Queen's horse ESTIMATE "has been stripped of second place in this year's Ascot Gold Cup." Estimate was one of eight horses to "return a positive test for morphine in July, which has since been traced to a batch of contaminated feed" (BBC, 9/25). ... La Liga side Málaga Owner ABDULLAH AL-THANI tweeted that he will be leaving the club "very soon." His comment "seems related to the municipal authorities' refusal to clear the club's urbanistic initiatives" (MUNDO DEPORTIVO, 9/25). ... Golfer JUSTIN ROSE believes the Open Championship "should no longer be staged at clubs with male-only membership policies." Rose: "I think clubs somewhat have the right to do whatever they want to do, but then that maybe limits them from what they can host and their position potentially to the world" (PA, 9/25).
ROGER FEDERER "has taken over with a Twitter shout out that sent the Indian fans wild." He asked Indian fans to "photoshop him in the places he should visit, with
the promise of retweeting the best ones to his 2.2 million followers -- and his fans obliged" (NEWS.COM.AU, 9/25).
LEYTON ORIENT MANAGER RESIGNS:
RUSSELL SLADE "has tendered his resignation as manager" of League One side Leyton Orient and now looks "likely to take over at Cardiff."
Orient refused Cardiff "permission to talk to Slade on Monday as the Welsh club search for a successor" to
OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER (
London GUARDIAN, 9/24).
LU HANDED BAN THREAT: Taiwan's LU YEN-HSUN "has been threatened with a three-year ban" by the Association of Tennis Professionals because he has "registered to play in the China Open, but has instead opted to compete in the Asian Games." Had he reached the Asian Games final, he "could have opted to drop out of the
China Open or try to have his first-round match rescheduled for
Wednesday next week, but the ATP decided to take a hard line on the
issue and issued an ultimatum" that if he did not
report for the China Open on Monday, "he would be banned from
ATP events for three years" and fined $100,000 (TAIPEI TIMES, 9/25).
