags billion-dollar rights deal
By Jonathan Barrett
SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) - Cricket Australia (CA) has signed a new sixyear broadcast agreement worth A$1.2B (£655.7M), the board said on Friday, allaying fears of a financial blow in the wake of last month’s ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. Broadcaster Seven West Media and pay television company Foxtel, which is jointly owned by News Corp and Telstra Corp, secured the media rights, taking over from long-term cricket broadcaster Nine Entertainment. The deal was negotiated amid the fallout from the Test match in South Africa during which Australia’s players hatched a plan to
tamper with the ball, only to be caught by cameras. Three players, including then captain Steve Smith, have been suspended. Cricket Australia (CA) Chief Executive James Sutherland said the issue of restoring the team’s reputation had been discussed. “We’ve obviously got some rebuilding to do, but it is something that we’ve spoken to both Fox and Seven about,” Sutherland told reporters in Sydney on Friday. “We are delighted to have them as partners; they are committed to us rebuilding that trust and confidence, not just for Cricket Australia as an organisation and cricket as a sport but also through our players.” CA said in a statement on Friday that the broadcast
From left: Seven West Media CEO Tim Worner, Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland and Fox Sports CEO Patrick Delany speak to the media at the InterContinental Hotel in Sydney, Australia on Friday. (AAP/Joel)
and digital deal was worth A$1.18B over six years. It was not immediately clear how the figure was calculated. Seven said in a statement to shareholders that its share of the annual cash rights cost was A$75M. Shares in broadcaster Seven were up more than 12 percent on
Friday, while Nine’s share price was flat. GAME CHANGERS The new deal, which includes significant coverage of the Big Bash Twenty20 league, women’s cricket and digital streaming rights to Foxtel, replaces a five-year, A$590M contract struck in
2013 that gave broadcast rights to free-to-air stations Nine and Ten Network. Sporting events remain a strong lure of television audiences for under-pressure Australian broadcasters which are being squeezed by a shift to digital advertising. However, with less money to spend, broadcasters have also been put under pressure by shareholders to justify the financial benefit of obtaining television rights. Until Friday, Nine was the assumed cricket broadcaster, with the network holding the media rights for more than 40 years due to a relationship with the sport brokered by the late media mogul Kerry Packer. Packer founded World Series Cricket in the 1970s, a popular rebel competition to
cricket’s then establishment. Cricket Australia acknowledged Nine’s contribution to the sport on Friday. “Our thanks go to Channel Nine, who for more than 40 years has broadcast international cricket at a world-renowned standard – and in so doing has done more to promote our sport than any organisation in Australian cricket history,” Sutherland said in a statement. While Nine will no longer be Australia’s cricket broadcaster, it will, from 2020, televise the Australian Open tennis event under a deal announced last month. In doing so, it replaces Seven which has been Australia’s premier tennis broadcaster for more than four decades.