🗞 Mankini-Gate

G’day Sports Fans,

📊 Wild stat: Michael Jordan has more Playoff games in his career scoring 50 points (8) than under 20 points (6).

It's crazy that Michael Jordan played a grand total of 179 playoff games and yet only scored under 20 points 6 times.

📧 P.S. First time reading? Subscribe here for free.

⚽️ A-League result: Melbourne Victory 2-1 Western United: Damien Da Silva wrote his name in Victory folklore with a heroic 98th minute winner.

🥇 Athletes scheduled to participate at this summer's Paris Olympics have expressed an interest in competing in the Enhanced Games, where doping is allowed, says the event's founder.

Aron D'Souza says athletes who have contacted him are keen to "make some real money" during non-Olympic years.

The Enhanced Games, would not be subject to World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) rules.

"Excellence deserves to be rewarded," said the Australian businessman.

Wada has called the Enhanced Games "a dangerous and irresponsible concept".

🇦🇺 Melbourne’s Joel Smith has seen his anti-doping case take a major twist with the player now accused of “trafficking”, as well as possessing the drug a year before his positive test.

Smith was already facing a two-year suspension after an incident following the Round 23, 2023 match against Hawthorn.

A sample collected after the match, as part of routine testing, found a small amount of cocaine in his system.

The AFL confirmed on Tuesday night further Anti-Doping Rule Violations had been made against Smith. (Fox)

🐴 Trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott will look to continue their dominance in the two-year-old ranks in Saturday's $2 million Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield.

The stable has accepted with impressive first-up winner Lady Of Camelot (Drawn 4) and Adam Hyeronimus will make the trip down to ride.

Peter and Paul Snowden have three in the race with High Octane (Drawn 8), Bodyguard (Drawn 6) and Fearless (Drawn 16) among the acceptors.

The Matt Laurie stable and newly engaged jockey Ben Melham are extremely confident with their star colt Coleman (Drawn 7) who galloped at Caulfield on Tuesday morning.

🐴 Sport Journal Horse; Station One continued his reign as the Cup King at the weekend winning the Bendigo Ford Marong Cup. It was his fourth cup win of the season, with a truly gutsy performance, and the perfect ride from Danica Munro.

Current form: 113311, clearing over $300k in prize money. I copped some flack for sharing updates when he was still finding his way (not winning) early in his season, and so didn’t push him in the newsletter, but I hope the die hards kept the faith.

We can’t recommend having a share in Station One with Liam Howley and Team at Mount Macedon highly enough.

The experience is great, with pre-race/post-race audio and video, as well as regular video updates of him around the yard complete with a rock soundtrack - and more affordable than you might think.

Station One was purchased for just $70k from the Melbourne Premier Sale in 2020, and from a sale Liam and Team will be attending again in 2 weeks' time - looking for the next generation Station One - If any readers are interested in owning even a small share in a horse with Liam, just reply to this newsletter, and I can pass your details on, no worries. *not an ad.

🐴 Rejoice. Australian rider Shane Rose has been cleared by a review after competing in a mankini.

Equestrian Australia (EA) said the three-time Olympic eventing medallist had not breached their code of conduct.

🏉 Three-time NRL premiership winner Jared Waerea-Hargreaves has announced he will leave the Sydney Roosters at the end of this season.

The 35-year-old has played 292 games for the club and 298 NRL games in total after featuring six times for Manly in 2009.

Waerea-Hargreaves had widely been expected to retire at the end of the season, but the Sydney Morning Herald reports he is in talks with Hull KR to play a final season in the Super League.

⚽️ Paris St-Germain striker Kylian Mbappe has agreed to join Real Madrid this summer.

The France captain, 25, has told PSG he intends to leave the club with his contract expiring in June.

He is set to sign a five-year deal with Real, earning 15m euros a season, plus a 150m euro signing-on bonus to be paid over five years, and he will keep a percentage of his image rights.

⚽️ MLS begins tomorrow: A total of 29 teams spread across the US and Canada will compete in MLS this season. It is the first since 2016 that the league has not added a new expansion franchise, though there will be one in 2025 when San Diego FC are welcomed into the fold.

After lighting up the league in a few games last season - Lionel Messi Miami will be joined this year by former Barcelona team-mate Luis Suarez, as well as Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba.

• Ticket sales for each of the top 10 teams have more than quadrupled since Messi’s arrival.

Suarez thinks Inter Miami should be aiming to win everything. The ex-Liverpool striker posed the question during the off-season: "Why wouldn't we dream of winning all four titles this year?"

👊🏻 Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg cornered Australian great Alexander Volkanovski ahead of the main event of UFC 298, with the vibes of a guest trying to help out at a family bbq…

⚽️ Former Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is being considered as a short-term option by Bayern Munich if they sack Thomas Tuchel.

Bayern are also considering a move for Bayer Leverkusen boss Xabi Alonso, who has been linked with Liverpool, and Former Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane.

⚾️ Shohei Ohtani hit a towering home run in his first batting practice against live pitching since he underwent reconstructive elbow surgery - another step toward him playing in the Los Angeles Dodgers' season-opening series against the San Diego Padres in Seoul.

🎾 Jannik Sinner will climb to a career-high third in the world ranking after beating Aussie Alex de Minaur in straight sets to win the Rotterdam Open.

TODAY 

01:00 - Pakistan Super League - Multan Sultans v Islamabad United [Fox Cricket]

06:30 - Premier League - Manchester City v Brentford [Optus Sport 1]

07:00 - UEFA Champions Lge R16 - PSV Eindhoven v Borussia Dortmund [Stan Sport]

07:00 - UEFA Champions Lge R16 - Inter Milan v Atletico Madrid [Stan Sport]

11:00 - Men's NCAA - North Carolina State Wolfpack v Syracuse Orange [ESPN]

11:00 - Men's NCAA - Texas A&M Aggies v Arkansas Razorbacks [ESPN 2]

13:00 - Men's NCAA - Texas Tech Red Raiders v Texas Christian University [ESPN]

13:00 - Men's NCAA - BYU Cougars v Baylor Bears [ESPN 2]

15:00 - Men's NCAA - Saint Mary's Gaels v San Francisco Dons [ESPN]

17:10 - T20 Series - New Zealand v Australia [Fox Cricket]

20:00 - Pakistan Super League - Peshawar Zalmi v Karachi Kings [Fox Sports More]

THURSDAY

01:00 - Pakistan Super League - Multan Sultans v Lahore Qalandars [Fox Cricket]

06:30 - Premier League - Liverpool v Luton Town [Optus Sport 1]

07:00 - UEFA Champions Lge R16 - Napoli v Barcelona [Stan Sport]

07:00 - UEFA Champions Lge R16 - Porto v Arsenal [Stan Sport]

11:00 - Men's NCAA - Miami Hurricanes v Duke Blue Devils [ESPN]

11:30 - NHL - Chicago Blackhawks v Philadelphia Flyers [ESPN 2]

13:00 - Men's NCAA - LSU Tigers v Kentucky Wildcats [ESPN]

14:00 - NHL - Edmonton Oilers v Boston Bruins [ESPN 2]

18:30 - Men's Asia Cup Qualifier - Australia v Korea Republic [ESPN]