ABC and ESPN to broadcast 2008 Breeders' Cup
 

The Breeders’ Cup and ESPN announced today that the 2008 Breeders’ Cup World Championships on October 24-25 from Santa Anita Park will receive an unprecedented nine hours of live coverage including, for the first time, 2.5 hours of live coverage on ABC. The 25th running of the Breeders’ Cup will feature 14 races over two days with record purses of $25.5 million and air on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 beginning on Friday, October 24 on ESPN2. The ABC and ESPN combination marks the first ever network and cable telecast of the Championships.

http://breederscup.com/content.aspx?id=32802

Let's hope ABC can add the final nail in the coffin of irrelevence that the BC now lies in by adding Brent Mussberger to the Television coverage.

So they are taking the supposed "feature" races Saturday and showcasing them by switching them from network to cable. I know ESPN is everywhere, but it still seems ironic

As long as NBC gets some it, I like the way they present races. With the set up music, and having Bob Costas wrapping up things in his own eloquent way.
Plus Battaglia and Neumeier what more can you ask for!

What ESPN should do is that ESPN 360 crap they do for basketball/football games games, camera angles from multiple places, cameras on coaches (trainers) and even put a camera on a jock.....

I would definitely watch ESPN2 if they had a 4 boxed screen with the below cameras

1) Jockey camera
2) two trainer cameras
3) overhead camera

Probably college football conflicts late afternoon

FTFY

I know..
but still

ANY coverage is good coverage, IMO, during that season. Even the crappiest football games have higher ratings than racing. Now all we need to do is show all the people watching N Texas-Louisiana Monroe because they have a bet on that racing is a much more compelling gamble.

mussberger is doing the radio commercial for the belmont this weekend. that's strike 1 ! i can't stand to hear mussberger do anything.
he has NO interest in any event he does. to him it's a paycheck and the "next big event".

espn can show an early game, then go to racing. abc always shows the 3:30 game. in the east it is usually big 10 or acc, which is the equivalent NT-ULM.

How friggen hard would it be to get all the races on one network on the same day?

Sometimes I really wonder if people are deliberately bringing harm to the sport.

if Brent Mussberger has any piece of this, it will be strictly a mute situation for me.

Brent loves action. If he ever called the race, there's no question the audience would know who he bet on. When he calls the bowl games for ABC, it is painfully obvious toward the end of the game who he has bet. A few years ago there was a 24 point blowout and he had the team that was up. Problem was that he laid 18.5 points and the team that was losing was driving to score a meaningless T.D. There was a vast difference in his voice tone and dynamics. Once the team scored, the color commentator had to fill the dead air with some BS commentary as Brent must have destroyed the booth. LOL!!!!!!!!

thats correct, any of the polished network types would be a turnoff to me, although for the wider television audience I'm sure they identify more with those guys.

Now I'd love to see Keith Jackson give it a crack, "whoa nelly, this matchup between Curlin and Big Brown should be a dandy".

I wonder how many times Brent M. will tell the story about Jimmy the Greek betting on every horse in the race?

How about a mic on KD during the race?

Very funny....and true.

I doubt a mic would be feasible...

Quick story, the other day I went to Arlington OTB to get a quick bet in for something at Hollywood, there was still a couple races left at Arlington. The OTB is built on the same grounds and is right next to the track. You can actually watch a race from the rail over there, and it is actually a great experience. Well, I was watching the race and as they got to the 1/4 pole, I hear "HEY MOTHA PHUCKA" and it was Douglas yelling at someone, it was pretty hilarious.......

I don't care much for ESPN. I can do without their hip-hop coverage and the pointing out of every celebrity within 5 miles. Who cares about the damn celebrities, just show me the odds and horses. I'd rather watch the live feed coming from the track, which is what I will most likely do. If they bring back Tom Durkin as the caller, I'll be very happy. I've had enough of Trevor D's butchered and predictable calls.

???

well he is at Belmont this week so he may be out of nails.

What most of us are missing is these network presentations are not for us. We will watch on simo or in person. Not being on network TV will not keep us away from the action. Weatever network that has the right always get little praise and mostly bittching and moaning from most of the posters here. They are attempting to expose a new viewer to the pomp and beauty of big time racing.Everytime we have a national network carry any of our big races I applaud them and hope its a success. Lets look at ways to improve this and not be so cynical and negative.

This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. These people are complete morons.

LOL - I love watching the races from the backside or the turns, just for that reason - you hear everything, and THAT'S racing :cool:

I think they should have the races from 1-3 at SA and then at 3 while they are switching to ESPN, everyone gets on a bus and goes to Hollywood for the remaining races.

LOL. I was wondering the same thing. Hip-hop coverage?

Kevin Neelin used to do a great Mussberger on SNL.

(Oh BTW,BTW, SNL=Saturday Night Live)

It's a smart business decision. Horse racing gets abysmal ratings.

I wouldn't call Stuart Scott or SAS "hip-hop".. Instead, I'd probably use "embarrassing."