Medina Spirit, Essential Quality to clash in Breeders’ Cup
Medina Spirit, the controversial winner of the Kentucky Derby, and Belmont Stakes winner Essential Quality head a field of 10 horses for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, with trainer Brad Cox pre-entering two horses for the $6 million race that also includes Hot Rod Charlie.
Hot Rod Charlie finished third in the Derby and second in the Belmont. Preakness winner Rombauer hasn’t raced since finishing third in the Belmont on June 5.
The Classic field was among the 196 horses, including a record 56 from overseas, pre-entered Wednesday for the $31 million, 14-race world championships on Nov. 5-6 at Del Mar. Fans are returning to the Breeders’ Cup for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic kept them away last year at Keeneland.
Knicks Go is Cox’s other entry in the 1¼-mile Classic to be run Nov. 6 live in prime time on NBC. The Classic has implications for the Horse of the Year award.
Cox tied the record for most Breeders’ Cup wins with four last year.
Medina Spirit is overseen by Bob Baffert, the all-time leader among trainers in Breeders’ Cup earnings at nearly $36 million. He currently is embroiled in legal fights in New York and Kentucky for multiple positive drug tests involving some of his horses.
The Breeders’ Cup is allowing Baffert to enter horses (he has eight total), but he has to meet certain conditions, including stricter out-of-competition testing of his horses and greater security at his barn. He has agreed to the tightened standards.
Old Dominion to Sun Belt
Old Dominion announced it has accepted an invitation to join the Sun Belt Conference no later than July 1, 2023.
The addition of the Monarchs comes two days after the Sun Belt formally announced Southern Mississippi’s intention to join the conference.
ODU has played for seven seasons in Conference USA, which now has eight of its 14 members with plans in place to exit the league in the next few years.
The Sun Belt currently has 12 schools, 10 that play major college football. ODU will expand the conference into Virginia, and the New Orleans-based league doesn’t appear to be done adding members.
According to reports, the Sun Belt is working to add Huntington, West Virginia-based Marshall, another Conference USA school, and FCS power James Madison, located in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Australian soccer star says he’s gay
Josh Cavallo recorded the statement that he’d been too concerned to talk about publicly for a very long time.
“There’s something personal that I need to share with everyone: I’m a footballer, and I am gay,” Cavallo said in a video published by Adelaide United, his A-League club.
Cavallo, 21, said he’s the first player to come out while still playing in Australia’s top-flight men’s soccer competition. It’s a rarity across the globe in men’s sport, something Cavallo wants to change.
The video, which the club posted along with the message “Josh’s truth,” made instant headlines in Australia and his own post and the club’s version were widely shared.
Cavallo said growing up, he’d felt the need to hide himself. Not any more.
“I was ashamed I’d never be able to do what I love, and be gay,” he said. “All I want to do is play football and be treated equally. I’m tired of trying to perform at the best of your ability and to live this double life. It’s exhausting.
It’s something that I don’t want anyone to experience.”
Alcaraz beats Murray
Andy Murray saw his perfect record at the Erste Bank Open come to an end, slumping to a 6-3, 6-4 defeat to teenager Carlos Alcaraz of Spain in the second round.
The result marked the first loss for Murray in 10 matches at the Austrian indoor event, which he won on both previous visits in 2014 and 2016. The latter triumph propelled him to the year-end No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings.
Alcaraz will play Matteo Berrettini in the quarterfinals after the thirdranked Italian recovered from an opening-set loss to beat Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-3.
In first round play, seventh-seeded Jannik Sinner defeated American Reilly Opelka 6-4, 6-2, and eighthseeded Diego Schwartzman beat Fabio Fognini 6-2, 7-5.
WADA says Ukraine routinely violated rules for doping tests
Ukraine’s national anti-doping agency has been accused of giving athletes advance notice of test collections and deliberately mislabeling samples to avoid stricter analysis before the Tokyo Olympics.
The World Anti-Doping Agency said it conducted a two-year investigation that found “convincing and corroborated evidence” that the Ukrainian agency NADC routinely violated standard testing practices.
WADA said NADC broke the rules by making advanced-notice sample collections, phoning athletes to give them appointments at its offices for doping tests.
Such tests are supposed to be conducted during unannounced visits to the athletes.
“The evidence suggests that NADC would adopt this practice often before important international events and there were times when an entire discipline of the national team was present at the NADC awaiting testing,” said Gunter Younger, director of WADA’s independent Intelligence and Investigations Department.