Finance fears overshadow racing as BHA’s chief executive search goes on

Brant Dunshea, the British Horseracing Authority’s chief regulatory officer, will take over as the Authority’s “acting” chief executive from 1 January as the search for a permanent replacement for Julie Harrington, the CEO since January 2021, continues, the sport’s governing body said on Tuesday.Dunshea has been closely associated with many of the sport’s key issues and initiatives since joining the authority in March 2015, including a wide-ranging review of Cheltenham’s Festival meeting in 2018, when six horses suffered fatal injuries, and regular attempts to tighten the rules around the use of the whip.The BHA said as it announced Dunshea’s new role on Tuesday that the search for Harrington’s permanent successor has been delayed to allow the recently appointed new chair of the Authority, Lord Allen of Kensington, who will take over from Joe Saumarez Smith in May, to play a role in the recruitment process.That makes sense, but at the same time, the hunt for a new CEO is already six months old and the list of both immediate and longer-term concerns that the incoming chief executive will need to address is, if anything, even more unsettling than it was back in June.Bookies pay a percentage of their profits on racing bets back to the sport via a mechanism known as the Levy, and the possibility of a reform to that system, to deliver a much-needed boost to one of the sport’s main income streams, seems as distant as ever, at the same time as the latest official industry statistics from the Gambling Commission, published last week, show a continuing and worrying decline in betting turnover on the sport

Neale Fraser obituary

Although the Australian tennis player Neale Fraser, who has died aged 91, won three grand slam singles titles including Wimbledon in 1960, it is as one of the most successful Davis Cup captains that he will be remembered. The tournament gave Fraser the chance to represent his country, both as player and captain, and he wore the badge with great pride.In 1970, when Fraser was appointed Davis Cup captain, the role was seen as one of the most daunting in Australian sport. How could he live up to the exploits and reputation of his predecessor, Harry Hopman? Under Hopman’s leadership, Australia had produced a line of champions that people have never seen before or since.Starting with Frank Sedgman and continuing through Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Ashley Cooper, Mervyn Rose, Mal Anderson, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Fred Stolle, John Newcombe, Tony Roche and Fraser himself (a team member from 1958 to 1963), Hopman had guided this group of athletes as they helped Australia win the Davis Cup 16 times, with five additional appearances as losing finalists

Woods says US Ryder Cup team should be paid if funds are donated to charity

Tiger Woods believes American players should all be paid millions to play in the Ryder Cup, providing those funds are donated to charity.The PGA of America is close to agreeing a landmark scenario in which the US Ryder Cup team will be paid about $400,000 each to take on Europe in September. The move is a break from tradition and highly controversial, especially since tickets for Bethpage will cost $750 each. Europe’s Ryder Cup contingent continues to maintain they should not take a cut of event revenue.Woods, speaking in public for the first time since the Open in July, has no gripe with the plan; but on one condition

‘Effervescent’ Brydon Carse’s England ascent is no surprise to former coach

Brydon Carse’s 10-wicket haul at Christchurch, in his third Test, came as no surprise to John Windows, who has known him since he first rocked up to the Durham Academy as a teenager, all emu legs and broad smile. “He played as an overseas player in the league in Burnmoor just around the corner from Chester le Street,” Windows says.“He played for them for a year, and it was straightforward after that, he joined the academy. Everyone was talking about him, as a super lad and a fast bowler.”“He was just like he is now, effervescent and full of fun

He’s 16 and hyped as Usain Bolt’s successor – but Australia’s Gout Gout is keeping his feet on the ground

The schoolboy’s rapid rise has drawn inevitable comparisons with the Jamaican, but the sprint great’s heir apparent is taking it all in his strideIt’s tricky being the next big thing. There’s all the excitement and promise, but also a truckload of expectation. This is the minefield 16-year-old Australian sprinter Gout Gout and his coach Di Sheppard have been negotiating this year – ever since viral video emerged of the young Queenslander destroying a field of schoolboy sprinters with a long-limbed stride eerily reminiscent of Usain Bolt.The Bolt comparisons have come thick and fast, but Gout, the third of seven children born to South Sudanese immigrants Monica and Bona Gout, has tried to take it in stride. He agrees it’s “pretty cool’’ just to be put in the same sentence as the greatest sprinter in history, but makes it plain this is not what he’s here for

Neil Wagner: ‘That Test, just one run in it, will stay with me for ever’

The Basin Reserve was built on land thrown up by an earthquake in 1855 and England’s return to the ground this week brings memories of last year’s seismic Test match flooding back. It was the rarest of margins, with New Zealand the second team in history to win by a single run, and for Neil Wagner, front and centre during its breathtaking climax, the goosebumps are yet to subside.“It was just a sense of massive relief and jubilation at the end,” says Wagner, who with England nine wickets down and needing two to win, had Jimmy Anderson snared down the leg side. “Winning the World Test Championship [in 2021] was the pinnacle but that Test match, just one run in it, will also stay with me for ever.“I’ll never forget the aftermath, too, the two teams out in the middle together until it was pitch black, playing ‘pig’ with a soccer ball and sharing a few cold beers