NBC Coverage

[letswastemoney]

I just want them to do away with the disorientating blimp view during the race. I cannot tell which horse is which from that angle, nor do I see how a casual fan can tell where their horse is.

[Rudeboyelvis]

My Wife, who could care less about horse racing, watched the entire ESPN broadcast, formulated her own opinion based on what she saw... and hit the Exacta and Tri.... She went to the track with me (for the first time as a horseplayer) today for the closing of TBD... Just sayin'....

[joeydb]

Originally Posted by Rudeboyelvis

My Wife, who could care less about horse racing, watched the entire ESPN broadcast, formulated her own opinion based on what she saw... and hit the Exacta and Tri.... She went to the track with me (for the first time as a horseplayer) today for the closing of TBD... Just sayin'....

That's awesome... I love it.

[Buckpasser]

From the NY Post:

And yet NBC took this big, evolving story and repeatedly ignored it. For the next 90-plus minutes, instead of leaving the odds up along the top or bottom of the screen, NBC posted them once in a while, occasionally, now and then, seldom.

But NBC annually does this to Derby viewers and to itself. Imagine if the folks who run CNBC decided to keep the screen free of the latest stock market prices?

And so, once again, when we need no graphics, the screen is loaded with them; when we need 'em, there's nothing there.

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/more_...MAg9T4kXvnbUMP

[JohnGalt1]

Originally Posted by letswastemoney

I just want them to do away with the disorientating blimp view during the race. I cannot tell which horse is which from that angle, nor do I see how a casual fan can tell where their horse is.

That's my big complaint about NBC and ESPN when showing races.

Use a normal view or track feed of the live race, then they can use the blimps and other tricky camera angles for the replays.

[Riot]

Derby Wagering, Attendance Up Despite Weather
By Blood-Horse Staff

Wagering on the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) rose 7.8%, Churchill Downs reported, and attendance increased by 1.5% even with heavy rain prior to the start of the May 1 program along with scattered thunderstorms and showers during the day.

All-sources handle improved to $112.7 million on the first jewel of the Triple Crown compared with $104.6 million last year, the track reported. All-sources wagering also was up by 4.3% for the full Kentucky Derby card, with $162.7 million wagered on the 13-race card compared with $156 million in 2009.

The figures were especially encouraging given the equipment failure at AmTote’s Oregon hub, which led to lost wagers and customer service problems for TwinSpires.com, XpressBet, Arlington Park, Fair Grounds and other wagering outlets.

On-track attendance was reported to be 155,804, an increase over 153,563 last year. Combined attendance for the Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) and Derby rose from 258,430 to 271,850.

“After setting attendance and wagering records on Oaks Day, we can’t say enough about Kentucky Derby fans who didn’t let the rain dampen their enthusiasm, said Kevin Flanery, Churchill Downs racetrack president. "The Louisville community and the entire nation of Derby fans again lent tremendous support for this great event. We were very pleased with the level of wagering on the Oaks and Derby race cards and see the overwhelmingly positive responses of our customers, both on and off track, as validation of our efforts to present our product in new and innovative ways that can be embraced by core and casual fans alike.

"We are sorry customers throughout the country experienced difficulty placing wagers on the Kentucky Derby and the undercard and we promise to get a full and complete accounting from AmTote of the failures today.”