Last year when Funny Cide wins by 9, NBC fails to show the exciting fight for the other positions and left all of the exotics bettors holding their breath until they decided to post the official results. Not even a replay, except to show Funny Cide all alone. This year was much the same, as we could barely see Lion Heart trying to hang on for the show. The chart shows 3rd, 4th and 5th (Edington, Lion Heart, and Imperialism) being separated by a total of two heads. And no idea of the actual finish until the official order was finished. And instead of Santos\' kid this year, now we get to see Chapman being assisted down the escalator to go to the winner\'s circle. Why didn\'t they also follow him to the bathroom? Maybe someday they\'ll actually have someone who understands horseracing in the control room.
To me, this is racing\'s fault. When they negotiate contracts for TV coverage, racing could impose requirements, and they have consistently failed to do so.
Even when racing has total control, they fail to use it. There was a $200,000 Grade III sprint immediately before the Preakness that could have been run during ESPN\'s coverage, but was instead run after NBC had taken over, and was ignored.
Even ESPN\'s coverage of the races on the undercard was poor from a gambling perspective. Rather, than handicapping races and showing odds, they kept repeating the same features all day long.
It\'s almost as if racing and the people who televise it (other than TVG, of course) are embarrassed by the gambling aspect of the game. Wake up and smell the coffee. Gambling is not exactly unpopular, and without gambling, there is no horse racing.
Bit Player,you are dead right.The clowns who control the TV have basically no horseracing knowledge and try too hard to create HUMAN STORIES rather than hard core racing stories.I was sick they didn\'t show the sprint race which I bet on and never saw.
I don\'t get it. The NBC show is not for hard core bettors. It is for the general public. Your casual fan wants to see the winner, they don\'t care who came in 4th! If you can\'t wait those 10 or 20 seconds, log in to your Phonebet or Magna account and watch the race.
your right Beyer..but I lost the link to Magna and the weight was excrutiating...lol
I never trust my computer tickets until I double check them and I lost magna immediately after the race...lol
If it was only ten or twenty seconds, I wouldn\'t complain. We waited until the official result was posted. And we really needed to to see Roy Chapman going down the escalator with his wheel chair.
Well you know what they say THOU SHALT NOT GAMBLE and THOU SHALT NOT GOSSIP where in the original Commandments till Moses dropped it cause he was laughing so hard.
beyerguy -
A few points:
I\'m not a \"hard core\" bettor (I rarely bet anything more exotic than an exacta), but I still like to see who finished where. As you suggest, I have learned (after last year\'s wait -- minutes, not seconds -- to see that Midway Road completed the Preakness exacta) to go to the Internet for the results of TV races.
I think it\'s possible for TV to serve both bettors and the general public. How long does it take to show a replay of the first few finishers?
I reject the notion that the \"general public\" doesn\'t bet, especially on Triple Crown races. Members of my family who don\'t bet any other time of the year bet on Triple Crown races.
You don\'t have to be playing trifectas or superfectas to want to know who finished second or third. Based on my experience escorting members of the \"general public\" to the track, they often (despite my protestations) bet to show. Presumably, they\'d like to know if they won.
I understand that NBC is interested in ratings (and maybe Emmies), not bettors, but racing has an interest in these broadcasts too, and racing needs to develop customers. I think racing does itself a disservice when it allows the betting aspect of the sport to be downplayed. Even broadcasts that are paid for by racing (think Sunshine Millions) tend not to be bettor friendly.
By any standard, the TV camera should be focused on the correct finish line, as it was NOT in this year\'s Arkansas Derby.
Things that I can forgive in NBC broadcasts, I can\'t forgive in ESPN broadcasts. ESPN is not targeting the general public. ESPN2 was on the air from Pimlico for almost 5 hours Saturday before they stopped showing the morning line for the Preakness and started giving odds based on the early betting (which started on Friday). I would think the fact that Smarty Jones was bet down to 2/5 early would be newsworthy, if only to emphasize how much the \"general public\" loves Smarty Jones.
To be fair, there\'s one thing that ESPN does that I love. The blimp shots of racing action are great. You get a great view of who had traffic problems (Millennium Dragon, for example) and who fouled whom. I\'d love to see racing find a way to get high-angle shots to help out the stewards and trip handicappers (and even figure makers who need accurate ground loss info). With today\'s technology, there ought to be a way.
Guys, get some perspective, NBC is covering a sporting event, not a gambling result. When Secretariat won the Belmont by 31, I\'m glad they didn\'t swing the camera off him in midstretch to show Thrice A Prince (or whoever it was) get up for second.
Bitplayer: Don\'t hold your breath waiting for racing to utilize \"today\'s technology\" (like the ESPN blimp raceview), they could have easily implemented a way to accurately time each horses fractional times several years ago by putting a tiny electronic gizmo in each horses bridle (or wherever) and tranmitting their times to a computer as each horse passed each pole but they haven\'t done anything in this area yet. I guess they would rather leave the bettors, especially the pace handicappers, crunching numbers using somebody\'s estimated lengths beaten rather than the real times.
There are numerous other utilizations of new technologies that the tracks could be utilizing to the benefit of the horseplayers but, so far, they haven\'t shown any interest at all in doing so. Asfufh
Well Technology is advanced the new self service terminals even have a quick pick on them. Wouldn\'t it be nice though if it would give you at T-Graph pick that had a chance of winning even if there was a fee for the service in addition to the bet. Small price for improved odds of hitting a superfecta.
Believe it or not, somebody actually talked to us about doing just that.
There is more to it than just placing transmitters in the saddles. The system must be trianguled. There would have to be a grid of sensors placed below the track surface and the entire area would have to be flooded with radio waves to show just where the horse is at every point during the race. There would be no guessing. You could practically measure each animal\'s effort in number of strides.
I\'d like to chime in about how, even if you give NBC the pass because of a show directed more to the casual fan, that ESPN certainly should be doing a better job.
BitPlayer has it exactly right about the morning line odds scenario too. I had some futures postitions on a few of the the horses in the Preakness and thus was very interested to see the early betting trends. Not only did they not even mention the early betting Friday (one had to wait until hours later on the bloodhorse or thoroughbred times website to find out that Smarty was getting hammered and thus was a lock to close less than even money...when he was much more than that at most offshore places), but Saturday, as BP says, they waited FOREVER to finally give us updated odds.
Absolutely unacceptable. It disgusts me that such a simple thing, which is really in the public\'s interest, as it would give them a more accurate account of reality (what\'s being bet as opposed to some idiots morning line...which are horrible estimations anyways as they always have waaaay too much juice built into them), that such a simple thing could not be shown as soon as possible.
You\'d think they\'d WANT to give this information as it would enhance the quality of their telecasts.
I will say this though about ESPN, the blimp shots do rock, they are just absolutely fabulous at conveying more information about how the race was run. And excepting the 50% of the time that Kenny Mayne attempts his dry humour that, while it works well in other situations (see his NFL pieces), just does not work on live racing telecasts, that in general the announcers ESPN have (especially Randy Moss) are about a gazzillion times better than the fools at NBC (Costas being the notable and obvious exception).
Tom Hammond and Charlsie Canty...I mean my god...is it any wonder that racing has had problems getting viewers with such incompetant and just plain bad announcers.
Even with the big ratings NBC has been generating since it took over triple crown coverage a few years ago from ABC, just imagine how much better it could even be if they\'d simply just hire say Randy Moss and Kurt Hoover instead of the absolute excrement that they now have on display.
Post Edited (05-18-04 21:40)
You\'re being a little tough on Hammonds. I think he does a solid job orchestrating the telecast and obviously has a passion for horses. Cantey can go away, Jeanine Edwards would be much better. But if I had only 1 vote, it would be for Battaglia to leave. His interviews really suck....lots of giggling and smiling, pure fluff, excruciating to listen too. He couldn\'t pick the winner of a walkover. At least he doesn\'t call the races.
I don\'t understand the griping about the placings. Most people betting are either at the track/simulcast or on-line. Its not as if NBC doesn\'t post the complete order of finish. If you\'re that impatient for results there are about a hundred different ways to find them. I do agree that network telecasts can do a better job appealing to both casual and serious racing fans, but until/if they do log on or call your buddies.
I can just hear it now...minutes before the Belmont Stakes as the horses are ready to load directly in front of the stands....so Charlsie, Who do you like?...Oh,I\'m going to have to go with SMARTY JONES in this one and I\'m going to say it\'s SMARTY JONES with ROCK HARD TEN a solid second....well there you have it...straight from our expert Charlsie Cantey.
Enough of this SMARTY JONES can\'t lose. I say after the perfect prep in Saturday\'s Peter Pan, Frankel sends them all home muttering again this year after MASTER DAVID wins the Belmont Stakes.
Good Luck,
Joe B.
I think Eddington has a shot if he runs the whole race and doesn\'t go into \"idle mode\".
EDD did gain 5 lengths on RHT in the stretch of the Preakness.
And he did work superbly at Belmont Park before the race.
Jake--
EDDINGTON has no shot as long as he\'s in \"clueless\" Hennig\'s barn. The horse has run out of excuses. Talented?, yes. Knows what he\'s out there to do?, no way.
Good Luck,
Joe B.