Alphonse Le Grande has been reinstated as the winner of last month’s Cesarewitch Handicap after an independent disciplinary panel appeal hearing overturned a verdict of excessive whip use.

The horse, ridden by apprentice jockey Jamie Powell, had crossed the line first at Newmarket on 12 October but was disqualified by a British Horseracing Authority committee because Powell was deemed to have used his whip too many times.

BHA rules brought in last year reduced the threshold for whip use by one to seven in jumps races and six in flat races, with 10 triggering a disqualification.

Powell was referred to the BHA’s whip review committee who awarded original runner-up Manxman the race and suspended Powell for 28 days for using his whip on 10 occasions.

However, connections of the horse contested the decision, taking it to the BHA’s independent appeals board. The independent panel found an attempted 10th use of the whip made inadvertent contact with the horse and did not constitute a strike.

It means Alphonse Le Grande is restored as race winner while Powell has been given a 20-day suspension.

“We think the BHA has not satisfied us that there was contact as Mr Powell’s arm came back and the whip went across the back of the horse,” said panel chair Sarah Crowther.

“We find that his body position [when attempting the tenth use] was different to the first nine strikes. It seems to us that he was somewhat crouched and off balance to his left and very low in the saddle.

“Whilst his arm and hand were in the same angle as for the previous strikes, the change in body position had the effect of changing the angle of the strike.

“As Mr Powell retrieved his whip from that strike, pulling it back towards his right-hand side, there was contact. The question for us was whether that constituted use of the whip.

“Adopting a pragmatic interpretation of the word ‘use’, we find it is not every single contact between a whip and a horse that will amount to use. This was effectively an unavoidable contact, which could not have had any material impact on the performance of the horse. In all the circumstances, that contact did not constitute a use.

“Therefore, there were nine uses, three above the permitted level. The horse will be reinstated and the suspension [for Powell] will be 20 days.”

There have been two disqualifications from 16,000 races since the rules were changed.

Last November, Alex Edwards became the first winner to be disqualified in nearly 8,000 races since the rules were introduced, while Poppy Wynne lost her victory on Swift Tuttle in July.

Mike Tyson may be 58 years old but he looks absolutely shredded just a day away from his fight against Jake Paul in a special boxing event airing live on Netflix.

During the official weigh-ins Thursday, Tyson hit the scale looking like he really put in a hard training camp to get ready for his first professional fight in nearly 20 years. There’s no word on how much Tyson weighed because the weigh-ins were closed to the public and the media with Paul’s company Most Valuable Promotions responsible for releasing the info, per the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

See weigh-in photos of the headliners below.

In the days leading up to the fight, Tyson has stayed rather stoic while insisting that he’s just interested in getting back in the ring rather than going through any further promotional bluster. Now he sits just over 24 hours away from throwing down with Paul in a special eight-round fight.

Meanwhile, Paul also looked like he was in great shape as he moves up to the heavyweight division for the chance to face a legend in Tyson.

Paul often joked during his training camp about the amount of weight he was packing on for the fight against Tyson.

Now with the official weigh-ins completed, Paul and Tyson face off one last time at the ceremonial weigh-ins, which are scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday.

Worlds collided when Trackhouse Racing teammates Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch met up with RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson in Texas earlier this year. All four Red Bull athletes got together to see what would happen when you put an F1 driver in a stock car on a dirt oval no less.

Van Gisbergen is a three-time Supercars champion who became a full-time NASCAR driver after his stunning Cup win debut in the 2023 Chicago Street Course race. Zilisch is no slouch either as one of the biggest rising stars in the world of stock car racing, this year winning his Xfinity debut race at just 18 years old and snagging a class win in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. 

Both were there to coach the F1 pilots as they learned their way around the track. Tsunoda, who is currently competing in his fourth full-time season as an F1 driver, was paired with Zilisch. To the surprise of none, SVG selected his fellow Kiwi (Lawson).

Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

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With a handy ‘Dirt 101’ whiteboard, the NASCAR stars informed Tsunoda and Lawson of what awaited them in the challenges ahead. They explained the cars and how they operate, but perhaps it would have been simpler to invoke the immortal words of Doc Hudson: “Turn right to go left.”

With help from their NASCAR coaches, the two drivers started their test with ‘finding the line’ — keeping the car within two bollards while ripping around the track. Tsunoda nailed it on his first try, but it didn’t go as smoothly for Lawson. SVG noted he wanted Lawson “up on the fence,” but Lawson perhaps took that too literally, clobbering one of the outer bollards that lined the wall. However, he had a bit of redemption in the ‘cornering speed’ test that followed as Tsunoda lost the tail and spun out. Yes, swear words did come across the radio, but would we have expected anything else? 

Now on equal ground, it’s on to qualifying where Tsunoda re-asserted himself with a lap time a few tenths faster than Lawson. It gave Tsunoda the preferred line for the start with the two NASCAR drivers spotting them from above. Zilisch carefully explained where the acceleration zone was but the fiery Japanese driver wasn’t very interested. “I’m going whenever I want so tell Liam that,” he radioed.

Liam Lawson

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

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Meanwhile, SVG had some very NASCAR-esque advice for his countryman. “You’re also on the inside for Turn 1 so don’t be afraid to feed him a right rear.” 

Tsunoda took early control but Lawson was fighting hard to stay with him over the course of the five-lap sprint race. He did feed him that right rear about halfway through the race, but Tsunoda seemed unfazed and carried on. In a slide job that would make dirt racing ace (and 2021 NASCAR Cup champion) Kyle Larson proud, Lawson absolutely sent it in on Tsunoda to finally take the lead. Although he completely cleared him, Tsunoda was clever enough to cross back under him and snag the victory.

In fact, Tsunoda’s only hiccup was holding the trophy backwards during the post-race celebrations, but a pressing question remains: When do we get to see them face off against their NASCAR counterparts?

You can watch and enjoy the shenanigans in the Red Bull Motorsports video below.

Good evening from Athens

Welcome to SunSport’s live blog coverage of the Nations League crunch clash between Greece and England at Athens’ Olympic Stadium – also known as OAKA.

This is the Three Lions’ penultimate match under interim boss Lee Carsley and their first since Thomas Tuchel was announced as Gareth Southgate’s permanent successor at the helm.

And the national team will be looking for some revenge after losing 2-1 to Greece at Wembley last month in a high-stakes match as victory is a must.

However, Carsley will be without nine key players who dropped out of the squad ahead of the final two Nations League matches against Greece and the Republic of Ireland – emanating on Sunday at Wembley.

Aaron Ramsdale, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Levi Colwill, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer, Jack Grealish, Phil Foden and Jarrad Branthwaite are all unavailable due to fitness issues.

That led Carsley to giving Morgan Rogers his first ever senior call-up, while also adding Jarrod Bowen, Tino Livramento, James Trafford and Jarell Quansah to the party.

John Stones, Harry Maguire, Kobbie Mainoo, Luke Shaw and Eberechi Eze were already omitted from the squad due to injury.

Greece manager Ivan Jovanovic, on the other hand, is without the suspended Dimitris Kourbelis and the injured Tasos Chatzigiovannis.

However, Jovanovic has star striker Fotis Ioannidis back at his disposal after returning from injury and called up Olympiacos wonderkid Christos Mouzakitis, 17, who could become the youngest ever scorer in Greece’s history if he plays and hits the net.

Boxing legend Mike Tyson is looking in great shape for his boxing fight against Jake Paul.

At 58, Tyson stepped on the scale Thursday morning in Irving, Texas, to record his official weight for his boxing bout against Paul, which takes place Friday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The fight streams live on Netflix.

Check out this photo of Tyson on the scale Thursday morning in Texas:

Mike doesn’t look 58 years old pic.twitter.com/H2DWnBUnzp

— Uncrowned (@uncrownedcombat) November 14, 2024

The fight between Tyson and Paul serves as the main event of the first live sporting event to stream on Netflix.

The contest is scheduled for eight, 2-minute rounds, which is a minute shorter than a typical men’s professional boxing bout. There are other rules in place that differ from the norm.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Paul vs. Tyson.

Equatorial Guinea and Ivory Coast both qualified for next year’s tournament on Wednesday despite not playing – and that theme continued on Thursday.

Central African Republic had to win away against Lesotho in order to put pressure on Gabon in Group B, but a 1-0 defeat in Bloemfontein means CAR’s wait for their Nations Cup debut will continue for at least another two years.

Congo-Brazzaville also needed three points from their trip to South Sudan in Group K, but finished with 10 men as they lost 3-2 in Juba.

That result handed qualification to group leaders Uganda, who will be back at the finals for the first time since 2019, and South Africa.

Ali Abdi was the hero for Tunisia against Madagascar in Group A, netting just four minutes after Wajdi Kechrida was sent off.

The Malagasy had twice fought back from a goal down, and were eliminated after being denied a point in the closing stages.

Elsewhere Libya kept their faint chances alive in Group D as Fahd Saad Mohamed struck a late winner against Rwanda in Malawi.

There are 10 matches scheduled on Friday, when Botswana, Comoros, Mali, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe all have a chance to qualify.