Kentucky Derby Telecast Ranks Higher Than Two Major Sports

“Many around the sports world are well aware that the NFL is king when it comes to viewership in the United States. Based on a latest report on the 2022 Nielsen ratings data by Sportico, that continued to be the case last year.

The NFL accounted for 82 of the 100 most-watched U.S. TV broadcasts in 2022, according to the report. That smashes the previous record of 75 out of 100, a mark that the NFL reached in 2021.

Other broadcast subject categories were able to break through, but not nearly at the rate that NFL was…”

What is interesting is that the Kentucky Derby telecast ranked higher than any event from two major sports – the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB).

Check out the complete story

 

Today and Tomorrow Horse Racing on Fox Sports 1 (FS1)

Source: NYRA

Grade 1 $600K Apple Blossom and Grade 3 Count Fleet bolster 10.5 hours of coverage

Free Equibase past performances available (see below) for all races that are part of broadcast

America’s Day at the Races, produced by the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) in partnership with FOX Sports, will feature a pair of graded stakes races from Oaklawn Park on Saturday’s live broadcast on FS1.

The acclaimed national telecast presenting coverage and analysis of the best racing from around the country will air on FS1/FS2 on Saturday and Sunday for a combined 10.5 hours of national television coverage from Oaklawn Park and Tampa Bay Downs.

Saturday, April 18

1:30 – 7 p.m. (FS1) ET

 Sunday, April 19

1:30-2:30 p.m. (FS2)

2:30 – 6:30 p.m. (FS1)

America’s Day at the Races is also broadcast on NYRA’s YouTube channel which boasts more than 30,000 subscribers. Fans can subscribe to NYRA’s channel and set a reminder to watch the show on YouTube Live. NYRA’s YouTube channel also hosts a plethora of race replays, special features, Talking Horses episodes, America’s Day at the Races replays and more.

America’s Day at the Races is presented by America’s Best Racing, Runhappy, and Claiborne Farm. Hosted by Greg Wolf and Laffit Pincay III, this weekend’s broadcast team includes Gary Stevens, Michelle Yu, Tom Amoss and Jonathon Kinchen.

With racing at Aqueduct Racetrack currently suspended due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Saturday’s broadcast will be highlighted by the Grade 1, $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap, a 1 1/16-mile route for fillies and mares 4-years-old and up; along with the Grade 3, $350,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap, a six-furlong sprint for 4-year-olds and upward.

The Apple Blossom will feature the Amoss-trained Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks-winner Serengeti Empress headlining a field of 14. The 4-year-old Alternation bay rose to prominence with a romping 19 ½-length score in the 2018 Grade 2 Pocahontas at Churchill Downs as a juvenile. She enjoyed a memorable sophomore season winning the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra at Fair Grounds in addition to her Oaks triumph. Last out, Serengeti Empress went gate-to-wire under returning rider Joe Talamo in the Grade 2 Azeri on March 14 at Oaklawn.

Serengeti Empress will face steep competition in the form of Blue Devil Racing Stable’s Come Dancing, who will make her seasonal debut under Florent Geroux following a sixth-place effort in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. The versatile daughter of Malibu Moon won four-of-six starts last season including a victory in the Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga Race Course.

Leading the charge in the Count Fleet Sprint Handicap, which drew a field of 11, is the popular 7-year-old Whitmore. Trained by Ron Moquett, the Pleasantly Perfect gelding boasts a perfect in-the-money record at Oaklawn of 13-8-4-1 with purse earnings in excess of $1.4 million. Whitmore, a 13-time winner, captured the 2018 Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga and last out won the Hot Springs on March 7 at Oaklawn, while garnering a 104 Beyer Speed Figure. Top contenders in the six-furlong sprint include Hidden Scroll, Hog Creek Hustle and Wendell Fong

FREE PPs

Free Equibase-provided past performances are available for races that are part of the America’s Day at the Races broadcast right here.

Changes Overseas: No longer ‘At The Races,’ Sky Sports comes under starter’s orders

There are unlikely to be many mourners when At The Races officially expires at midnight on Monday. After all, and with all due respect to the television channel’s home in Milton Keynes, it is going to a much better place. Just short of its 18th birthday, the adoption papers were signed and approved earlier this year and from Tuesday, it is official. At The Races is part of the Sky Sports “family” now…

But as the new year begins on Tuesday, At The Races will finally be consigned to history. In its place: Sky Sports Racing, the youngest member of the squad of channels broadcast from Sky Centre in west London, alongside Sky Sports Premier League, Football, Cricket, Golf, F1 and others that cover multiple sports. Britain’s second-biggest spectator sport – 500,000 paying spectators in front of rugby union at the latest count – now has a place on Sky to call its own.

Today, Dark Horses on NBC features Easy Goer / Sunday Silence Rivalry

dark horses on TVNBC Sports presents the broadcast debut of Dark Horses, the story of the most unlikely rivalry in Triple Crown history, on Saturday, June 2 at 5 p.m. ET on NBC. Dark Horses brings viewers back to 1989 and the thrilling showdown between Easy Goer and Sunday Silence. For a preview of “Dark Horses,” click here.

With Justify racing for Triple Crown history next week in the 150th Belmont Stakes (Saturday, June 9, at 4 p.m. ET on NBC), the horse’s trainer and jockey both referenced these 1989 races following this year’s Preakness Stakes:

“Good Magic, he really put it to us. It was almost like the Sunday Silence-Easy Goer type [race]. They didn’t give it away. He was going to make us earn it…This is what makes horseracing…and these great horses. They just define themselves when they get in that situation.” – Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert

“Justify reminds me a lot of Easy Goer. He was a big, strong, beautiful horse like this one.” – Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith

Narrated by actress and Kentucky-native Ashley Judd, Dark Horses chronicles the competition between Easy Goer, who descended from racing royalty and one of the most powerful farms in the sport, and a relatively unheralded colt named Sunday Silence. The 60-minute documentary looks back at the 1989 racing season during which the two horses – who each had members of the well-known Hancock family on opposing sides – competing head-to-head in all three Triple Crown races, and the Breeders’ Cup Classic. The competition provided some of the most dynamic and compelling races in thoroughbred history.

The film features interviews with Arthur Hancock, the owner of Sunday Silence, host Al Michaels, race caller Tom Durkin, jockey Pat Valenzuela, who rode Sunday Silence during the Triple Crown races, Easy Goer’s jockey Pat Day, jockey Chris McCarron, who rode Sunday Silence at the 1989 Breeders’ Cup, and Shug McGaughey, Easy Goer’s trainer. Dark Horses was directed by Castor Fernandez (ESPN 30 for 30: “Brothers in Exile”).

Leading into the Belmont Stakes, NBCSN will air encore presentations on Wednesday, June 6 at 8 p.m. ET, Friday, June 8 at 7 p.m. ET, and Saturday, June 9 at 8 a.m. ET.

source: Press Release

2015 Breeders’ Cup TV schedule

Breeders’ Cup TV schedule for the 2-day 2015 event in Lexington, Kentucky.

NBCSN Friday: 10/30: 3:00 -6:00 pm

NBCSN Saturday: 10/31: 1:00-4:00 pm

NBC Saturday: 10/31: 4:00-6:00 pm

Below shows the TVG schedule of events for Breeders’ Cup 2015

tvg breeders cup 2015 schedule

Belmont Week TV Schedule

Here is the Television coverage this week for the upcoming Triple Crown attempt by American Pharoah.

TV June 6 schedule

Backstretch Workers featured in upcoming America Reframed episode

NEW YORK,  /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Join journalist and series host Natasha Del Toro for the 3 rd season of AMERICA REFRAMED, WORLD Channel’s independent film series co-produced with American Documentary, Inc.
Dionicia Martinez and her teenage son, José Luis, have gambled their futures on the hardscrabble sport of horse racing. While gamblers make long-shot bets in the hopes of winning big, Dionicia, much like 11 million undocumented immigrants in America, stakes her life on finding a way out of poverty…

Upcoming Horse Racing TV Schedule

May 11

Man o’ War Stakes, 4:30-6 p.m. ET FOX Sports 1

May 17

Preakness Stakes, 5-7 p.m. ET NBC

June 7

Belmont Stakes, 4:30-6:30 p.m. ET NBC

July 6

United Nations Stakes, 5-6:30 p.m. ET FOX Sports 1

July 20

Eddie Read Stakes and Coaching Club American Oaks, 5:30-7:30 p.m. ET FOX Sports 1

Aug. 10

Saratoga Special, 5-6:30 p.m. ET FOX Sports 1

Aug. 17

Sword Dancer Invitational, 5-6:30 p.m. ET FOX Sports 1

Sept. 14

Ricoh Woodbine Mile, 5-6:30 p.m. ET FOX Sports 1

CNBC about Wealthy Racehorse Owners Airs Tonight

Tonight at 9pm ET CNBC will air a show about the lifestyles of the rich and famous.  The focus will be on the Fasig Tipton horse sales and includes a segment on Team Valor International and their horse ownership group.  Here is a preview of tonight’s show.

httpv://youtu.be/x8WwMRB38Rs

A Better Presentation is What Horse Racing Needs

Racing needs a better presentation, TVBy Art Parker

Thoroughbred racing requires us to fight an ongoing battle, a battle for survival. I am not going to point out the mistakes we made over the years. I use the word we because I am convinced we must all fight this battle to make sure our sport not only is trying to grow, but trying its best to survive. Today the battle is to garner new faces, new blood, new fans, and preferably those in the demographic of young adults. We need to do this with an old sport.

Trying to put anything old with something new has never been easy, if it was, then teenagers would love to go see old folks on their birthday and give the real old aunt a big smack on the lips. And we know that doesn’t happen.

Besides the effort of social media and all the new bells and whistles of the high tech age, the television is still a good way to place our product before prospective fans. Justice is best served our sport when the people get its full visual effect. Watching the action of the sport can be exhilarating similar to what some folks experience watching NASCAR. But like anything else, the sale is often made not with the contents of the box, but how you wrap the package.

For many horseplayers Breeders’ Cup day is one where the action takes place at home. So many of us now play via Advance Deposit Wagering (ADW) and we utilize various resources to have all the advantages of being at the track without having to go to the track.

I’m sure many of you are like me. I play via ADW and turn the television on for the non-stop Breeders’ Cup coverage, even though the television coverage is not required to get the job done. This year the television coverage was like in the past. It is not interesting enough to watch, at least for the regular player. And, I suspect it was not interesting enough to those that are not regular players.

I didn’t watch the coverage on Friday but I did tune in Saturday and paid attention the best I could. One reason I was going to watch the Saturday coverage was to try and see the presentation as if I was a novice.

All races except the Classic were viewed on the NBC Sports network. The coverage on NBC Sports was like it always is and just not too good, in my opinion.

For the most part the coverage is boring to those that do not know the sport. A novice sits there and listens to some guy talk about Beyer Speed Numbers and there is simply no way the newcomer knows what those numbers are. It’s like those of us in the know are keeping a secret. Of course, this is just an example. The bottom line is that we do not use the opportunity to recruit new players with actions and information that will make them comfortable.

But then we left NBC Sports and went to NBC for the final hour and, of course, the feature race, the Breeders’ Cup Classic. The presentation seemed to be very much different. It was far more exciting. My wife remarked that it seemed like we were watching the Academy Awards. There was a greater romance with the horse. It seemed different and I liked it. I’m sure much of the content was considered the same by some, but what I liked was the way the package was wrapped.

What I perceived to be a good move was that the Classic hour had the possibility of recruiting new players with just downright excitement and avoided running prospective players off with mystery information. Plus, we got the biggest Breeders’ Cup moment in Prime Time. I salute NBC for what I think was a different presentation. I encourage racing’s television partners to continue to work on new ideas that will attract more participants. I hope our television partners will attempt to make future broadcasts something the younger people will call “awesome” or “cool” instead of “something the old folks like.”