SOCCER
It’s reported that a second Republic of Ireland player has tested positive for COVID-19.
The squad were all tested after yesterday’s scoreless draw with Wales in the Nations League.
Stephen Kenny was without seven players yesterday due to COVID-related absences.
Aaron Connolly and Adam Idah have returned to the squad however, having missed the last two games.
The latest player to test positive has been tested again in the hope the original result was a ‘false positive’.
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Italy have been forced into fielding a largely under-20 squad for tomorrow’s Under-21 Euro qualifier with the Republic of Ireland.
They’d been hit with a number of positive coronavirus cases, and had Friday’s qualifier in Iceland postponed.
Ireland sit top of Group 1 ahead of tomorrow’s qualifier in Pisa.
RUGBY
Jordan Larmour will miss Ireland’s entire autumn campaign.
Leinster have confirmed the full-back will undergo a procedure this week after suffering a dislocated shoulder against Benetton.
No timeframe has been placed on his recovery.
Leinster say Ryan Baird suffered an adductor strain in that bonus point win in Treviso and will be monitored this week.
Former Ireland international Alan Quinlan told OTB Sports the break will give Larmour time to get his body right for a potential Lions call-up
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Gordon D’Arcy is to be inducted into the Rugby Players Ireland Hall of Fame.
The former Leinster and Ireland centre won three Heineken Cups with his province and was part of the 2009 Grand Slam winning Ireland side.
RACING
Jockeys Davy Russell and Jack Kennedy will be sidelined for a "number of weeks".
Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board doctor, Jennifer Pugh, has given an update on their injuries sustained at Limerick yesterday.
Russell sustained a neck injury yesterday and has a fracture of his C-6 vertebrae while Kennedy fractured his left collarbone.
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Just over a week since running in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Enable has been retired.
The six-year old won the Paris showpiece twice during a glittering career.
Enable won eleven Group 1s, all for trainer John Gosden and jockey Frankie Dettori.
Gavin Brouder certainly had a week to remember. He made a welcome return to the winners’ enclosure at Galway on Wednesday where he won the 2m2f handicap chase on Scheu Time. It was tight at the line as the 11/1 chance got up to win by a head from Dot Love’s Bridge Native for curragh trainer James Nash and owners, the Fiveohclock Syndicate. It was a first winner for Brouder since March and he missed a month through injury after taking a fall at the Galway festival at the end of July.
Brouder announced that he is well and truly back when taking Sunday’s JT McNamara Ladbrokes Munster National at Limerick, the biggest win of his career. He partnered the Gordon Elliott-trained Aforementioned to a two and a half length win over the John Kiely-trained Portmore Lough in an incident-packed race. Only nine of the 16 runners completed the course and Brouder did remarkably well to stay on the seven-year-old after being badly hampered at the first fence. The winning jockey said, “That’s definitely a career highlight and I grew up dreaming of these big days as a jockey. I had a very bad concussion from a fall at the Galway Festival and I was lucky to just get away with that. Today’s race panned out beautifully and it happened easily for him.”
Jack Kennedy continues to make up for lost time and he was among the winners at Killarney on Monday. He rode the easiest winner of the day as Felix Desjy made a successful start to his career over fences in the beginners’ chase. Gordon Elliott’s charge was sent off at odds of 1/5 favourite and was in a class of his own when beating Port Rashid by all of 31 lengths. Kennedy reported, “All he had to do was jump around really and he put in a brilliant round of jumping. He was a little bit long at the last down the back but other than that he was brilliant. He is unbelievable over a fence so he’ll be exciting going back into better races again.” It was Kennedy’s 12th winner since his return to action a month ago.
Kennedy went one better with a double, shared with Gordon Elliott, at Galway on Wednesday. He won the opening 2m3f maiden hurdle on 15/8 favourite Ragnar Lodbrok which scored a four and a quarter-length victory over the John Kiely-trained Elizabeth and then won the conditions’ chase on the stable’s Cheltenham Festival winner Milan Native. The Dingle star had to work far harder for this success and the 11/10 favourite only just held off the Paul Nolan-trained Discorama, ridden by Bryan Cooper, by a short-head.
Shark Hanlon is getting a great tune out of Balinaboola Steel and the eight-year-old was a winner again in the 3m handicap hurdle at Limerick on Sunday. Ridden by Bryan Cooper, the 15/2 shot scored by two and a quarter lengths from Ask Heather, trained by Terrence O’Brien.
There was further overseas Group 1 success for Irish-trained horses at the weekend. Joseph O'Brien was on the mark in the Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket on Friday with Pretty Gorgeous which won by half a length from the John Gosden-trained Indigo Girl to give 19-year-old Shane Crosse a first top-level success. Crosse had missed out on the winning ride on Galileo Chrome in the Doncaster St Leger last month after testing positive for Covid-19 and described Friday’s win as “huge” compensation.
The Aidan O'Brien-trained St Mark’s Basilica, ridden by Frankie Dettori, got the better of the Ryan Moore-ridden Wembley to win the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket on Saturday. A clean sweep for Irish runners was completed as the Declan McDonogh-ridden Thunder Moon took third place for trainer Joseph O'Brien. It was O’Brien’s seventh success in the race and Willie Mullins recorded his third straight win in the Cesarewitch Handicap on the same afternoon. Great White Shark, the 9/2 favourite, scored a comfortable three-length win under Jason Watson who had ridden Stratum to win last year. Low Sun was the stable’s winner in 2018. The Tom Mullins-trained Takarengo, a 50/1 chance, took third place in this year’s renewal under John Egan.
