Juja Kibo has edged closer to a Melbourne Cup start following a handicapping reassessment after its commanding win in The Metropolitan last Saturday.

The Ciaron Maher-trained stayer was handed a 2kg penalty by Racing Victoria’s chief handicapper David Hegan for the $10 million event, in recognition of its dominant 1-3/4-length victory over Aethelwulf in the 2400-metre Randwick race, carrying 56.5kg.

This revised weight for the 2026 Melbourne Cup now stands at 53.5kg, positioning Juja Kibo 34th in the order of entry for the 24-horse field.

A 1kg penalty was also applied to Juja Kibo for the Caulfield Cup, accounting for the different weight scales of the major spring features.

“Juja Kibo’s Metropolitan performance was worthy of a handicap reconsideration after strongly defeating several key Cups rivals in impressive fashion and thus he advances 2kg in both races against both the weight for age scale and a number of runners from Saturday,” Hegan stated.

He elaborated, “Due to the different weight scales in the Cups, he takes a 1kg penalty in the Caulfield Cup and a 2kg penalty in the Melbourne Cup.”

“In the Caulfield Cup, he moves from a true weight of 50kg to 52kg, which is an actual weight penalty of 1kg above the minimum, and he will now carry 52kg.”

“In the Melbourne Cup he rises from 51.5kg to 53.5kg which puts him 0.5kg below The Euphrates, who conceded him 2.5kg on Saturday when finishing third.”

“Juja Kibo progresses significantly in the order of entry for both races, climbing 11 places to 30th in the Caulfield Cup and 12 places to 34th in the Melbourne Cup.”

Mr Monaco, another stayer trained by Maher, also had his Melbourne Cup weight updated, now slated to carry 52.5kg in the 3200m Group 1 race on November 3.

This adjustment signifies a 1.5kg penalty for the imported son of Territories, who is already exempt from the Melbourne Cup ballot following his strong win in The Bart Cummings (2520m) last Saturday.

“Mr Monaco was previously weighted in the Melbourne Cup at 1.5kg below fellow competitor Valiant King who ran third in the Bart Cummings, but now meets him on level terms with that 1.5kg increase,” Hegan remarked.

Mr Monaco’s Caulfield Cup weight remains unchanged at 51kg, placing him 33rd in the updated order of entry after the weekend’s racing. Check out the latest Australian betting sites for all the Cup action.

Four games, three goals, two draws, one loss and one win. Jürgen Klopp would have hoped for better results from his first international break as Germany coach. But though the comfortable win over Serbia (2-0), draws against the Netherlands (1-1) and Greece (0-0) and a shock loss to Greece (0-1) in Germany leave them third out of four in their Nations League group, Klopp saw mostly positives.

“Everyone showed what they’re made of; everyone earned their place. We’ve shown signs that we can do some things better than people gave us credit for. I wanted to get something going, and I definitely saw that happen,” he said after Sunday’s 0-0 draw in Thessaloniki.

For all the positivity of the former Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund coach, the four matches have, in reality, been a mixed bag for Germany.

It’s a long road back to the top

Having fallen in the last 32 of the 2026 World Cup and exited in the group stage in 2022, Germany’s footballing stock has never been lower.

Klopp tried to address this by casting his net wider, announcing a 44-man squad that split over the matches. He then said this would be a one off, but that his strategy of trying to find a diamond in the relative rough who could adapt to the international game had given him valuable insights.

“Hard work, lots of information — these guys are brimming with talent,” he said of those given a surprise opportunity.

“People were saying that German soccer was at rock bottom and that there was no talent. … They’re not lacking in talent.”

While Klopp may have seen potential, and has credit in the bank from his past work, he will need to turn that into results before too long.

Klopp leans on emotion and unity

While much has been said about Klopp’s success in imprinting his trademark Gegenpressing (counter press) style early on, he is also a coach who places a high value on connection. Throughout the international break, he has worn a cap emblazoned with the slogan “Einer von 83 millionen” (One of 83 million) in a reference to the German population and an attempt to unify in a country divided by the rise of the far-right AfD party.

He addressed the issue in his opening press conference and then reiterated his position after some social media users branded the team “not white enough” after their loss to Greece.

“There is no reason to give these people any thought. They aren’t getting any of my attention. I have little time for stupidity in real life and none on social media either,” Klopp said in answer to a question posed by DW.

As well as speaking honestly about his country, Klopp has been open with his new players. 

“He has a very good rapport with every player. He tries to reach out to every player and make them feel good, that they’re important and that they deserve to be here,” said Florian Wirtz, who went on to label his coach as a “master” at managing relationships.

With limited time together, forming bonds between player, coach and country can elevate a national team. It may prove to be more important than any tactical plans.

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Havertz injury highlights lack of striking depth

One of the key men in the more senior squad that started the opener against the Netherlands, Kai Havertz limped off after 29 minutes. He was replaced by Eintracht Frankfurt’s Younes Ebnoutalib while Nick Woltemade (on loan at Juventus from Newcastle) and Jonathan Burkhardt, also Frankfurt, were also tested up front over the four games.

None of the replacements scored, with Woltemade guilty of a particularly bad miss against Serbia and Burkhardt having a goal disallowed against Greece on Sunday. While all have potential and have enjoyed strong patches of form in their careers, none is tried and tested at the top level, and none is playing in the Champions League. With Havertz being somewhat injury prone, Klopp needs someone to emerge as a viable backup.

Musiala and Wirtz key but both have question marks

Injury is also, sadly, beginning to be a major feature of Jamal Musiala’s career. He picked up a thigh injury in the warmup to the Netherlands game that may keep him out for a month. He’s also missed games this season due to a neurological condition and missed the first half of last season with a broken leg which came soon after another lengthy spell out. At his best, he is probably Germany’s brightest attacking spark, but it’s been a while since that level has been seen.

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For Wirtz, the issue is slightly different. He was excellent in the win over a limited Serbia team, scoring one and creating the other. It was a reminder of a talent that has been largely dormant at Liverpool where he’s shown his creative best only in glimpses. He followed it up with a decent display against Greece but saw Burkahrdt inadvertently block his goalbound header. There were signs Klopp’s system may suit him.

“He’s really gotten us on board with his philosophy,” said Wirtz of his coach. “I enjoy it myself, too. I get to show my strengths when we have possession.” 

Klopp will need more of the same from Wirtz, who captained the side in Greece, if Germany are to move forward.

Edited by: Chuck Penfold

The Los Angeles Dodgers have some concerns as they vie for the elusive threepeat. Their loss in Game 2 of the NLDS to the Braves means the series is now tied 1-1, which in turn means the series is now in essence a best-of-three with the Braves having home field advantage. 

A very much related concern is the current status of two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani hasn’t pitched since July 3, when he was pulled from his start against the Padres because of left knee discomfort and soreness in his right biceps. Those injuries kept him out of the All-Star Game and, presumably, won’t allow him to pitch in the postseason.

The Dodgers have the rotation depth and frontline excellence to withstand the loss of Ohtani the pitcher, but what about Ohtani the hitter? His presence is invaluable in an L.A. lineup that’s aging in some spots. Ohtani’s knee inflammation landed him on the injured list in September, but he returned in time to play the final five games of the regular season. He went 5 for 21 in those games with only one extra-base hit, a double, and eight strikeouts against one walk. Taking the longer view, Ohtani in all of September batted just .200/.333/.233, and overall his OPS at the plate dropped from .953 in the first half of 2026 to .772 in the second half. He also saw a decline in underlying batted-ball authority from the first half to the second. He hasn’t homered since Aug. 18 in Coors Field. Counting the current Braves series, that’s a stretch of 20 games and 80 at-bats without a home run for Ohtani. 

Speaking of the postseason, through the first two games of the Braves series, Ohtani is 2 for 8 with no extra-base hits or walks and a pair of strikeouts. Normally, such a minuscule sample wouldn’t register, but against the much larger backdrop of Ohtani’s poor production and the parallel matter of his ongoing case of knee inflammation, it’s all a major concern for the Dodgers. 

“I think with Shohei, it’s just — I think, if you look at the at-bats, there’s a lot of chase,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after Sunday’s 3-2 loss to Atlanta. “I think that it’s like — it’s hard to square up, put good swings on balls that are out of the zone. That’s kind of what it boils down to.

“Certainly (Chris) Sale is going to be tough because there’s a lot of strike to ball, it’s high velocity. But just trying to get him back in the hitting zone.”

As for the possibility or even likelihood that Ohtani is compromised at the plate because of his knee and, to a lesser extent, his biceps, Roberts said: 

“I haven’t heard anything other than he feels fine. So I don’t know if he’s trying to do too much because he doesn’t feel perfect. This time of year, everyone doesn’t feel — no one feels perfect. He’s doing the best he can.

“Yeah, he’ll be in there Game 3, and we’ve just got to, again, take good at-bats and expect the best.”

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The Dodgers with their rotation of aces don’t easily concede any pitching match-up, but the bullpen game run to success by Braves manager Walt Weiss in Game 2 will allow Atlanta to start Sale, as dominant as ever at age 37, on full rest in Tuesday’s pivotal Game 3. Sale owns the platoon advantage against Ohtani and other lefty Dodger batters and, as Roberts notes, his stuff is top of the scale. For a hitter struggling like Ohtani has been for weeks and possibly without a healthy foundation under him at the plate, facing the likes of Sale is no way to get right. 

After almost a decade of baseball miracles upon baseball miracles, there’s no sensible path to doubting Ohtani. The Dodgers’ lineup fulcrum and leadoff hitter, though, might not be the real Ohtani thanks to those injuries. That, as much as anything else, is imperiling the Dodger dynasty right about now. 

Former India batter Hanuma Vihari has called on the team to bring experienced pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami back into the ODI setup. His comments came after India failed to defend 351 against the West Indies in the third ODI, losing by five wickets.

Vihari believes India need more reliable bowling options instead of depending heavily on Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya for wickets, especially with the 2027 ODI World Cup less than a year away.

Bhuvneshwar last played an ODI for India in 2022, with injuries affecting his career. However, the 36-year-old has remained effective in the IPL, taking 45 wickets in 30 matches across the 2025 and 2026 seasons for Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

“I think they have to bring Bhuvneshwar Kumar back. In my opinion, he is still one of the best bowlers in the country. He is proving in the IPL,” Vihari said on his YouTube channel.

Vihari feels Bhuvneshwar’s experience and control with the new ball could give India greater stability. He also believes Shami should return to strengthen the attack.

“You cannot just depend on Bumrah and Hardik. You have to have backup in case of such injuries. I will say go with experience. Get Bhuvneshwar and Shami back,” he said. “You will have some security with experience. When you need a breakthrough, you can go to them, and they will do the job for you. You need stability and experience will always count.”

‘Team is going backwards’

Vihari described India’s failure to defend a total above 350 as a major warning sign. The West Indies chased down 351 in 48.2 overs, exposing concerns about India’s bowling, particularly on flat pitches.

“We could not defend 350. Is this not a wake-up call? I think the team is going backwards. This is a big blow,” he said.

He also raised concerns over India’s backup bowlers after expensive spells from Anshul Kamboj, Gurnoor Brar and Nitish Kumar Reddy.

“The West Indies exposed the Indian bowling attack. They are not even part of the World Cup. Imagine top teams like Australia, South Africa, England,” Vihari added.

The last time online poker had a scandal like this, it nearly killed the game.

In the early 2000s, during the poker boom, players on UltimateBet were being swindled by someone with backend access to the client. A superuser, in other words: an account that could see every opponent’s hole cards in real time. He was eventually identified as Russ Hamilton, a former WSOP Main Event champion, and the figures he took from players went past $20 million. Poker was growing so rapidly that it somehow healed and kept climbing.

This week’s version has a different shape, and in one way a worse one. It’s a hammer blow to a brittle industry already teetering on the edge.

The accused is Paul Gregg, a Canadian who played mid to high stakes on GGPoker, CoinPoker and the Winning Poker Network sites including ACR. He has not responded publicly and faces no reported charges.

What investigators say happened is this: two third-party poker tools, Jurojin and IntuitiveTables, had their software updates tampered with, and both have now confirmed the compromise. The attacker swapped in Mesh Agent, a component of legitimate open-source IT software called MeshCentral, which is exactly why no antivirus flagged it. On an infected machine it gave a live view of the screen, control of the mouse and keyboard, and every hole card on it.

It’s normal for grinders to use these tools. I used Jurojin myself, for table management and extra bet sizing buttons. Around 30 high-stakes players are reported to have been hit between March 2024 and June 2026.

UltimateBet was an inside job, and the industry could tell itself that one rogue operator had been dealt with. This came through software thousands of players install voluntarily, and that nobody audits.

One of the accounts attributed to Gregg, JackKlompus, won $402,700 across 32,200 hands on WPN at a rate of 24 big blinds per 100 hands. His regular game was $25/$50, where you are playing some of the best players alive. At that level a genuinely elite winner might manage one to three. Five would be remarkable. In the biggest games he played, his rate was over 42.

Then there is a stretch of 140 hands at $0.25/$0.50, a stake he otherwise never touched, where he lost $374.70. That is roughly seven and a half full buy-ins in 140 hands. You cannot lose money that fast by accident. Players who have gone through the data say he was dumping at small stakes deliberately, to drag his overall win rate down to something that looked merely very good instead of impossible.

Here’s the part that should worry anyone who plays online. This isn’t news to everyone. CoinPoker caught him two years ago.

Their security team flagged an account playing as “Europe”, banned it, and confiscated more than $100,000, redistributing the money to the players it had beaten. Gregg complained to the gaming regulator, demanded the funds back and protested his innocence. CoinPoker built its case and prepared for a hearing. He dropped the claim. The ban stood.

That was two years ago. He kept playing everywhere else.

GGPoker and ACR had every hand he ever played sitting on their servers. Patrick Howard, who coaches as Mobius Poker, says he analyzed 32,780 hands after a friend’s unexplained losses and sent GGPoker a report setting out the patterns. He says nothing came of it.

Nacho Morón, the Spanish high roller who lost $60,000 to “Europe” in fifteen minutes and puts his total losses at up to $200,000, says the accounts were reported “more than 20 or 30 times” over two years while staying active. “I give full responsibility to the rooms,” he said. “It’s too much time.”

Then the line that lands hardest, from a man who was cleaned out by it: “The newest room at that time was CoinPoker, and the one that was supposed least prepared, and the first one to catch it.”

Poker grew its way out of UltimateBet. There was so much new money arriving that the industry could absorb a $20 million theft and keep climbing.

That money isn’t coming now. The games are smaller, the players are sharper, and the one thing still holding the whole thing together is the belief that somebody at the top is checking. For two years, nobody was.

Sunil Gavaskar was disappointed to see Rohit Sharma miss out on an ODI century in the third match against the West Indies, saying he wants the Indian opener to finish his international career with more ODI hundreds than his age.Rohit scored 92 off 85 balls, with 10 fours and three sixes, in India’s third ODI against the West Indies. India lost the third ODI after the visitors successfully chased down 352, with captain Shai Hope scoring an unbeaten 162.Rohit had come into the match after scoring a century in the second ODI. With captain Shubman Gill dismissed for one and Virat Kohli out for a golden duck, the ‘Hitman’ once again took responsibility with the bat.Rohit has scored 35 ODI centuries so far. Gavaskar said a 36th hundred in the third ODI would have taken him closer to the milestone he hopes Rohit can achieve before potentially retiring after the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027.“The reason I was disappointed with Rohit getting out on 92 is that he didn’t get a hundred, and he might possibly quit international cricket after the end of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027. And at that particular point of time, when he decides to call it a day, I personally would like Rohit to have more ODI hundreds than his age. Had he gotten a century in the third ODI, he would have moved closer to achieving that feat with his 36th hundred. For me, it’s a special thing when a player’s hundreds outnumber his age at retirement. It shows the kind of career they have had and the standard they have kept for so many years. That is why I really want Rohit to reach that mark. In my last year of international cricket, I wanted to get as many Test centuries as my age, and I got out in the 90s thrice. If I’d got those hundreds, then my centuries would have matched the age of my retirement, which was 38,” Gavaskar said on JioStar, as quoted by news agency ANI.Gavaskar also pointed out that Rohit’s batting approach has changed since the 2023 ODI World Cup. While Rohit continues to score quickly, he now appears to place more importance on staying at the crease and turning his starts into big scores.According to Gavaskar, that approach can help Rohit score centuries at a good rate while also benefiting India and reducing criticism over slow batting.“A slight change has appeared in the batting template of Rohit that he himself set as the captain for the 2023 ODI World Cup, where he was going bang-bang from the first ball, irrespective of the possibility of getting out sooner. Now he recognises that his wicket is valuable. In that 2023 World Cup, he got the team off to great starts, but he’s not a batsman who will score just 30-40 runs. He’s a hundred-maker! And therefore, I’m happy to see him score big runs. Yes, I know he missed out on a well-deserved ton in this match, but he got a hundred in the previous game. So, the fact that he’s recognising that his job as a batter is also to get a hundred, and if he scores big, he gets a hundred in 70-80 deliveries, which is helpful for the team because that is a great scoring rate in a 50-over game and it also keeps him away from the social media critics of slow batting,” Gavaskar said.He finished the three-match ODI series against England with 175 runs at an average of 58.33 and a strike rate of 98.31. He then carried that form into the ODI series against the West Indies, scoring 225 runs in three matches.