His wife was expecting their second child when he was about to leave for England in the spring “Jane said, ‘You’re not going until you’ve seen this baby’. So I said, ‘well you better get it induced because I’ve got to go’.”Baby Isabella was induced and dad was on a plane within the hour.Although his wife may not have appreciated it too much, you feel that Derbyshire are about to benefit from Jones’s uncompromising personality. “I’m not worried about those type of performances,” he said. “I’m just worried about getting results for Derbyshire, improving what we did last year and giving the club some future, some direction, and seeing where it wants to go.”
For someone who made 11 centuries in 52 Tests for Australia, and averages over 50 in first-class cricket and 46.55 for his country, a couple of hundreds at Derby probably are fairly small beer, on reflection.Jones’s dedication to his new post started somewhat prematurely, you might say. Dean Jones had just made centuries on successive days for Derbyshire; the first helped them to a resounding 363-run victory over Middlesex in the Championship; the second was not quite enough to prevent defeat in the Sunday League He might have been reasonably pleased with his form. Rio Verde finished a highly encouraging second last time out after a lengthy spell on the sidelines.. The John Hills-trained Royal Philosopher, ridden by Olivier Peslier, joins Simon Dow’s charge Nagnagnag (Cash Asmussen), Serious (Paul Eddery) from Lady Herries’ Angmering yard and David Loder’s Verzen (Richard Hughes), to spearhead the strong challenge from this side of the Channel.
The quartet may have most to fear from the David Smaga-trained Trojan Sea, who taking a drop down in class, and Rio Verde, who hails from the powerful Andre Fabre stable.

British raiders account for half of the eight-runner field for the Listed Prix Lovelace over a mile at Evry in France this afternoon. After Hal Hoo Yaroom had made all the running under Richard Hills in the Tote Credit Maiden Stakes, Hern’s travelling head lad, Peter West, said: “The horses are just coming to themselves and Alhaarth is very well. It must be a good two years since we had a winner here, I think.”
Brett Doyle and Clive Brittain, the jockey/trainer partnership who team up with Amfortas in the Irish Derby, collected a double with Influence Pedler in the Tote Dual Forecast Handicap and Hippy in the Tote Place Only Maiden Stakes.. Hal Hoo Yaroom was a timely third winner of the year for Dick Hern yesterday. The former champion trainer has been having a poor season but his stable looks to be running into form in time for Alhaarth’s run in the Irish Derby.

Despite the fall in TV viewing figures, we were all very pleased with the upward trend in attendance in the face of what was perceived to be a very real threat to the race’s popularity, the Euro 96 clash between England and Switzerland on the same afternoon.”Opposition to Saturday has come from many quarters within the racing and betting industries, in the belief that the Derby’s already shaky stature will be further weakened by a permanent switch from Wednesday, its ‘’special” day.But when the Olympic marathon runners are being forced to compete in Atlanta’s mid-afternoon heat to suit the needs of sponsors and TV, there seems little hope that racing traditionalists will be able to preserve the unique position in the sporting calendar of the world’s greatest race.. But this year’s Derby was a much greater spectacle than the first Saturday running, and there was a better atmosphere.”Lord Wakeham was speaking as the management teams from Epsom and sponsors Vodafone, whose director Terry Barwick is a Saturday fan, were meeting to finalise arrangements for next year’s race, with a conclusion that will be announced later this week.Gillespie said: ”It was a very constructive meeting and the opinion of our sponsors is extremely valued. I wouldn’t be in too much of a hurry to change things back again.”However, the jury is still out and I think we should see what things look like in a few years’ time. I think, therefore, I would be supportive of any decision to stay with Saturday. ”He only just does enough on the track, and timing is everything. I wish I could get Scobie Breasley or Harry Wragg to ride him.”. Despite opposition from many racing professionals, the Derby seems set to continue to be run on a Saturday.