2,602 fatalities in horse racing since Animal Aid started the Death Watch in 2007. There have been 7 so far this month alone. https://www.horsedeathwatch.com/
Mel Sykes has come on a bit since doing that Boddingtons Advert: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65314241
Just because they're bred to do it, doesn't mean it's right. Still, I suppose at least we've gone beyond breeding horses for war. The fact is, none of those horses would have died if they hadn't been forced to participate in the races, regardless of what the protestors may have done or not done.
Mercedes reorganisation sees James Allison return as technical director please log in to view this image By Andrew BensonChief F1 writer Last updated on 50 minutes ago50 minutes ago.From the section Formula 1 please log in to view this image Allison joined Mercedes in February 2017 James Allison has returned as Mercedes technical director in a major reorganisation following the team's disappointing start to the season. The 55-year-old swaps roles with Mike Elliott. Elliott assumes the position of chief technical officer, to which Allison was appointed in a 2021 reshuffle. The changes come a month after Mercedes started a season in an uncompetitive position for the second consecutive year. The team said Allison's return to lead car design came at Elliott's instigation. A Mercedes spokesperson said: "Mike has led a review of our technical organisation to ensure we have the right structure to deliver sustainable success in the future. "We are focused on building the best racing car - and building the best team to develop that car, with everybody playing to their greatest strengths in the organisation." Mercedes team principal and chief executive officer Toto Wolff endorsed the reshuffle. Unusually, the changes have not been formally announced by Mercedes. Instead, Wolff revealed them in an interview with the Motorsport Network. Wolff said: "Mike's assessment was, and the introspection is really admirable, that with James we have a gladiator on the field and the troops are going to go through the fire for him and with him." Elliott will focus on "developing the organisation going forward", Wolff added. What has led to this? Mercedes won eight consecutive constructors' championships from 2014 to 2021. Allison joined the team in February 2017, having split with Ferrari the previous summer and led the design group through the final five years of that period. In 2021, the team embarked on a transition period that led to Elliott formally taking over as technical director in July that year with Allison becoming CTO. In his new role, Allison relinquished overall control of car design and had a three-day-a-week role that focused on strategic issues such as planning for the next F1 rules to be introduced in 2026 and other projects, including the America's Cup campaign of Mercedes F1 partner and shareholder Ineos. Mercedes' period of success ended last season, when new technical rules were introduced into F1 in an attempt to make the field closer and the racing more competitive. Mercedes chose a unique car design philosophy that differed significantly from that of other leading teams and spent much of last year struggling for competitiveness and battling an aerodynamic phenomenon known as 'porpoising', or bouncing. They recovered sufficiently to win the penultimate race of the season in Brazil and decided to stick with their design approach. But Wolff admitted after the first qualifying session of this season in Bahrain - which George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished sixth and seventh fastest, 1.6 seconds off the pace - that they would have to abandon their philosophy. Wolff said: "We got it wrong last year. We thought we could fix it by sticking to this concept of car and it didn't work out so we just need to switch our focus on to what we believe can be the right direction and change approach." Hamilton, who won six world drivers' championships for Mercedes between 2014 and 2020, said after the race in Bahrain that Mercedes engineers had not followed his wishes in the design of the 2022 car. Hamilton said: "Last year, there were things I told them. I said there are issues with the car. I've driven so many cars in my life, I know what a car needs, I know what a car doesn't need. And I think it's really about accountability. It's about owning up and saying 'Yeah, you know what? We didn't listen to you, it's not where it needs to be'." An admission things were going wrong Mercedes' decline coincided with Allison's move away from direct, day-to-day, hands-on leadership of the design team responsible for the F1 car. But F1 teams are complex organisations and it would be overly simplistic to blame Mercedes' struggles solely on Allison's move away from day-to-day F1 involvement and Elliott taking over. For a start, because of the timelines involved, Allison would have been leading the design group when the fundamental decisions about the layout of the 2022 car were made, before his move. Equally, Elliott, who was head of aerodynamics before becoming technology director, was integral to the design of all Mercedes' successful cars. Nevertheless, Allison is probably the second most highly regarded technical leader in F1 after Red Bull's Adrian Newey, and his return as technical director is an effective admission that something has not been working in the past two years. Mercedes say Elliott began conversations with Allison about the way the team was working and whether staff were being deployed in the best way. The conclusion they arrived at was that Elliott would be better used focusing on medium- and long-term strategic issues and that Allison's strengths were better deployed in returning to the role of technical director and leading the design group. As part of the restructure, chief designer John Owen's role has also been revised. It was accepted he had spent too much of his time concentrating on compliance with F1's budget cap, which was introduced in 2021, and he has been refocused on car design. Giacomo Tortora, previously Owen's deputy, has been named engineering director to manage the design office organisation. Allison, who will attend the next race in Azerbaijan on 28-30 April, said that when he became CTO he believed "people have a shelf life in senior roles in this sport". He is said to be excited to be focusing on the F1 car project again.
I used to work with some one who is heavily into horse racing , she has shares in a couple of horses and she LOVES those animals as do all the people who look after them . It breaks their heart when one gets injured , but they love horse racing and they insist the Horses love it too . And yes , she puts the death of Hill 16 squarely on the shoulders of the protesters. The horses go through a set routine and the delay meant the horses were out of sorts in a big way before the off . Hill16 had run that course a couple of times before with no issues whatsoever. This time it fell at the first !
With the NFL draft on Thursday night, there's been plenty of rumours flying around that the Vikings will trade up to get a top 5 pick. They've also been known to have called San Francisco regarding Trey Lance. Whatever happens, it seems they will be moving on from Cousins by the end of the next season.
To me there are 2 ways the Vikings can go in the draft. 1 is to try and get a QB now which would involve trading up and giving up future draft capital/players to do so as they have **** all picks this year to make a good package to trade up. To trade into the top five from their current spot the projection I saw was using this years first (number 23), this years third (number 87), next years first, the year afters first and Hunter to get the number 2 pick this year. If you are going to give up so much you would want to get to number 2 so you can have your pick of players after Young goes number 1. This to me seems absolutely mental but it is the Vikings. Option 2 is to trade back and accumulate as many picks as they can in the “sweet” spot of this years draft which is apparently picks 20-75. With their first 3 picks (numbers 23, 87 and 119 I think) the value of these is roughly equivalent to picks 35, 67 and 69 if they can find teams willing to trade with them and move around a bit. Option 2 means they build the team more, but almost certainly don’t get a QB. I’d guess if they did option 2 theyd get 3 of a CB, LB , DL and WR depending on which players were available when they pick. There is also the other option of just taking whoever they think is best at 23 and going from there. One of the QBs talked about is Hooker who there seems to be a consensus will be available at 23 so they can just take him and leave themselves with loads of holes this year on the roster. Personally I’m much more in favour of option 2 and just seeing where the land lies next year with Cousins and draft picks etc to get a QB potentially next year
There's lots of people (who have inside info) predicting Vikings will draft Richardson. He's raw, still only 20 but tons of potential there. With Cousins on the books for one more season he wouldn't be thrown straight in. We'd have to trade up to no. 3 pick to get him so we'd have to give up a lot of future draft picks but I think Richardson would be worth it.
The issue I have with this is that if you are going to give up so much you have to be confident of making a Super Bowl run in the next couple of years and therefore don’t need the draft picks to build the team. The Vikings aren’t that team, and drafting a huge boom or bust player like Richardson isn’t it either. Mortgaging the future on a player who could easily not be good enough to even be a backup in the NFL seems like madness to me. Sure if he’s there at like 15 or something and they want to give up a second or something next year because they really like him then go for it, but not a **** ton that would be needed to get into the top 3. I read that there are only 2 real blue chip (basically decent/good nfl level players right now) in this draft full stop, Carter and Robinson. Every other player has concerns somewhere but there are lots of them, hence my preferred option of getting as many picks as possible in the 20-75 range and having more shots at getting a player there
I'm probably keener on Richardson than you are. His athleticism can't be questioned and he's got great arm strength. But I do get the point of mortgaging the future on one player.
Look at Lance, 49ers gave up a huge amount to move up and draft him and now are allegedly looking to trade him after 2 seasons. They don’t have a first rounder this year or next because of it. Not saying Richardson definitely will go the same way, but it really isn’t worth the risk for me, unless it is the final piece of the team to make a Super Bowl run. And then you trade for an established player rather than a rookie who nobody has any idea about when playing in the NFL. The Vikings have very little draft capital this year and a lot of holes. Giving up a huge amount for 1 player would be career suicide for Kwesi if it didn’t pay off, and the odds would be stacked against him. Trade back and fill the roster and worry about QB next year seems the most obvious to me, you obviously need teams to want to trade up and give you worthwhile picks to do so though. The other possibility for the Vikings is sending some players for picks. Cook, Z Smith and Hunter could all be traded over the next few days for picks. How much value any of them have is debatable but that is an option if they want to move around the draft
Valid point, and there are plenty of QB's who have been drafted in lower rounds who have had great success. Brady was a very low pick and he turned out OK. Purdy was the very last pick of last year's draft and he's done well. Even Mahomes was only drafted 10th overall - a good example of a trade up working out. Looking more into it, you're probably better off taking a punt on a 2nd or 3rd round pick then trading up. Young's going to be under serious pressure to deliver for Carolina given how much they gave up to get the number 1 pick. I guess it's different if you already have a top 5 pick. Chances are you need a QB anyway if you're already drafting that early. It's difficult to know outside of Young and Stroud where the other QB's will go. Which is an indicator you would be taking a big risk if you traded up for them. I've also just read next year's QB class is pretty good so it could be worth waiting a year to draft a QB. The risk with that is that he would likely become our number 1 QB straight away.
QBs are a lottery, like any position in the draft really. Hurts was a 2nd or 3rd round pick and just became the highest paid player in the sport. Finding that QB who really is top tier is very hard, hence why majority of teams don’t manage to do it. This years QB class was talked about as being the best for ages last year, now all the QBs have question marks and there isn’t a Trevor Lawrence “can’t fail” type, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it at this stage. Burrrow wasn’t even projected to be drafted a year before he went number 1 overall, and there have been lots of examples of players predicted to go early a year before they were in the draft who fell hugely due to a poor college year. This draft will be interesting and according to the insiders teams are valuing players completely differently depending on who you talk to. Levis for example is being predicted by some to go number 2 overall and others are saying some teams don’t even have him on their draft board as they don’t think he’s good enough. Should be interesting anyway, I’ll record the first round tonight and watch tomorrow afternoon so we can discuss then as I won’t come on here before I’ve watched it in case of spoilers!
Eagles fans will forever curse the day they drafted Reagor instead of Jefferson! I know WR is a notoriously hard position to get right in the draft but oh wow, if there's ever a case of what could have been, it's that.
I've got to say I really like the Addison pick by the Vikings. WR was a position of need and he will complement JJ very nicely. Poor old Levis had the nightmare of turning up for the draft and not getting picked.
Far more importantly than this odd American stuff, it’s the first sprint race in the new format for F1 this weekend. So qualifying for the main race on Sunday will actually be today, after only one practice session. Then tomorrow it’s a hectic sprint qualifying in the morning followed by the race in the afternoon. I’m looking forward to it, even if Red Bull are going to win it all.
I love this new format where they only get the one practice session. It’s really showing who the *proper* drivers are, as they’re able to make the difference.
