What to Watch: How About Cherry-Pit Spitting or Australian Rules Football?
Feel free to read that sentence again.
That leaves TVG as America’s new ESPN, with horse racing nearly around the clock on the channel. Gavle in Sweden runs in the morning, Gulfstream in the afternoon, harness racing from Saratoga in the evening and Swan Hill in Australia (a veritable sports paradise!) late at night.
“We hope that we can offer a safe diversion and a bit of entertainment for people, especially in light of the cancellation and postponement of so many sports events,” said Kip Levin, the CEO of TVG.
Why is horse racing chugging along in times like these? We’ll wager you can guess.
Signing Off: Soccer in Turkey
Turkey was one of the last European leagues to keep its soccer season going, with top-level action played as recently as Tuesday. On Thursday, the leagues were shut down for a month. Basketball and volleyball were also halted.
Shortly afterward came the news that Abdurrahim Albayrak, the president of one of the biggest clubs in the country, Galatasaray, was quarantined with suspicion of having the virus, the Turkish sports newspaper Fanatik reported.
Fatih Terim, Galatasaray’s manager, had been outspoken in asking that the season be suspended.
John Obi Mikel, a Nigerian familiar for his years with Chelsea, left another Turkish team, Trabzonspor, this week. “I do not feel comfortable and don’t want to play football in this situation,” he said.
Beyond Australia, soccer is now confined primarily to Africa, South America, and, for whatever reason, Belarus.
Pumping the Brakes: F1 Races
Formula One, which had already postponed its first four races, threw in the towel Thursday on races in the Netherlands, Spain and even Monaco, the glamorous site of its most famous race.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/sports/sports-coronavirus-cancellations.html