ESPN Telecast
 

I liked it a lot. Seemed much, much better than NBC's shows. Fowler does a good job and I liked Moss's and Bailey's work a lot. Jeanine does a nice job and that English chap ESPN used certainly is an improvement over that McCrick (sp) act.

Anyone notice that Bailey was pretty steady during the telecast, except just before post time and especially when they were going in the gate? I sure sensed his excitement. Competitive nature, I guess.

I liked it alot, they did a great job, I especially liked the breeding segment with Kenny, that was hillarious.

I didn't like that they didn't show any post parades. I like to see the horses I bet.

Way better than NBC. Bailey is really impressive and in general its a likable team. I wish they would run the replays after the race and disect it a little explaining what happened and why. They did it a little but not enough for my taste. I love those live overhead shots of the race.

While you say this
 

I have to say that the IN HOUSE feed for Churchill was OUTSTANDING also. They had Lyons and Schrup, who was tame (possible Xanax). They talked the WHOLE time and it kept me interested.

I would also like to thank Churchill for not getting ridiculous with their post times between races, I thought it was EXTREMELY reasonable this year, unlike years past.

A+ from me. I think they made a lot of last minute decisions with the Distaff with explainations and a video tribute that were outstanding considering the circumstances.

The Breeding thing was VERY hilarious. I nearly fell off my chair with the music and shots of Victory Gallop licking his lips.

I like the overhead shots a lot too. One improvement might be to trade Hank G. for the Buelah twins.

I've been talking up how serious ESPN is taking this and I think they proved it today. They'll also be adding 3 new people to the Horse Racing on-air cast starting next year. :)

right on
 

Funny how they talk about racing being about the horses, they are the stars and then we didnot get to see them except in the races. I guess paddock shots are too boring , but not the post parade ? inexcusable to me . Its back to the simo place for me next year with the track feed and with my cell.

You guys dont understand.... they're trying to make the BC and horse racing in general more popular with sports fans. Racing is lacking in the single most important demographic... the 15-35 yo bracket.

To get some of those viewers, they put their two most liked on-air personalities to cover the BC. Kenny Mayne is well liked across the board and Chris Fowler is probably the one personality with the biggest fanbase, especially with viewers in their 20's. For those who dont know, he hosts College Game Day and is beloved by most.

To hook the fans, its going to take more than showing the horses prancing on the track. Its going to take these familiar personalities hooking the new viewers by making the sport seem "cool" and not a has-been event.

To the regular sports fans who turned to the BC with no prior knowledge, the only thing of familiarity are Kenny and Chris. Its important you take the complications of the sport out of the equation, and appeal to the broadest audience possible. The post parade is not exciting for the average viewer... but we know, as seasoned fans, how important it can be. Dont sell the coverage short for trying to help our sport grow.

The mayne piece was hilarious, I wish they would have let that breeding thing go for a little longer. The music and the censor on the eyes made me laugh till I hurt. Even my girlfriend who hates horseracing liked that part of the telecast. She eventually went out to shop as she couldnt bare anymore horseracing.

i agree about the post parade. they just made a bad decision not to show each horse and their records.

Why does everyone like overhead shots? They are pointless. You can't see which horse is where.

Huh? the horses are pretty easy to pick out for me.
I like it because you can see so much better what is going on across the track.

I'm used to the normal view that you would get on normal race days from the simulcast feed. I don't like it when ESPN or NBC changes the view and you can't see the whole field and all you see are the horses's rear end. From those angles they all look the same to me.

I find myself agreeing with Balleto alot today haha...

I have a friend who is working at ESPN and they are very serious about expanding the fan base of the sport. Balleto is right, they put Mayne and Fowler on the coverage because of their mainstream connection. Especially Fowler. They took him AWAY from College Gameday, which is one of the network's premier productions to exclusively work this today. That is a telling sign right there. NBC used to have Bob Costas, but not for blanket coverage...that went to the lesser names like Tom Hammond and Bob Neumirer.

Fowler is a star at the network. The popularity he has with Kirk Herbstreet, and Lee Corso is amazing, and it's primarily with the younger crowds that follow college football. Thats what they are looking to do here in making in roads to the younger audience.

Balleto made most of the good points, and kudos for that :cool: Just wanted to add my two cents!

I wished they had showed the post parade, there were a lot of horses that never were shown on camera. How often do we get to see the European horses? It would have been nice to put a horse with the name. What about showing the horses coming across the finished line that were 2nd, 3rd, 4th? I was shocked about Friendly Island because the camera angle never showed him coming. They finally showed one replay that showed him getting up there. I did think they kept the telecast moving, the day went faster it seemed to me that in previous years. Why why why do the networks bring that idiot over from England for his picks? He is a waste of airtime.


almar3t

Yeah, but .....
 

I agree with your points of marketing the sport to the demographic. What I DONOT agree with is them not permitting online video feeds of the track feed . The regular race trackers and handicappers are denied access to view the horses in the paddock and post parade as we normally do every day. We also like to track where the horses are in the race in a continuous pan shot, without all the cutting away for a variety of shots. Why can't they satisfy both audiences ? I would be happy to view the ESPN broadcast, as a supplementary video feed along with my track feed. Why were the BRISBET and Youbet feeds blacked out ? I cannot get the TVG feed on cable here and am not permitted to install a dish for a satellite feed. There was never an announcment that there would not be online video feeds of the track video feed, which i believe was TVG. The ESPN team was better than the NBC team, but post parades are part and parcel of each race. Where's the beef ? I don't go for sizzle !

you sound like a sophomore in college who just took media 201.

So, what demographic exactly is Hank Goldberg appealing to these days? Or, maybe he just has a real good contract?

Yes exactly. Of course racing can't attract new fans.....with all those crazy camera angles during the race they can't see where their favorite horse is!!

Hank covers the over 50 bad jewish handicapper demographic. He appeals to my father

Try a senior at Duke majoring in Broadcast Journalism and Media Studies with a direct relationship with ESPN, as some here know.

Hank Goldberg isnt the most exciting person to watch on television but he's a mainstay as is Janine Edwards (who doesnt appeal to a younger audience but is quite good at what she does), Randy Moss, etc. They're the people who have anchored the sport for some time.

What would you have ESPN do? Axe some of the knowledeable people who might not make good tv and replace them with some tits and a few one liners, or try to marry the two together? Maybe you should freshen up on "Media 201".

not sure how many caught the last few minutes of college gameday when they had the analysts dressed as jockeys making selections for the BC...gimmack? sure but I found it funny and it let a bunch of non-racing fans know what would be on the channel next.
I thought the coverage was great overall, Kenny M. breeding peice was hysterical...I enjoyed seeing Jerry B. peice about the starting gate from before the derby again. The enlish guy was a nice addition too.
My complaint with all telecasts is that they don't spend enough time in the paddock and on the post parade...I want to see horsese warm up and how they behave for saddling etc. But I fully understand why they don't do that and in order to appeal to the widest range of viewers they can't just show endless hours of horses in the walking ring and paddock, because the casual fan doesn't want to see that.

Agreed. Needed a better veiw of the horses in the walking ring and post parade. Too many people in the walking ring and some of us like a good visual before finallizing your bet.

Overall, I think the ESPN Coverage was very good. Few things I would like to see improvement on:
- More visibility of race fractions
- More visibility of multi race will-pays
- and they HAVE to get the prices up faster and more often.

I'm all for appealing to a wider audience, but I have to think horseplayers are still the bread and butter. It was a pain to keep flipping to TVG to get the prices.

To me, BC payouts are among the best advertising you can get...

After I had placed my bets at the local teletheater, I came home to watch the ESPN broadcast with my daughter and others (we had a small B.C. party). Other than my daughter and myself, none of the others knew any of the horses except Bernardini. We had a little game where everyone picked a horse in each race, threw in $1, and whichever horse finished in front of the others won the pool. It's fun for the non-racing fans and they seem to enjoy it. In years past, they've picked their horses from the post parade. These people that I'm trying to get involved in horseracing biggest complaint was "why aren't they showing us the horses"? While they did think Mayne's piece was funny and the gate piece interesting ( I liked it too), I still think there was enough time to at least show a post parade.

Not showing the post parade or the call to the post for each race undermined the pageantry of the sport. Also I miss NBC's majestic music. For a superlative day of racing in a sport of kings, it seemed more like gritty college football quality coverage. Then again, college football and NASCAR do better than horse racing for ratings, but I don't like this move to ESPN at all. And Trevor Denman was dreadful.

very good post
 

you really said it all. show the horses ! The production folks lost site of horses. It became too much of a slick production of magazine pieces, a classic advertising mantra of selling the sizzle and not the steak ! When your friends who don't know horse racing are saying " why aren't they showing the horses", that says it all. Its not just us hardcores saying it . :cool:

Pretty good follow through by ESPN, too. They kept showing the Classic finish throughout the night.

--Dunbar

I was going back and forth all day between ESPN and TVG. I thought my timing was just off and that was why I kept missing the post parades.

So they actually didn't show the post parades? That is unbelievable. That is crazy. What in the world were they thinking? I think the post parade is standard coverage for any horseracing telecast. To not show the post parade is indefensible.

They'd show maybe 2 or 3 of the horses in the parade from an angle that just did not present the horse. You wouldn't even know who was running.

How does Jeanine not appeal to the younger audience? She is well spoken well dressed and is extremely passionate about what she does. Yesterday you could tell she was about to or had cried because of the events of the Distaff. She is the sort of woman, who now that I am in my 20's would want to be friends with and if I was still younger would choose as a role model. Class act in my opinion.

I really hope she gets some sort of media award within the horse racing industry for her coverage with Barbaro.

Kenny Mayne is just too funny for words. I love what he brings to the program and Moss is a great balance to him.

Couldn't agree more. I think she has universal appeal with all ages because of these qualities you describe.

The ESPN telecast was very good beyond not having Durkin. As I've said repeatedly before, Durking was made to call those races. But Denman was ok... beyond botching the Street Sense call.

Nick Luck was a nice addition. So was bringing in the guy from the European Betting company to analyze the European Turfers. Quint Kessenich was not there though... He's always been ok, but he really shot himself in the foot with that interview with Harry Aleo last year. Inexcuseable. I'm assuming he's done for good.

The only other issue that I had, was the on-track audio problems when trying to get interviews with the jockeys. But that's understandable since they're up on horse-back and it's a tough problem to shake out.

I would have liked to see the finish times and also the payoff's a little more often, but ESPN did a pretty good job.

I thought when Javier Castellano fell off Pine Island and when he was taken off in an ambulance that Jerry Bailey would split from the ESPN broadcast and go beg Albertrani to let him ride Bernardini!!!

i wanna see more horses and less people.....i thought the churchill feed was great. i requested it be put back on at the otb (they switched to espn for the classic)

Hey, I went on record saying Janine is more than adequate at what she does. She's informative, classy, and comes across very well... but that doesnt mean she'll appeal to a non-racing fan group of young men. I happen to think she's very attractive, but lets be honest, she probably is going to wow the demographic ESPN is hoping to hook. She's not going anywhere... and shouldnt go anywhere... she should have her spot as long as she wants it... she bring a lot into the mix... but my point was, instead of cutting these seasoned professionals, they'll be adding new people into the mix. It wasnt a knock on Janine.

Sorry there is T & A aplenty in this world. I hardly doubt some young non racing young male is going to anticipate the upcoming Stakes race on ESPN because of them offering something they can get everywhere. :rolleyes:

Then you'd be SHOCKED! Its why Jillian Barberi and the likes are stars now. Dont ever over-estimate the penis. :D

Ditto. Then I went to Brisbet to get the CD feed, as I usually would if I'm not getting all the visuals I want from a track. Bummer! No streaming feed. Exclusivity may be necessary for TV program contracts, but simulcasting is a whole different ballgame. Can't those genius network honchos figure that out?