NBC Blew this one
 

should have shown the race before the Preakness. G2 stakes won by Larry Jones and Gabriel Saez.

That should have been a great way to show them... and they blew it and totally missed the boat bigtime!

That was one of the best posts ever on any Horse Racing board in my opinion. Excellent point.

And to give the last point in their round table discussion to a man who writes for a living and who was surrounded my men who live and breathe Horse Racing is laughable.

Can't be said enough, excellent, excellent post.

The fact that they simply ignored the race is pathetic, but what a great way it would have been to showcase them. I wish ESPN had the Preakness.

i'm just so thrilled that they didn't cut the touching human interest story on Dutrow:rolleyes:

i muted that part and played spades....

hey, they only have so much time to spend on showing racing, what with all the interviews and such...can't actually show horses other than in the big race. :rolleyes:

no, seriously, they should showcase a couple of the big races leading up to the preakness, rather than 87 minutes of filler and a couple minutes of racing.

how many times do we have to hear about big browns shoes already?

Love that Budweiser commercial!! :)

For me, the absolutely worst coverage of any race day. As said...hello, there are other races..

..and the panel discussion...yech, I swaer I saw smoke out of Gary Stevens...if he was 6'5" he would have taken that guy down.

and all the dribble...no wonder why the general public does not like the sport.

Finally, no infield scenes... what's up with that.

I'd give a C....for CRAP!

Spyder

I missed the first 30 min. cuz I stayed on ESPN. Did NBC grace us with Heidi Montag and Spencer like they did at the Derby? So sorry if they did and I missed it. Just devastated. :rolleyes:

"I'm never satisfied!! I should be in charge!!! Whaaaah!"

Exactly

Having seen racing in England, they have a higher standard and coverage is excellent..this was crap. You got it right

I thought the coverage was quite good. The majority of viewers don't give a **** about the undercard. And quite frankly I'm sick of hearing about Larry Jones and Saez when Big Brown should be THE story.

I totally agree, although it doesn't suprise me they blew it! It's just ridiculous!:mad:

I had 2 people call me after that story asking why this guy is still allowed to train. I couldn't answer that. Yet the racing industry wonders why they can't attract new fans.

I just watched the panel discussion and Rhoden came off as a absolute know nothing a-hole. He was totally out of his element and had no clue. Just the fact that he mentioned bull fighting and horse racing in the same sentence proves that he is borderline retarded. I wish Stevens would have punched him in the face. I thought Dr. Larry, Stevens and Larry Jones were very well spoken and answered all the questions. But here's a little note for NBC. If you want someone to play devil's advocate, try finding someone who has watched more than 4 races in their lifetime. What an F'N moron!

Comp agree. As soon as that guy mentioned bull fighting in the same breathe as horse racing Stevens was ready to lose it.

Guy did not even know that the sport has races strictly for 2 year olds.

I bet NBC couldn't find anyone else- the poor guy was clearly uncomfortable on camera and I kept wishing someone would get him a handkerchief for his weepy eye. That happens on news-style programs all the time- commentators are booked and then are given a few hours to prep on a subject they don't know much about, which I bet happened here, too. I notice NBC didn't have anyone on the panel from the breeding industry, or any owners, which I think would have made for a better discussion- minus the columnist's uninformed opinions, it was pretty much, "steroids bad" "two-year-olds racing good" "fillies against boys also good." Which may all be true, but was pretty dull to watch.

I would have liked some close ups of the horses as Donna Brothers was describing them from atop her horse in the post parade. She said some interesting things like Hey Byrn was too heavy and won't stay around long....ummm, no shot of Big Byrn...then she said Gayego typically carries a lot of flesh but he looked bigger than ever....no shot of Gayego...not a tight production there when it could have been a highlight.

That's not what she said about Gayego . . . Do you ever get anything right?

Golden Missle joke in 3...2....1.....

What did she say toothless goon ?

wrong again....I have BEEN the joke for a long time:cool:

Thought she said something relative to most horses losing some weight after a taxing effort and that Gayego hadn't lost any weight after the Arky Derby. Can't remember what else she said ...

forget about that. i had money on it. how do they not show it ? its ridiculous at least ESPN showed the undercard. i don't want to see some idiot panel act like a horse breaks down every race, what crap ! it reminded me of some stupid political debate. did they have seats for obama, macain and clinton. i suppose congress will review horse racing. its a sport injuries happen. did they have all this hoopla for football when kevin everett broke his kneck last season. how about dale earnhardt is car racing suddenly halted. why don't we all live in bubbles and breathe through oxygen tanks for crying out loud !

I made the point to someone else earlier that I think NBC did thing by not showing the race Jones and Saenz won. Obviously, they couldn't have known those two would win the race but not focusing on them having won it was the right move, IMO. Right now, with Eight Belles' death, the focus of the media and the public and also the industry is on what can be done to prevent these kinds of things from happening in the future. Not everyone is going about it the right way but not everyone is going about it the wrong way either. I've heard good and bad suggestions but the point is that at least there are discussions. Showing Jones and Saenz celebrating a win here would have sent the wrong message to the public. We as racing fans understand that while it's a difficult part of the game to accept, it's still a part of the game what happened to EB. The media and the public doesn't get this. Showing those guys as having just moved on to the next horse and race would have given the thought to people that we've just moved on, which we as racing fans have, but that's not what they want to see. They want to see that this is a serious issue and is being looked at, not just business as usual.

I could not disagree more. What were they supposed to do? go into hiding and give up the game? as if they did something wrong? it stinks that they didn't get any kind of coverage on Preakness day regarding their win.

I'm not sure I understand your post. Of course Jones and Saenz were supposed to go on. They did absolutely nothing wrong. They have nothing to be ashamed of or nothing to hide from. They, like us, understand that what happened was an unfortunate incident but it's one of the things that's a part of racing and can happen to any horse at any time. I just feel that at this time, the public out there is negative towards racing. The sport is under attack from animal rights groups and the media as being barbaric and unnecessary. As I said earlier, people in the industry and fans like those of us who come on message boards, we understand what happened and that no matter what new regulations they come up with, it's going to continue to happen. But at this time, I think that the last thing the public wants to see is business as usual. I think right now, they want the focus to be more on finding ways to stop this from happening rather than celebrating the next victory.

In my opinion the public doesn't need to be coddled because they wouldn't understand. if you do that then you essentially let the groups that are attacking the sport rule the airwaves. I think even casual fans would get that these people have to go on with their lives and wouldn't see it as being callous or cold.

if we are to be so concerned that public doesn't want to see business as usual, why even telecast the Preakness? Isn't that business as usual?

I think they missed a real human interest story in that people generally like to see people be able to come back from tragedy and do well. how emotional do you think that win was for Jones/Saez?

I know it was very emotional for them and you may be right that the human interest story would have gone over well. I just feel like right now, they need to go in a different direction. I think the public does need to be coddled a little bit.

I just thought that after all the bad press on Jones/Saez and the horse industry, that even if they didn't show the race (which they should have), they could have taken out 30 seconds afterwards, just to show Jones/Saez in the winners circle. At least take a couple of seconds out somewhere in their telecast to show something positive happening to a couple of good people.
I agree the focus of the telecast should have been the Preakness and Big Brown, but a couple of seconds to show something positive would have been nice.

They could have done a piece on Chelokee, and how with todays technology they were able to operate and save him. But that would have been something positive, so I guess forget it.