Wales forward Morgan to leave Bristol City
Wales forward Ffion Morgan will leave Bristol City when her contract expires at the end of June.The 25-year-old, who was selected in Wales' 23-strong squad for the 2025 Women's European Championship, has been at Bristol since 2021 and has made 89 appearances for the Robins, scoring 15 goals. She won the Supporters' Player of the Year following her performances in the 2024/25 season.Morgan told the club website: "I'm sad to be leaving a club that has played a massive part in my career so far. I have made great memories, worked with wonderful staff and players, and have made friends for life."I want to say a massive thank you to the fans who have made the city of Bristol my second home for the last four years and wish you every success in the future."It's been an absolute pleasure, once again, thank you."It has not been announced which club Morgan will join for next season.
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The Guardian
33 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Royal Ascot 2025: updates, previews, full results and more from day five's races
Update: Date: 2025-06-21T10:13:14.000Z Title: - Chesham Stakes (7f)', ' Content: Good morning. And after yesterday's sojourn to Ascot in my finery (of which more later) here's the run down of today's action and after ginving you the going and non-runner details I will start publishing Greg Wood's previews of all the races. 2.30pm - Chesham Stakes (7f)3.05pm - Hardwicke Stakes (1m 4f)3.40pm - Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (6f)4.20pm - Jersey Stakes (7f)5.00pm - Wokingham Stakes (Heritage Handicap) (6f)5.35pm - Golden Gates Stakes (Handicap) (1m 2f)6.10pm - Queen Alexandra Stakes (2m 6f) Update: Date: 2025-06-21T10:07:16.000Z Title: Preamble Content: Welcome back to Ascot on the fifth bright, warm morning in a row at this year's Royal meeting, on a day when the biggest crowd of the week might just witness a moment of racing history in the afternoon's feature event, the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (3.40pm). Japan has become one of global racing's powerhouses over the last quarter of a century, winning major races on all continents and often bringing plenty of travelling fans along for the ride. Their record at Royal Ascot, however, and in fact, at Ascot full stop, is a tale of woe, with the occasional near-miss along the way. Agnes World, the first Japanese-trained runner at the meeting, finished second, beaten just over a length, in what was then the Group Two King's Stand Stakes, when he was giving weight to his 22 rivals (and in his next race, won the Group One July Cup, the summer sprinting championship). One of his stable companions finished 22nd in the same race, and since then, only one of 10 runners from Japan has even reached the first five (Shahryar, in the 2022 Prince Of Wales's Stakes). In Noriyuki Hori's Satono Reve, though, the country has one of its strongest contenders for years, and riding legend Joao Moreira has flown in to take the reins. The six-year-old has form that puts him within a length or two of Ka Ying Rising, the top-rated sprinter in global racing, and has been given plenty of time to get used to his new surroundings having arrived in Newmarket in early May. I think he could be the horse to finally break Japan's duck here, and the market seems to agree as he has been backed from 9-2 to 5-2 favourite this morning. Inisherin, last year's winner of the Commonwealth Cup here, is next in on 9-2, and in a truly international field, two French-trained runners, Lazzat and Topgear, are next in at 5-1 and 6-1 respectively. The Jersey Stakes (4.20pm), for three-year-olds over seven furlongs, and the Hardwicke Stakes, over a mile-and-a-half and a race that has often been a stepping stone to the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes here in July, are the main supporting races on today's card, along with the ever-popular Wokingham Handicap at 5pm. The going remains good-to-firm all over after further watering last night, and temperatures are expected to climb towards 30C as the afternoon goes on, which should ensure that the track is bursting at the seams by the time the royal procession makes its way down the track just before 2pm. The attendance has been up on every day of the meeting so far – it was an 8% jump on Friday – and there is every chance the course will complete a full house today, for the second year in a row. John & Thady Gosden are tied at five apiece in the race to be top trainer, Oisin Murphy is just two wins behind Ryan Moore after taking the last race here on Friday and you can follow all the action and slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as the 2025 Royal meeting draws to a close right here on the Guardian's live blog.
Daily Mail
34 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Money washes through Royal Ascot - a bottle of Whispering Angel costs £75 - but it still appeals to all... DOMINIC KING reveals the glitz and the glamour of the heaven for racegoers
In that special space reserved for the winners, another dream had just come true. A tough little filly called Cercene had just won The Coronation Stakes, one of Royal Ascot 's Championship races, and her connections were beside themselves. 'It's a lifetime's ambition to have a Group One winner,' said Joseph Murphy, a 70-year-old from Tipperary who has been training horses since 1977. 'This is 50 years of work – that's what it is. It's just a whole group of people together. This is heaven on earth.' Money could not have bought the feeling that washed over Murphy on Friday. Success at this meeting hits differently compared to any other time of year, as this is the place to be – and be seen. But money, though, is a theme that washes through the week. Racing finds itself in a tricky position at present, with a number of issues to address and problems to solve, but step into Ascot and you would wonder there are complaints about the sport. Ascot, you see, appeals to all. At one end of the spectrum, you have an influential owners such as Kia Joorabchian, the successful football agent, going head-to-head with the American financial whizz John Stewart at auction on Monday evening. The Goffs London Sale, staged in Kensington Gardens, kick starts Royal Ascot week, with high rollers from around the world coming in to buy horses that ready to run and hold entries at the meeting. Joorabchian and Stewart went head-to-head in dramatic fashion for Lot 10, a beautiful colt called Ghostwriter, with the former coming out on top. Ghostwriter will run for a first prize of £141,775 in Saturday's Hardwucke Stakes. He cost Joorabchian £2million. You don't need pockets that deep, however, to get the unbridled joy of an Ascot win. Havana Hurricane blew his rivals away in the Windsor Castle Stakes on Wednesday and had been bought for £9,000 by his trainer Eve Johnson Houghton. His bounty for winning was £62,381. This provides the best example of the spectrum that Royal Ascot takes in. It is for everyone and you can enjoy it, however much you want to pay. Of course it is possible to pay through the nose. Entry into the Queen Anne Enclosure is £110 and, on your way to it, you will walk past pop-up stalls from luxury watchmaker Longines and bespoke fashion designer LK Bennett. The outfits racegoers are wearing show that no expense has been spared, with gentlemen applying little luxurious flourishes to their Morning Suits by buying floral buttonholes from a trader on Ascot High Street. The charge is at your discretion but it was easy to see crisp £20 notes being tendered for the service. Yet it's not all bank-breaking stuff. One gentleman on X posted that his tie for the meeting, pink and purple to match his waistcoat, had cost £1.70 from a local charity shop. 'You have 300,000 people over five days; everyone from the King of England to someone who has saved all of their expendable income over the last few months,' said Ascot CEO Fliss Barnard during an interview with the Sunday Telegraph ahead of the meeting. 'There's an ecosystem of getting the product right, the pricing and how you're telling people about it.' There are soaring temperatures but punters have 16 hydrations stations Guinness costs £7.80 a pint, in line with what you would pay at Cheltenham, Aintree or Newmarket (courses that are owned by The Jockey Club); Whispering Angel, the rose wine that is enormously popular, will set you back £75 for a bottle, while a bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne is £100. All bars have been doing a roaring trade. Not that you have needed alcohol to combat the raging temperatures: there are 16 hydration stations around Ascot and free bottles of water have been given away at the end of the day to keep racegoers cool. The customer experience is key. Barnard, a 42-year-old mother-of-two who once worked with West Ham, makes the point about an ecosystem and she is right: you can bring a picnic into the centre of the course, open from Thursday to Saturday, and spend as much or as little as you want. A ticket to the Heath enclosure is £45 and when you compare that to other sporting events, it is impossible not to see the value. The quality of the sport, which is what it is all about, is relentlessly high, with superstars emerging from all angles. It costs Ascot £30million to stage the event but the return is exceptional, as between 70 and 80 per cent of their annual turnover is generated. The most recent financial figures saw Ascot turnover £110.9million, so it illustrates the importance. Another aspect to emphasise is that £200million loan that they took out in 2005 to build the stand that takes your breath away – one American visitor on Wednesday stood and looked at it from the parade ring for five minutes in awe – has been paid back. Study the figures long enough and it is enough to make you dizzy but one thing is true: the buzz it provides, the memories it creates is on another level. Murphy called 'heaven' – he wouldn't be alone in speaking that way.
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Sir Alex Ferguson quickly bounces back from Man Utd axe as alternative venture secures him more than a year's earnings
SIR ALEX FERGUSON is still earning a pretty penny, despite being ruthlessly axed from his lucrative role at Manchester United. The legendary manager was the biggest casualty of Sir Jim Ratcliffe 's ruthless cost-cutting spree last season. 3 3 3 Fergie was axed from his multi-million-pound ambassadorial role with the club, with the sacking coming into effect at the end of the season. That decision from INEOS bigwig Ratcliffe saw the Scot wave goodbye to a whopping £2.1million a year salary. But the 83-year-old won't be strapped for cash thanks to a business venture he embarked upon over FOUR DECADES ago. Fergie's personal company, ACF Sports Promotions Limited, recorded profits of £2.7m last year, taking its total assets to £26.9m. That figure is up from £24.2m the previous year, although it's not known if the £2.1m Ferguson received from United was paid into the account. ACF is the company that handles all of Fergie's commercial activities, including speaking appearances. Fergie stepped down from his role as company director in 2014, handing over the reins to his son Mark. The healthy bank balance of ACF, which was set up 42 YEARS AGO, means Fergie won't have to worry about losing his ambassador's role with United. Fergie axe comes at the right time - and he knows it By Phil Thomas IT is over a decade since he left the dugout but Sir Alex Ferguson has lost none of his sense of timing. When to sell, when to buy, when to change and ultimately when to go, Fergie has always been in a class of his own. Over the years there were countless decisions which had everyone scratching their head — but Sir Alex always knew the time was right. Some were more obvious than others. Like the night Manchester United won the Treble on the back of his substitutions. Others less so, like the summer of 1995 when terrace legends Mark Hughes, Paul Ince and Andrei Kanchelskis were sold at the peak of their powers. The whole of football thought the manager had lost his marbles. But Fergie knew better, as he chose that year to unleash his 'you win nothing with kids' Double heroes. Just as he knew best when it came to right-hand men. Brian Kidd, Steve McClaren, Archie Knox and Co — an endless list of world-class coaches who all came and went. And, of course, the biggest decision of all. Calling time on 26 years in which he had gone from the brink of the bullet to English football's greatest-ever gaffer. The majority of people are convinced Ferguson stepped down because he knew United's era of dominance was over. Maybe not the nosedive to come but certainly that an almighty rebuild was just around the corner. Another mass overhaul, yet not one he was prepared to oversee. Now another end has arrived. Not as dramatic or as out-of-nowhere, admittedly, but an end nonetheless. Next summer Fergie will leave his 12-year role as global ambassador. Many see it as the most ruthless swing of Sir Jim Ratcliffe's cost-cutting axe — and they are wrong. For while he is trying to save every penny in making United great again — how's that going, Sir Jim? — Ferguson has not suddenly and callously been told he is surplus to requirements. This decision was a two-way call. An amicable parting. Football's own conscious uncoupling, in Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow lingo. And not, incidentally, a departure which means we will no longer see Fergie at Old Trafford on a matchday. That simply will not happen. He will still be there rain, wind or shine . . . Only now as a high-profile non-executive director, rather than a man with the ear — and the sway — behind the owners' biggest decisions. Like he was when urging United to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldo in 2021. Admittedly not his finest hour, rather an indication of the influence he still retained. Back then, until just before Ratcliffe and his Ineos team arrived, in fact, Ferguson had the owners' ear. Almost a hotline to the Glazer family, you could say. And those days are done. Not that Sir Alex is bereft at the thought. For a start, some of the staff sackings have enraged the Scot — long-serving photographer John Peters and kitman Alec Wylie, for example. This is not a cosy-cosy relationship with Ratcliffe being severed. If anything, it is closer to the opposite. And as Fergie the Red, in every sense The Boss — those who played under him still call him that — knows, trousering £2million or so a year in such tight times is not a good look. Fair enough, not an amount anyone would turn down in normal circumstances. Yet when many in the steerage class are losing their livelihoods, it is not something that would have sat well with him. There is also the practical side of things as well. At the end of December, Sir Alex will be 83 years old, albeit still a freakishly fit 83 years old. Yet even though the grey matter remains oh-so-sharp and the mind clear as a bell, the bones grow creakier and even Superman had to put his feet up on occasion. That does not mean you will not see shots of Fergie alongside Ratcliffe at various points — Sir Jim loves too much the associated glamour of being pictured with the greatest. But any idea of Sir Alex having an emperor's thumbs-down power has gone for good — and quite frankly that is something which suits both sides. Fergie was given the role after bringing his legendary 26-and-a-half-year reign at Old Trafford to an end in 2013. He was paid just shy of £26m for his post-managerial gig, which Ratcliffe and Co. deemed to be an unnecessary expense. Sir Alex Ferguson spotted with unlikely TV star pal at Cheltenham again as legendary Man Utd boss bags £65k winner In an interview with the BBC in March, Ratcliffe said of the cost-cutting, which has resulted in hundreds losing their jobs: "We have got a club which was in a level of financial difficulty. "Manchester United would have run out of cash by the end of this year -- by the end of 2025 -- after having me put $300m (£232.72m) in and if we buy no new players in the summer. "If we hadn't have implemented the cost programmes and restructuring that we have done over the last 12 months. "So we have to deal with all those things, and there's only so many things you can deal with at once. "We have a new management team, we have to deal with the financial restructure, then we have to move on to the squad, data analysis, and moving forward. "But we are in the process of change and it's an uncomfortable period and disruptive and I do feel sympathy with the fans. "But I am not actually surprised where we are in the league because Ruben's only got a certain size of squad he can deal with, and quite a number of those players are injured or not available to him."
