Sports, in brief

Point of Law won the Melbourne Cup at Flemington on Tuesday, ridden by jockey Ethan Brown. [1]

King Charles owned the three-year-old until August, when he sold him to an Australian group of owners. [1]

The Melbourne Cup is Australia's most prestigious horse race, run since 1861 and called the race that stops a nation. [2]

Maher's three horses took the top three prizes: A$4.5m, A$1.11m and A$560,000. [4][5]

Maher had 7 of the 23 horses that ran. [3] In probability terms, that gave his stable 7 separate chances to finish in the first three. [3]

Owning 7 runners did not make any one horse faster. [3] It made it likelier that some would finish in the first three. [3]

A pupil who buys seven raffle tickets is more likely to win something than one who buys one.

Brown spent six months out of the saddle after his fall. [1] Three years on, he won the Cup. [1]

They bought him from the King only in August, so the Cup's top prize came within three months of the sale. [1][5]

Some flew in from New Zealand to watch, and saw their horse withdrawn over a mistake they did not make. [3]

What Point of Law's new owners paid King Charles for him.

The sale price was not disclosed. [2]

Eight Major League Baseball players got a one-year offer of $23.15m from their clubs on Monday. [8] Free agency also opened. [6]

Free agency is when players whose contracts have ended can sign with any club. [6] 176 players are now free agents. [6]

The eight include Seiya Suzuki of the Chicago Cubs and Randy Arozarena of the Seattle Mariners. [7][10]

They have until 17 November to say yes or no. [8] Only 8 players got the offer, against 13 last year. [9]

Baseball's labour deal ends on 1 December, and the owners are expected to lock the players out. [6]

A lockout would stop all trades and signings, so clubs have about four weeks to sign and trade players. [6]

The offer is called a qualifying offer. [8] If a player says no and signs elsewhere, his old club gets a draft pick. [8]

His new club must give up a pick to sign him. [8] So he costs that club his wage and a pick. [8]

From 2012 to 2025, 157 offers were made and only 18 were accepted. [9]

Baseball's owners are expected to lock the players out when their labour deal ends on 1 December. [6]

Both are expected to draw multi-year offers from several teams, so turning down one year at $23.15m looks likely. [7]

Whether baseball's owners will lock the players out on 1 December, and for how long.

A lockout is expected but has not been announced, and the two sides are far apart on a salary cap. [6][11]

Sure Sports, a firm that arranges loans for athletes, now offers baseball players credit to live on during a lockout. [11]

Players can borrow up to $3m. [11] Interest is 9%, and nothing is due until 1 April 2028. [11]

Baseball players are paid only during the six-month season. [11] Their pay stopped when it ended on 27 September. [11]

The players' union has a $415m fund for a stoppage. [11] That is about what the Los Angeles Dodgers paid their players this year. [11]

For a player near the $780,000 minimum, months without pay already mean careful budgeting. [11]

Labour economists call it holding-out power: how long one side can last without the other's money. [11] A loan stretches that time. [11]

A family with savings can wait out a strike at work longer than one living month to month.

Players get no pay until next season, so a finance firm is now arranging credit for them to hold out, and their union has a $415m fund. [11]

With no pay until next season, a long lockout can push them to borrow against what they will earn later. [11]

Baseball named three finalists for each of its main awards on Monday. [13] The winners are announced from 9 to 12 November. [13]

The votes were cast before the play-offs began, so the finalists are simply the top three. [13]

JJ Wetherholt of the St Louis Cardinals is a finalist for the National League's rookie award. [12]

If he wins, the Cardinals get an extra pick at the end of the draft's first round. [12]

The rule, the Prospect Promotion Incentive, gives all 30 clubs a stake in the rookie award race. [12]

Economists call it an incentive: a reward that changes what people choose. [12] A club gains a pick if its rookie wins, so it has a reason to play him. [12]

A teacher who gives house points for handing work in early gets more work in early.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are hiring Caroline Perry, chief operating officer of the San Diego Padres, The Athletic reports. [14]

At the Padres she ran the ballpark, business strategy, legal and accounting departments. [14]

She replaces Bob Wolfe, 69, who retires at the end of the year. [14]

Perry has been the highest-ranking woman in Padres history. [14] This was her 16th season there; she joined as a lawyer. [14]

Wolfe was the number two to Dodgers president Stan Kasten, and followed him to the club in 2012. [14]

The move is not yet official; the sources spoke on condition they were not named. [14]

The Chicago Bears beat the Seattle Seahawks 34-17 on Monday night. [15] Seattle are the reigning Super Bowl champions. [17]

Running back D'Andre Swift scored 3 touchdowns. [15] Quarterback Caleb Williams threw for 247 yards. [15]

Jeffery Simmons, a defensive tackle new to the Bears, made a sack in his first game for them. [17]

The win was Chicago's 6th this season. [15]

Late on, a Bears play was stopped for a loss of yards. [16] But a delay-of-game foul had already been called before the snap. [16]

On the next play Kalif Raymond ran 39 yards, setting up a Bears touchdown. [16]

The game had been billed as a possible play-off preview between two of the league's best teams. [15]

American football's rules stop play at a foul before the snap. [16] So the tackle never counted, and Seattle could not refuse the penalty. [16]

A false start in a running race means the race is run again, even if someone fell.

FIFA will let its council read papers on a failed plan to sell stakes in the World Cup. [19]

FIFA runs world football; its president, Gianni Infantino, apologised for the plan. [19] It was called the FIFA Forward Enterprise. [18]

Members may read the papers only in person, at FIFA's offices in Zurich, under strict secrecy rules. [18]

They must apply by 16 November. [18] Candidates in FIFA's presidential election must declare two days later. [18]

UEFA, which runs European football, gave FIFA until 2 November to answer its questions. [19]

That deadline passed on Monday night without a reply. [18]

UEFA wants to know who decided the plan and why FIFA's council was not asked. [19] It has asked US courts for documents too. [18]

FIFA says UEFA sent too many questions to answer in two weeks. [19] It calls UEFA's actions harassment and denies wrongdoing. [18]

The papers can be read only in person and in secret, so challengers learn little before they must decide whether to stand. [18]

What FIFA's papers on the World Cup sell-off plan will actually show.

Council members may read them only in person in Zurich, and it is unclear which documents will be there. [18][19]

Billionaire Mark Walter is shopping his Cadillac Formula One team, asking at least $3bn, Sportico reports. [20]

At least 7 groups are interested, three people told Sportico. [20] Walter's company has not agreed a deal, Bloomberg reports. [21]

Cadillac joined this year, run with carmaker General Motors. [20] It is F1's first season with 11 teams since 2016, and Cadillac has no points. [20]

Its owners paid a $450m fee to join and put in at least $1bn more. [20]

The team is expected to lose about $400m this year, mostly start-up costs. [20]

Walter has agreed to sell the Los Angeles Lakers and his stake in Chelsea. [20] Two US federal investigations followed his insurers' undisclosed deals. [20]

Sportico values the average F1 team at $3.42bn, up 48% in a year. [20]

Walter's firm said last month that the team was not for sale. [20]

Who will buy the Cadillac F1 team, and how much they will pay.

Sportico says at least seven groups are interested, but Walter's company has not agreed a deal, Bloomberg reports. [20][21]

DAZN, a streaming service part-owned by a Saudi fund, has an exclusive option on the 2029 Club World Cup's rights. [22]

DAZN paid $1bn for the first 32-team Club World Cup in 2025, after many others declined to bid. [22]

That money in effect paid for the prize fund. [22] Chelsea, the winners, took about $114m. [22]

DAZN's operating losses grew to $939.8m in its latest year, from $772.9m. [22]

FIFA has still not chosen where the 2029 tournament is played, or how many teams it has. [22]

Their lobby group says $250m owed to them from the 2025 Club World Cup is still unpaid, more than a year on. [22]

What DAZN will pay for the 2029 Club World Cup, and when it must decide.

Neither the value of the option nor its deadline has been made public. [22]

Fox, the parent of Fox Sports, made $4.57bn in revenue from July to September. [23] That is 22% more than a year earlier. [23]

Advertising income rose 47% to $2.08bn, driven by the men's World Cup. [23]

The World Cup averaged 7.74 million US viewers, up 116% on 2022. [23] The final drew 42.5 million on Fox. [23]

Fox says it is looking at the rights for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups. [23]

Its big Thanksgiving game looks weaker: the Eagles are 2-6 and the Cowboys 3-5. [23]

Fox's boss, Lachlan Murdoch, still called the game a "blockbuster". [23]

There have been 8.4m applications for tickets to India against Pakistan at the 2027 Cricket World Cup. [24]

The match is on 10 October at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, which holds just 34,000 people. [24]

The final, at the same ground on 21 November, has had almost 8 million applications. [24]

South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia are hosting the tournament together. [24]

India against Pakistan is the most lucrative match in cricket. [24] India have won the last 9 meetings. [24]

Economists call this excess demand: far more people want seats than there are seats. [24] So most who applied will get nothing. [24]

When a shop has one new phone and a long queue, most of the queue goes home empty-handed.

Glenn Maxwell, 38, a star of short-form cricket, has retired from playing for Australia. [25] He quit one-day internationals in 2025. [25]

He played 130 T20 internationals, scoring 2,897 runs. [25]

His strike rate was 154.42, meaning about 154 runs for every 100 balls he faced. [25]

His best was 145 not out against Sri Lanka in 2016. [25] He has also stopped playing for his state, Victoria. [25]

He said he hopes to inspire children to play differently and be themselves. [25]

Michael Wilbon, co-host of ESPN's talk show Pardon the Interruption, is taking leave for health reasons. [26]

Wilbon, 67, said it is not retirement. [26] He said it is not about alcohol or gambling. [27]

The show with Tony Kornheiser had just turned 25 years old. [26]

Guest hosts Pablo Torre and Frank Isola will fill in this week. [26]

Wilbon said people close to him saw worrying signs for years. [26] A friend told him "the bill has come due". [26]

Wilbon also works on ESPN's NBA coverage, which will use other analysts while he is away. [26]

FanDuel, a US sports betting company owned by Flutter, will make Christian Genetski its chief executive on 1 January. [28]

He has run it for now since May, when chief executive Amy Howe was pushed out. [28]

Howe earned almost $9m in total pay for 2025. [28]

Flutter's results come out on Wednesday. [28] Genetski has been with FanDuel for nearly 12 years. [28]

FanDuel has not said what Genetski will be paid. [28]

Geno Auriemma, coach of the UConn women's basketball team, says betting could hit the women's college game. [29]

He said people may start to think: "This is just normal behavior." [29]

Several men's college players have lost their eligibility for betting on or fixing games. [29]

The NCAA, which runs US college sport, bans its athletes from betting on college or professional sport. [29]

He objects to young people using a phone to bet on each play while they watch. [29]

Economists call it a lower barrier: the easier a thing is, the more people do it. [29] Auriemma said a bet once needed a bookie who took only cash. [29]

A shop that stays open all night sells more late-night snacks than one that shuts at six.

Europe's DP World Tour is going ahead in Abu Dhabi this week, despite the war between the US and Iran. [30]

Only the top 70 players can enter, for a $9m prize fund. [30] 11 of the 70 have chosen not to play. [30]

Players were told a phone alert from the UAE government would stop play at once. [30]

The top 50 after Abu Dhabi qualify for the final event in Dubai, from 12 to 15 November. [30]

They can still play the season's final event in Dubai without making this week's trip. [30]

By not playing in Abu Dhabi, they gave up their places in the season's final event in Dubai. [30]

The US college basketball season began on Monday. [31] UCLA beat Arizona, ranked fifth in the country. [32]

Bryce James, son of LeBron James, started for Arizona in his first college game. [33] He did not score in the first half. [33]

Illinois beat Fairleigh Dickinson 120-45, with a school-record 19 three-point shots. [32]

The summer was dominated by who may play. [31] In June the NCAA gave players five years to play five seasons. [31]

It left out players who started college in 2022. [31] Hundreds sued for a fifth year. [31]

Courts in different states gave different answers, so some teams did not know their rosters until late. [31]

Lawyers call this a patchwork: each state's courts decide their own cases. [31] So one NCAA rule can mean different things in different places. [31]

The SEC, the college conference Missouri plays in, has ruled that guard CJ Gunn cannot play. [34]

Gunn was paid $524 for 3 games in a Canadian league in May. [34] He had to pay it back. [34]

This summer the SEC barred players who sign a pro contract after starting college. [34] The ruling came less than two days before Missouri's first game. [34]

It came too late for the G League draft in October, the NBA's development league. [34]

The rule does not ask how much a player was paid. [34] By its letter, $524 is enough. [34]

Why a rule can punish a mistake nobody meant to make

A rule bans a thing outright: no treatment on race day, no pro contract

Officials check only whether the thing happened

Not meaning to do it does not undo the breach

Intent and a clean record can lower the penalty

So the breach stands even when everyone agrees it was an honest error

Under strict liability, saying you did not mean it cannot undo the breach. It can only make the punishment smaller.

The stewards agreed the cream was a mistake. The horse was still withdrawn, and the fine was set with the mistake in mind.

The medicine did not boost her play, but she had not reported it, so the breach counts and only the penalty is open.

The rule asks only whether he signed a pro contract after starting college, not how much he got, so $524 he paid back still counts.

Strict rules can land hard on honest people, so most systems still let intent and a clean record lower the punishment, as the stewards did for Waller.

The stablehand, the trainer and the owners who flew in from New Zealand all paid for one wrong cream.

He loses a season of college basketball, on a Missouri team aiming for the top 25. [34]

Everton won 1-0 at Newcastle on Monday, five days after beating them 3-1 in the League Cup. [35]

Thierno Barry scored the winner. [35] Newcastle's Jacob Ramsey was sent off late on. [35]

Barry has 8 goals this season. [36] Among Premier League players, only Manchester City's Erling Haaland has more, with 13. [36]

Everton paid Villarreal £27m for Barry. [36] He had 1 shot in his first 16 games for Everton. [36]

Newcastle fans showed their anger at the end again, after two defeats in five days for manager Matthias Jaissle. [35]

Jaissle said there was a clear foul on Fabian Schar in the build-up to Barry's goal. [36]

Barry was part of 15 of Everton's 24 big chances before Monday. [36]

England's first-choice scrum-half, Alex Mitchell, will miss Sunday's match against Australia with a hamstring injury. [37]

His Northampton team-mate Archie McParland, also a scrum-half, hurt a calf in training. [38]

Bath's Ben Spencer and Bristol's Harry Randall have been called up instead. [38]