ESPN Telecast

[Rileyoriley]

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.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by FairPlay

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.

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.

[sumitas]

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.

[Pedigree Ann]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

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.

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?

Originally Posted by Rileyoriley

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.

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 .

[Dunbar]

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

--Dunbar