SATURDAY

GOLF CMN Classic. Second round.

Fox Sports 1, 5-8am. US PGA Tour.

FOOTBALL First round. Leeds v Northampton.

Setanta Sports, 6.30-9am. FA Cup.

RACING The whole world was moved by the historic, jubilant, epoch-defining victory of Barack Obama in Tuesday's US presidential election. But no one was moved more than Con Gas, the young colour-writing tyro who was recently declared "the Sutherland Shire's single-man answer to Woodward and Bernstein" by his mum. It's been a few weeks since we featured Gas's work on this page. The following extract, which appeared in Thursday's edition of the Taren Point Le Monde and in which he provides a stunning analysis of the points of intersection between Obama's victory and the triumph of Viewed in the Melbourne Cup, shows why. "Some wept, others felt tears roll down their cheeks and still more were moved to dab at their eyes with tissues and handkerchiefs and sleeves and socks. Are they all different ways of saying the same thing? I guess they are. But does it really matter? Man, woman, hirsute she-male and gender-non-specific child: for one brief moment, we were all united in joyous, riotous, slightly tipsy disbelief at the history we had just witnessed - the victory of Viewed in the 2008 Emirates Melbourne Cup. Never in our lives did we think we'd see this day come - especially since none of us had heard of Viewed before, and never really had much of an interest in racing to begin with. Fifty years ago, a young man, armed with no more than a dream and an allergy to hay, as well as a horse and a bloke to put on it, along with some stirrups and stuff, ran Asian Court to 12th place in the Melbourne Cup. Today that same man stands, with slightly bushier eyebrows, atop the world, a 12-time winner of the Melbourne Cup. Some said he'd never win again. But to those who still doubt that Flemington is a place where all things are possible, who still question the power of our horses, who still maintain, in the Montgomery spirit of old bigotry and hate, that a foreign horse's nostrils will always be bigger and more flared than a local horse's nostrils, tonight, or yesterday, or this afternoon, depending on what angle you approach it from, is your answer. It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many with a cold one and the Form Guide to hand, because they believed that this time must be different; that this time, they really were going to crack the trifecta that that stinky bloke at work kept on banging on about. Bart Cummings's victory in the Melbourne Cup has restored this column's faith in humanity. It just seems that so much more is somehow possible ( now that big Bart, the Cups King, has brought the big one home again. Everyone has been invigorated by the spirit of generational continuity his victory has brought. For the first time in a long time, this column feels proud to be Australian again. Yes we can. Yes we will. Oops, I did it again. There's beer all over my laptop."

Channel Seven, 11am-5.30pm. Emirates Stakes Day.

BASKETBALL Miami Heat v San Antonio Spurs. ABC1, 2.30-4pm. WNBL. Canberra v Townsville.

ESPN, noon-2.30pm. NBA.

CRICKET Fourth Test. Day three.

Fox Sports 2, 3-10pm. India v Australia.

What is the meaning of Cameron White? The guy has contributed nothing in the bowling department so far this series, and consistently disappointed with the bat - the scrappy, edge-it-through-slips-for-a-hurri ed-single 15 or whatever it was he got in the Third Test notwithstanding. Has he been in there as a specialist fielder? We can't remember him catching anything, so that can't be it. No, the more we watch this series, the more we realise what White's true cricketing destiny is. He is in the Australian team to act as a foil to Simon Katich's off spin. Yes, White is the containment mechanism that allows 'Katto' to cut loose with his volley of stunningly unvaried, barely turning off breaks. That's how dire things have become. Katich and White are like the McGrath and Warne of mediocrity. Long may their partnership continue. What's that? White isn't playing in this Test? Oh.

FOOTBALL Melbourne v Perth.

ABC1, 4-6pm. W-League.

LEAGUE Scotland v Tonga.

Fox Sports 3, 5-7pm. World Cup.

MOTOR SPORT Queensland v Melbourne.

Fox Sports 3, 7.30-10pm. Super X Sydney.

FOOTBALL

Fox Sports 1, 8-10pm. A-League.

LEAGUE England v New Zealand.

Channel Nine, 8.30-10.45pm. World Cup.

FOOTBALL Arsenal v Manchester United. West Ham United v Everton, Hull v Bolton or Sunderland v Portsmouth (viewer's choice) from 2. Liverpool v West Brom from 4.30.

Fox Sports 1, 11.30pm-6.30am. English Premier League.

About a month ago, we asked: "Does anyone seriously not now think Arsenal are headed for Premiership glory this season?" Now we have the answer: no, but only if by "Premiership glory" you mean "a fourth-round Carling Cup exit and the chance to face off against Stoke in the race to secure the services of Adam Biddle for next season". Arsenal have been rubbish in three successive games, with Arsene Wenger growing more and more flappy on the sidelines with each successive loss. Any more of this, and he'll ditch the pretence of early-match calm all together and start flapping away down by the technical area in that puffy jacket from the first minute. So what can be done to reverse the decline? This column has five suggestions. 1. Buy some more old blokes that other big clubs are sick of paying. The purchase of Mikael Silvestre from traditional rivals Manchester United has proven to be a wonder of foresight and mercantile nous, with Silvestre having now amassed a total of two headers and 23 miskicks over the five-odd games he has featured in to date. With Silvestre set to partner William Gallas in the centre of defence once the former Chelsea stalwart returns from injury, the prospect of a back four composed entirely of other clubs' sloppy seconds now, all of a sudden, seems thrillingly, tantalisingly close. 2. Start promoting from the women's team. Wenger has long favoured a policy of youth promotion, with players nurtured through the reserves until they are brutally, prematurely thrown into the first team, usually at the age of 13 and with some kind of caveat about how the player in question "is only 13 and we must not expect him to be able to kick a ball yet, much less run around without falling over". For long periods of this decade, Wenger has argued for a form of competitive football more akin to childcare, with opposition players regularly upbraided for "kicking" and "forgetting to pack lunch for" the poor little snookums he has sent on to the field of battle each week. For a while it looked as if that policy might work. However, recent weeks and, more broadly, Jeremie Aliadiere have put paid to that theory. But at the same time, the Arsenal women's team continues to go from strength to strength. Join the dots on that one, kids. 3. Ask Eduardo to play with a leg-brace on. Seriously, even a one-legged 'Dudu' would be better than the comedy of pratfalls and bad dancing that is Emmanuel Adebayor. 4. Stop wearing the puffy jackets. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wenger used to favour slim-line pea coats and wind-breaking all-weather jackets during the colder months. In recent seasons, however, he has fallen in with the kind of downy, bloated parka that makes him look like a middle-aged Gallic version of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, with predictably disastrous results. Really, is it any coincidence that Arsenal's decline has coincided with the advent of the puffy coat? For as long as that Stay Puft jacket is still in favour, Arsenal will struggle to challenge for honours. It must be ditched immediately. 5. Buy some decent players and stuff. A crazy suggestion, but who knows? It just might work. Arsenal could buy some midfielders, or some defenders, or - hey! - maybe even a decent, non-psychotic goalkeeper or two. But that's probably asking too much. Yeah, stick with the jacket suggestion. That's the best we've got.

RUGBY Italy v Australia. Fox Sports 3, 1.30-3.30am. Wales v South Africa. Setanta Sports, 1.30-3.30am. England v Pacific Islanders.

Channel Ten, Fox Sports 1, 1-3am.

AND ON RADIO …

2KY, noon-midnight. Racing. SUNDAY FOOTBALL

ESPN, 4-6am. Italian Serie A.

RUGBYScotland v New Zealand. France v Argentina from 7.

Fox Sports 3, 4-9am.

GOLF Third round.

Fox Sports 1, 5-8am. CMN Classic.

FOOTBALL Nantes v Toulouse.

Setanta Sports, 7-9am. French Championship.

AMERICAN FOOTBALL Oklahoma State v Texas Tech.

ESPN, noon-3.30pm. US college football.

MOTOR SPORT Round 12 from Bahrain. This has blissfully, gloriously nothing to do with the V8s, but On The Box was greatly relieved to hear formula one chief Bernie Ecclestone laugh off the episodes of racist abuse Lewis Hamilton was subjected to earlier this year in Italy and Spain as "a joke". The most infamous of those episodes involved a group of Spanish supporters painting their faces black, donning T-shirts with the words "Hamilton's Family" on them and shouting abuse at him over the course of a practice session during pre-season testing in Barcelona. But Ecclestone doesn't think that amounts to racism, instead claiming this week that that particular episode "[was] probably beginning as a joke rather than anything abusive … I don't see why people should have been [insulted by it]. These things are people expressing themselves." Outstanding. Next thing we know, this guy will be giving press conferences fully tarred up. In fact, someone should head out and "express themselves" with a crowbar on him right now, before the joke becomes too obvious. What an absolutely awesome bloke.

Channel Seven, 2-5pm. V8 Supercars.

CRICKET Fourth Test. Day four.

Fox Sports 2, 3-10pm. India v Australia.

LEAGUE France v Samoa.

Fox Sports 3, 5.30-7.30pm. World Cup.

FOOTBALL Perth v Newcastle.

Fox Sports 1, 7-9pm. A-League.

LEAGUE Australia v PNG.

Channel Nine, 8.30-10.45pm. World Cup.

FOOTBALL Blackburn v Chelsea. Fulham v Newcastle from 3. ESPN, 1-5am. Italian Serie A. Inter v Udinese. Spanish Primera Division from 3. Osasuna v Atletico Madrid. Setanta Sports, 1-3am. Scottish Premier League. Kilmarnock v Rangers.

Fox Sports 1, 12.30-5am. English Premier League. Torino v Palermo.