Journalism
Ed Dunlop is not much given to regret but, as he arrived for the start of Royal Ascot today, he confessed to a feeling of enormous sadness. For the first time since he came to the Royal meeting as a 17-year-old with his father John, a former champion trainer, he will not see Sir Henry Cecil.
The Newmarket trainer tells me: “I knew him since I was a boy. He was a great friend of my father and godfather to my younger brother Harry [another trainer]. He was without a shadow of a doubt the greatest trainer, along with Vincent O’Brien.”
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Insideworldfootball
Jose Mourinho has nothing in common with Richard Burton. But the Portuguese, like the great Welsh actor, is about to discover what it means to go back to your first love. And, while not even the most devoted Stamford Bridge fan will argue that Chelsea is football’s Elizabeth Taylor, the way Mourinho has expressed himself in recent weeks, leading up to return, leaves no doubt that his great love for the west London club almost matches that of Burton for Taylor.
Normally, in such situations, both parties to the remarriage make declarations of how much they have learnt from their previous mistakes. In this case there has been no such pronouncements. In the closed world that Chelsea have adopted – they are not alone, Arsenal regularly provide master classes on how to be the Kremlins of English football – we would not expect any great statements from them. But in the way Mourinho has expressed himself there are clear indications that in this, his second coming, the Special One will approach his job very differently.
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