Both the ABC coverage of the Florida Derby and the replay I saw later on TVG (perhaps the same footage, I\'m not sure) included cutting to a close-up of the leaders when the horses were midway through the far turn. Someone should explain to the producers that this is when the closers are starting to move into contention (Noble Causeway in this instance), so it\'s not good to cut them out of the picture.
On the flip side, I usually hate up-close-and-personal stuff during horse race coverage, but I enjoyed the Jerry Bailey piece. I\'d never heard or read any of that before.
I think we all agree that networks would be better off using the track\'s video feed of the races.
Bailey\'s alchohol problems were not as publicized as Pat Day\'s drug problems when he was younger. The first I read of Bailey\'s problems was in a book called \"Ride of Their Lives\", by Lenny Shulman, which profiled Bailey, Day, Chavez, Stevens, Antley, Nakatani, Guidry and others.
To me the true star of the Bailey piece was not the rider, but the narrator. Jim McKay, who has to be nearly 80, has been a true friend of racing for more than 50 years, especially in Maryland. I\'m sure many times McKay had to fight at ABC to keep the network covering thoroughbred racing when some of the other \"visionaries\" at the network wanted to cover skateboarding or parasailing.