ABC's coverage is pathetic

[geowarrior]

Not joking, Barbaro, 'And Street Sense wins the Belmont' was the lead-in to the final segment, and the announcer took so long to realize his mistake that anyone just tuning in would have been mightily confused.

And yes another announcer did want to 'recrap' the Belmont.

Nobody would want to 'recrap' that coverage. No Emmys for this bunch. Raspberrys maybe.

Did anybody watch Kenny Mayne's feature on the Belmont track as a wheat farm in the earlier ESPN coverage? Because of llbean's comments on another thread about my lacking a sense of humor, I tried hard to laugh but I couldn't. Is there something wrong with me? Did anyone else not laugh? Or was the whole of America in stitches?

[Rokeby Forever]

Off the ESPN's crew performances yesterday, The Beulah Twins can now be considered the "Philosophers of Racing."

[majxmom]

I thought the director missed a couple of really good moments. They showed Ruffian's gravesite, but they pushed in so close, you couldn't read the inscription. They cut away right at the instant that the two jockeys were embracing past the wire. That was a good moment of sportsmanship, but we only saw a flicker of it. The double audio during the Asmussen interview was incredibly annoying. I don't even think that was a ABC woman. I heard that interview later on another network, so it was crossed audio with someone else. I wonder if they contract with a company (or the track, or the NTRA), to run all the audio lines, and those people messed up.

[Camish]

I thought they kept trying to take away from Rags to Riches amazing performance! I don't know if it was just me, but they were trying to make it sound like Curlin didn't get a fair chance since Rags to Riches didn't have to carry the same weight as he did, etc... I sure missed NBC and Gary Stevens! Jerry Baily should stay away from TV!! (JMO)

[oliverstoned]

I thought they kept trying to take away from Rags to Riches amazing performance! I don't know if it was just me, but they were trying to make it sound like Curlin didn't get a fair chance since Rags to Riches didn't have to carry the same weight as he did, etc... I sure missed NBC and Gary Stevens! Jerry Baily should stay away from TV!! (JMO)

Yes they sure did especially that jabba the hut guy. Hell she stumbled at the start and went wider than Curlin the whole way.....please.

[Barbaro06]

Not joking, Barbaro, 'And Street Sense wins the Belmont' was the lead-in to the final segment, and the announcer took so long to realize his mistake that anyone just tuning in would have been mightily confused.

And yes another announcer did want to 'recrap' the Belmont.

Nobody would want to 'recrap' that coverage. No Emmys for this bunch. Raspberrys maybe.

Did anybody watch Kenny Mayne's feature on the Belmont track as a wheat farm in the earlier ESPN coverage? Because of llbean's comments on another thread about my lacking a sense of humor, I tried hard to laugh but I couldn't. Is there something wrong with me? Did anyone else not laugh? Or was the whole of America in stitches?

I did not get it at all Geo...I thought it was stupid to tell you the truth...

[llbean]

Did anybody watch Kenny Mayne's feature on the Belmont track as a wheat farm in the earlier ESPN coverage? Because of llbean's comments on another thread about my lacking a sense of humor, I tried hard to laugh but I couldn't. Is there something wrong with me? Did anyone else not laugh? Or was the whole of America in stitches?

Hi Geowarrior,

The thing to understand about that segment is that it was a parody on how pretaped prerace segments play (some would say sappily) on nostalgia for the lost agrarian past that people associate with Horse Racing.

In this respect it was a piece of Meta, in that it was a prerace segment that was about prerace segments.

Perhaps people who don't understand and/or don't appreciate the meta won't have found it funny.

Anyway, I can't personaly say if I laughed at the segment itself as I missed the segment and only know what I know about it as the segment was recounted to me by someone I know.

I did find the recountation very funny, however, and in a similar manner the person who recounted it to me clearly took great amusement from the segment itself.

-llbean

[Mood Swings]

Not joking, Barbaro, 'And Street Sense wins the Belmont' was the lead-in to the final segment, and the announcer took so long to realize his mistake that anyone just tuning in would have been mightily confused.

And yes another announcer did want to 'recrap' the Belmont.

Nobody would want to 'recrap' that coverage. No Emmys for this bunch. Raspberrys maybe.

Did anybody watch Kenny Mayne's feature on the Belmont track as a wheat farm in the earlier ESPN coverage? Because of llbean's comments on another thread about my lacking a sense of humor, I tried hard to laugh but I couldn't. Is there something wrong with me? Did anyone else not laugh? Or was the whole of America in stitches?

I was thinking wtf

[Derring]

Their coverage often sucks for horseracing (NBC or ABC)-- Audio, shaky cameras, etc. Though nothing as bad as this. I used to think ABC had better coverage from years past but now....

It's Kenny Mayne that makes me crazy. When interviewing, he often doesn't let the other person answer his questions.
I don't know if it was one of the TC races this year or last where he made the statement that in order to be considered black by the Jockey Club, a horse could have no white markings. Jerry Bailey just looked at him in silence.

[Rokeby Forever]

My suggestion for BC day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTZxXkGLrfs

[Derring]

Sorry, Man. Not much better than Kenny.

[freshman]

The major network coverage of these races are not meant to provide intelligent conversation, pedigree analysis, real handicapping, etc. The point of these programs is to hook a big audience into tuning in to the channel for a couple of hours to watch enough advertisements, commercials, and other promotions to make it worthwhile to the station. This means dramatizing personal stories of the horses, trainers, owners, and other personalities that appeal to people that would just as soon watch the football pre-game show, nascar race, or even a lifetime made-for-tv movie.

Horsemen, bettors, and year-round race fans will do their research and gather educated opinions elsewhere and long before the race-day coverage starts. The big networks are not competing with nor serving anyone that watches TVG, HRTV, or is a member of a forum like this. If these programs provided coverage like these specialized networks, then their ratings would be the same as these minor cable networks!

This is too bad, I guess, but I am always shocked at the criticism of the network coverage after every major race (which happens to be the only races that are covered). Why does anyone here expect anything different? Skip the sappy pre-race hours and the flubs that are going to happen on the undercard and other commentary, and just turn on the TV to watch the race as it is called. The network will almost immediately cut to golf or trout-fishing, and it is over.

When I was a kid, I enjoyed the pre-race coverage, and I suspect many other people do as well. At least they are watching horse racing.

[llbean]

It's Kenny Mayne that makes me crazy. When interviewing, he often doesn't let the other person answer his questions.

They very rarely have Kenny Mayne interviewing anyone so I don't know what you're talking about (examples please?).

Also, it is precisely because Kenny's humor is lost on a lot of Horse Racing type people that its valuable to Horse Racing and ESPN.

The last thing you want to do is send the message that racing is only for these strange Horse Racing people and not for a younger and less agrarian demographic (and one of the most important things Kenny provides is a revivifying "outsider" type perspective on Racing and Racing Coverage and the cliches thereof).

Stuffy and overly full of itself just doesn't play as well these days (especially in the context of media forms where there's the strong potential for meta self-parody) and to their credit, ESPN understands that...

-llbean

[bdw0617]

The major network coverage of these races are not meant to provide intelligent conversation, pedigree analysis, real handicapping, etc. The point of these programs is to hook a big audience into tuning in to the channel for a couple of hours to watch enough advertisements, commercials, and other promotions to make it worthwhile to the station. This means dramatizing personal stories of the horses, trainers, owners, and other personalities that appeal to people that would just as soon watch the football pre-game show, nascar race, or even a lifetime made-for-tv movie.

Horsemen, bettors, and year-round race fans will do their research and gather educated opinions elsewhere and long before the race-day coverage starts. The big networks are not competing with nor serving anyone that watches TVG, HRTV, or is a member of a forum like this. If these programs provided coverage like these specialized networks, then their ratings would be the same as these minor cable networks!

This is too bad, I guess, but I am always shocked at the criticism of the network coverage after every major race (which happens to be the only races that are covered). Why does anyone here expect anything different? Skip the sappy pre-race hours and the flubs that are going to happen on the undercard and other commentary, and just turn on the TV to watch the race as it is called. The network will almost immediately cut to golf or trout-fishing, and it is over.

When I was a kid, I enjoyed the pre-race coverage, and I suspect many other people do as well. At least they are watching horse racing.

that's what's wrong with our damn country now.

you think you "hook" grown men and women by interviewing pointless stars and famous people?

Maybe, if they treated horse racing like any other sport, they would hook more people.

The beauty of the sport, is that there are so many different ways to look at things, pedigrees, trainers, pace, class,etc. By focusing on who Rick Patino likes in a race trivializes it all.

that's the equivalent of having the NBA finals on, and instead of breaking down the game, they find pairs Hilton who she likes, and she says "Cleveland of course, their jerseys are cute"


give people a little more credit.. maybe the reason why people think horse racing is what trivial, is because that's how it's portrayed.

IMHO, TVG isn't that much better than ABC or NBC. HRTV hands down is my network of choice if I can help it, epically at the end of the year when they get the CDI tracks


To say something as idiotic as their ratings would be as low as TVG or HRTV is well..idiotic. ABC could show monkeys racing around a track and it would have higher ratings than TVG or HRTV because IT'S ON REGULAR TV. Think before you speak

[Derring]

It's Kenny Mayne that makes me crazy. When interviewing, he often doesn't let the other person answer his questions.

They very rarely have Kenny Mayne interviewing anyone so I don't know what you're talking about (examples please?).

Also, it is precisely because Kenny's humor is lost on a lot of Horse Racing type people that its valuable to Horse Racing and ESPN.

The last thing you want to do is send the message that racing is only for these strange Horse Racing people and not for a younger and less agrarian demographic (and one of the most important things Kenny provides is a revivifying "outsider" type perspective on Racing and Racing Coverage and the cliches thereof).

Stuffy and overly full of itself just doesn't play as well these days (especially in the context of media forms where there's the strong potential for meta self-parody) and to their credit, ESPN understands that...

-llbean

I don't care what type of humor he has. Being rude (unintentional or otherwise) and making incorrect statements....these I don't care for.