races

GEMMA Collins has won £20k at the Cheltenham races and made £5k off of just one bet.

The reality star, 45, was left overjoyed today when she raked in the cash and took home the huge amount of money.

A source told The Sun: “Gemma was over the moon and kept showing her wads of cash to James Nesbitt in the Paddy Power box. She made £20k the whole day – and £5k off one £500 bet.”

In an exclusive video obtained by The Sun, Gemma was seen shouting: “I’m f***ing loaded!,” as she revelled in her glory, before adding: “I’m coming home with 20 large ones.”

She took to Instagram to give fans a peek into her winnings as she showcased just one of her successful betting slips.

On the slip, it revealed that the former TOWIE star had won £5k from a £500 bet.

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The television icon wrote over it: “I won @paddypowerofficial. Best day ever!,” alongside horse and four leaf clover emojis.

Gemma certainly looked the part at the Cheltenham Festival as she stunned while standing on a balcony with pals.

She kept warm in an eye-catching blue and purple checked coat with brown fur sleeves and a belt which perfectly synched in her waist.

She accessorised with a white and red headscarf and a pair of blacked out sunglasses.

Her winning moment was captured as she enjoyed a glass of bubbly and was hugged by friends surrounding her.

One of those people was Danny Dyer, who was seen throwing up a fist in celebration for the Celebrity Big Brother star.

In true Gemma fashion, she was spotted looking very animated as she celebrated her exciting victory.

Her big win comes after she was announced as part of the line-up for the second series of I’m A Celebrity… South Africa.

The show was filmed last year and will see familiar faces return for a second stint on the hit ITV series.

After it was announced earlier this week, Gemma revealed she nearly pulled out of it but was put in her place by her make-up artist.

Speaking at the press launch, Gemma said: “It didn’t work out for me the first time around in there and ever since it’s been like this black cloud hanging over my head.

“Obviously I’m older now and I just thought, I have to do this. It was one regret that I had that I left.

“I was absolutely bricking it. I was petrified. My makeup artist slapped me at Heathrow Airport because I actually said I don’t think I can actually go through with this.

“But do you know what? I took a deep breath. I went in strong. And to be honest, I think I shut it down.

“It’s not the GC in there. It’s Gemma Collins as you’ve never seen her before. You’ll see me vulnerable in there.

“I was so stripped bare going in there. And because I knew it was so disastrous the time before, I had no chance to back out of any of it.”

“The one thing that troubled me was the copious amounts of washing up,” said Gemma.

“I was on camp duty with Adam and obviously, it was a massive camp, and I’m not going to lie, I’ve got two dishwashers at home.”

ITV viewers will remember Gemma’s meltdown back in 2014 and refusal to get into a helicopter to get into camp on day one.

She was then forced to make her own way to camp, but things went from bad to worse.

After struggling with camp life and the food rations, she sensationally quit the series on day two.

Two years after Huntington Beach residents voted to effectively ban Pride flags from being displayed on city property, the conservative coastal city could be represented by a gay member of Congress and outspoken critic of President Trump — Rep. Robert Garcia.

That twist of fate came after last year’s unprecedented mid-decade rejiggering of California’s congressional districts.

Voters in November overwhelmingly approved Proposition 50 — Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to neutralize Republican gerrymandering in Texas — to help Democrats win control of the House this November and put a meaningful check on the Trump administration.

The political tremors triggered by the ballot measure already have reshaped California’s political landscape.

Veteran Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of northern San Diego County, an incessant thorn in the backside of President Obama, has called it quits. Northern California Rep. Kevin Kiley has shed his GOP label to run as a political independent. And two Republican congressional incumbents find themselves in a political death match in a newly crafted district straddling Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The new 42nd District remains anchored in Garcia’s home base of Long Beach. But under the new lines, it has swapped out Southeast L.A. communities such as Downey and Bell Gardens for the more MAGA-friendly cities of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.

“I say that every time a district crosses the L.A.-Orange County border, a Democrat gets its wings,” said Paul Mitchell, the redistricting expert who drew the new lines for Democrats. “Drawing the Long Beach district to go down to Huntington Beach meant that you’re giving Robert Garcia a community that, in its elected City Council, has been real anathema to who he is as a person, being an out gay member of Congress.”

The change means Garcia’s district shifts rightward with a lot more Republican voters, but still has a Democratic majority. Former Vice President Kamala Harris would have still won the new district in the 2024 presidential race by 13 points, making Democrats confident that it’s still one where Garcia could win.

As the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Garcia is poised to win more power in pushing back against the Trump administration if historical precedent holds and Democrats win back the House majority in November.

Garcia was unavailable for an interview, but many of the new voters he will have to court are represented by Rep. Dave Min (D-Irvine), who won the closely divided Orange County seat in 2024 and now faces a slightly bluer voting base in his newly configured district.

“I have a lot of voters to introduce myself to,” said Min, who described himself as “progressive for Orange County” because he cares about protecting civil rights but often aligns with law enforcement and small-business interests.

“The message [to new voters] is that you may not always agree with me, but that I will try my best to do what I say. I will fight to deliver on the promises I make, I will fight for the values that I represent myself as caring about. And I listen to my constituents,” he said, noting that he recently held his seventh town hall since he was elected.

In a neighboring Orange County district, Republican Reps. Young Kim and Ken Calvert are going to battle for control of the region’s only safe Republican seat post-Proposition 50. That district also crosses county lines — into Corona, Chino Hills and other parts of western Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Republicans may be dismayed to see the two popular party leaders battling it out in what promises to be a brutal and expensive election.

Republican “primary voters are looking for how to distinguish between two of the same flavor,” said Rob Stutzman, a Republican political strategist. “Republican voters are going to like both of them, so how do you make that judgment?

“Often, it comes down to who their friends are,” he said, noting that endorsements from interest groups and other elected officials are usually more valuable in primaries than general elections.

A handful of Democratic candidates have also declared for the seat, which campaign strategists said could split the liberal vote and allow both Calvert and Kim to advance to the general election ballot.

Issa bids farewell, Kiley drops GOP label

Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall) listens to testimony from witnesses during a House Oversight Committee hearing entitled “Reviews of the Benghazi Attack and Unanswered Questions,” in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in 2013 in Washington.

(Drew Angerer / Getty Images)

Issa’s decision to forgo a run for reelection came as a surprise Friday, even though speculation has swirled about his future after the newly drawn congressional districts put him in a seat where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans. That was a major downgrade from his current district, which swallows up right-leaning eastern San Diego County and the conservative pockets of Temecula and Murrieta.

“This decision has been on my mind for a while and I didn’t make it lightly,” Issa said in a statement. “But after a quarter-century in Congress — and before that, a quarter-century in business — it’s the right time for a new chapter and new challenges.”

Democrats celebrated the departure of Issa, who helped fund the successful 2003 recall of California Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, and led the congressional investigation of the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi during the Obama administration.

“After over two decades of disastrous representation, Darrell Issa is once again running for the exits — and good riddance,” said Anna Elsasser, spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Several Democrats had already announced plans to challenge Issa, including San Diego City Councilmember Marni Lynn von Wilpert.

Proposition 50 also split the sprawling district held by Kiley, a Republican from Rocklin, into six pieces, leaving the Northern California congressman and frequent Newsom critic with few good options.

Over the following months Kiley posted on social media to announce — like the dating show “The Bachelor” — where he would not run until it came down to two districts: a safe Republican seat that would force Kiley into a primary with longtime Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Elk Grove) or a district with a 9-point Democratic registration advantage.

Kiley chose to avoid challenging McClintock and delivered his final rose to the new 6th District along with a twist: On Friday the congressman announced he would run as an independent candidate rather than a Republican.

Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin) in his office in Washington in 2025.

(Richard Pierrin / For The Times)

In a lengthy social media post and accompanying video, Kiley said he has become “frustrated, sometimes disgusted, by the hyper-partisanship in Congress” and that he answers to constituents, “not party leaders.”

But without a political party behind him, Kiley’s campaign is “entirely his burden,” said Republican strategist Matt Rexroad. “He’s not going to get the party endorsement. He’s really on his own.”

Without a letter denoting a political party next to their name on the ballot, independent candidates have historically gotten lost in the mix.

One other candidate, a Christian author named Michael Stansfield, confirmed Friday that he filed to run for the seat as a Republican, giving Kiley automatic competition for conservative votes.

Several Democrats have already announced campaigns for the seat — which lumps conservative suburbs of Sacramento with liberal-leaning ones closer to the capital city — including former state Sen. Richard Pan, Sacramento Dist. Atty. Thien Ho, West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero and Lauren Babb, a public affairs leader for Planned Parenthood clinics in California and Nevada.

The race could revive a pandemic-era rivalry between Kiley and Pan, who tussled over vaccine and public health rules while serving in the state Legislature.

New districts, new challengers

For some longtime Democrats such as Rep. Brad Sherman, the addition of new GOP voters could help them fend off challenges from younger progressive candidates.

Half a dozen Democrats, mostly younger progressives, have filed paperwork to challenge Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), 71, who has represented parts of the San Fernando Valley for nearly 30 years.

The 32nd District remains solidly blue post-Proposition 50, but a nearly seven-point swing to the right “makes it less likely that two Democrats go to the general, which makes it less likely that [Sherman] would get beaten,” said Mitchell.

It’s a similar story for Reps. Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento), Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) and John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove), who are all in their 70s and 80s and facing younger, more progressive challengers.

While gaining more conservative voters may help some incumbents avoid facing another Democrat in November, the threat of such a faceoff is pushing them to be more active on the campaign trail, Rexroad said.

“You’re seeing more activity by Doris Matsui and Mike Thompson and John Garamendi as a result of them being challenged, because they like their seats and they’d like to hold on to them,” Rexroad said.

Times staff writer Seema Mehta contributed to this report.

The Kentucky Derby will be run in eight weeks, which allows plenty of time for considerable changes in the field.

And yet, there’s really not much time at all. Each Derby candidate has only one or two chances remaining to earn one of the 20 stalls in the oversized starting gate at Churchill Downs.

That means every prep race, including Saturday’s San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita, takes on added importance as horses run into or out of contention. Others will disappear from the trail because of illness or injury.

For now, the favorites are horses coming off victories in races in Louisiana, Florida and Arkansas — Paladin, Commandment, Nearly, Renegade and Class President.

But anyone who thinks they know what will happen between now and May 2 probably also believes they can find a hotel room on Derby weekend near Churchill Downs for less than $400.

No one understands that better than the trainer who has won the race a record-tying six times.

You don’t take horses to the Derby, Bob Baffert said this week. “They take you to the Derby.”

Recent events served as another reminder. Barely more than a week ago, Baffert likely would have listed his top Derby candidates as Plutarch, Litmus Test and Brant.

Then, on Feb. 25, Baffert revealed Plutarch had a minor setback after his win last month in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita and would not make the Kentucky Derby.

Three days later, Litmus Test faded to third place in his first start of the year, the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas.

In between those disappointments, though, there was surprisingly good news for Baffert. Cherokee Nation, winless in five career starts, ran the fastest mile (1:34.50) in nearly a decade at Santa Anita. It was only a maiden race, but Cherokee Nation won by 10 lengths and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 100. Only one 3-year-old, Fountain of Youth winner Commandment, has a higher figure this year in a race longer than a mile, and that was by one point.

“What he did … was pretty impressive to me,” Baffert said of the son of Not This Time who sold for $1.15 million as a yearling. “His stock went way up.”

Suddenly, Cherokee Nation could be Baffert’s top prospect, though he’ll have to prove it next month in the Santa Anita Derby, in which he’ll need to finish first or second to have enough points to qualify for the Kentucky Derby.

Brant, right, ridden by Flavien Pratt, finished third behind Ted Noffey and John Velazquez, center, and Mr. A.P. and Antonio Fresu, left, in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar in October.

(Gregory Bull / Associated Press)

Or maybe it’s Brant.

The son of Gun Runner who cost $3 million at a sale last March recorded a 101 Beyer figure in a flashy 5½-furlong debut last summer, and followed that win with another in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity. But he was third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and hasn’t raced since.

That changes Saturday with Brant making his 3-year-old debut in the Grade 2 San Felipe, one of four graded stakes on an 11-race card at Santa Anita. He is the even-money favorite on the morning line for the 1-1/16-mile race, which will award 50 Derby points to the winner, guaranteeing a spot in the starting gate.

“He looks good,” Baffert said. “The freshening did him well. He grew a little bit. He’s not a real big horse but he’s starting to grow right now. … It’s a tough race. There’s some nice horses in there. It’s a pretty salty prep race, but they usually are.”

Baffert has another San Felipe starter in Potente, an Into Mischief colt who cost $2.4 million as a yearling. He’s run only once, winning a sprint five weeks ago, and while Baffert would have preferred to run him in a two-turn allowance race, there aren’t any available for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita.

As he saw with Cherokee Nation, though, no one knows who will prove worthy or when.

The 2-1 second choice is So Happy, a winner of two sprint races who was sired by a sprinter (Runhappy) but is getting a chance to see if he can run farther than maybe his breeding would suggest. He is an obvious sentimental favorite; he is trained by Mark Glatt, whose wife of 25 years, Dena, died Feb. 12 from cardiac arrest. She was 57.

Not-so-Big ’Cap

With heavily favored Skippylongstocking and San Pasqual Stakes winner Westwood scratched, the $300,000 Santa Anita Handicap on Saturday is down to five starters, none of whom has won a Grade 1 or Grade 2 race. In fact, new morning-line favorite Just a Touch never has won any stakes race, though he’s been second or third six times in seven tries (he was last in the 2024 Kentucky Derby).

The only graded-stakes winners in the field are Baffert’s Getaway Car, who won a Grade 3 sprint as a 2-year-old, and Midnight Mammoth, who won a Grade 3 marathon race two years ago but lost his last two stakes tries by a combined 56¾ lengths.

The other two starters are Vodka Vodka, whose lone stakes win came in a turf race restricted to California-bred horses, and British Isles, who has never won a stakes race. The latter’s trainer, Richard Baltas, won this race with Idol in 2021. Baffert has won it six times.

The first of the four stakes races is the $300,000 B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile, with Splendora the 4-5 favorite for Baffert after winning four straight races, including the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint last fall at Del Mar and the D. Wayne Lukas Stakes last month at Santa Anita.

El Potente is the 5-2 favorite in the wide-open, $200,000 Frank E. Kilroe Mile, which this year was downgraded to a Grade 2.