In what ended to be a cruel irony, horseracing took a giant step backwards yesterday as its national television coverage was reduced one hour by the network the industry entrusted to bring it to the forefront of the American public. It wasn’t the first time and it most likely won’t be the last time, either. Desperate for exposure, the horseracing industry as a whole was inadvertently and innocently, but soundly humiliated by ESPN programmers and their sense of priorities, as racing took a back seat to powerhouses such as exhibition baseball and college wrestling. A sad statement of affairs, indeed. The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), who represents the industry, now finds itself in the unenviable position of starting its season playing catch up like a late breaking horse out of the gate.It all started out with such promise. In February of this year, the NTRA issued a press release announcing it had reached an agreement with ESPN, and its parent company, ABC, to televise an eight show series of Kentucky Derby prep races. The series is to promote interest for the industry’s biggest day, the Kentucky Derby, and is in effect, the playoffs for three year old horses. “We are proud to once again work with our partners at ABC and ESPN to present this exciting series,” said D.G. Van Clief, Jr., Commissioner of the NTRA. “Fans will have an opportunity to see all the top contenders for the Triple Crown races, as well as horses who will be prominent performers throughout 2006.”
The series began yesterday and was supposed to be a 90 minute broadcast for four major stakes races; the Gotham Stakes from Aqueduct, the Rebel Stakes from Oaklawn, the Tampa Bay Derby from Tampa and the San Felipe Stakes from Santa Anita. Four important stakes races on the same day is a rarity, akin to the planets being cosmically aligned. The NTRA couldn’t have planned things any better. Coverage was to begin at 6:00pm eastern time, and it was at this time when things started to unravel. ESPN’s coverage of the World Baseball Classic, a series of exhibition games involving teams from all different nations ran long. Racing fans around the country eagerly awaiting to see these four important races collectively groaned when they saw the game was only in the seventh inning. The possibility of the event being transferred to ESPN2 quickly faded as a quick channel surf revealed live women’s tennis.
The ax mercifully fell when ESPN’s baseball broadcasters callously announced that “Citgo’s Road to the Kentucky Derby” would be seen immediately after the conclusion of the ball game. The missing phrase “in its entirety” sealed the fate of all horseracing fans throughout the country. The game droned on for an extra hour, leaving ESPN’s racing anchors scrambling to cram 90 minutes of coverage into a half hour. The half hour package of the biggest day of the year thus far turned into a glorified highlights show, complete with one question interviews and brief snippets of talking points rather than in-depth analysis. Coverage ended abruptly, without sacrificing ample time for commercials, so that the network could cover collegiate wrestling.
Although NTRA officials were no doubt horrified, they should have expected such treatment. Last year, important stakes races were routinely preempted for little league baseball and NHL hockey. The good news is that the NTRA has an agreement with ESPN to broadcast many racing events, particularly important when one considers racing’s need for exposure and public interest. The bad news is that ESPN treats the sport as filler material for other programming, rarely broadcasting it in its entirety. The end result is mixed message for the NTRA, with the carrot of national exposure dangling just out of reach.
The racing industry is in crisis right now. It finds itself needing another Secretariat to put the sport in the public eye. It also needs to promote changes within its several factions in order to deal with increased casino and internet gambling. Most importantly, it needs to attract new fans through greater television exposure, but will never accomplish this goal with ESPN’s abbreviated coverage, which leaves even the most seasoned racing fan disgruntled and wishing they were a fan of college wrestling.
2 replies on “HORSERACING’S DARKEST HOUR”
Do you honestly believe… that America would’ve stood for ESPN pre-empting the WBC to cut to horse racing? I appreciate your passion for horse racing and your disappointment, (I myself enjoy tuning in to the triple crown races especially when the TC is on the line at the Belmont), but unfortunately it’s seen it’s best days in the bygone, three network era (even they only televised a few races a year) and unless another Big Red, Seattle Slew or Stevie Cauthen comes along, it will continue it’s position out of the American spotlight.
The NTRA’s television schedule……. is tentative at best. When the nation’s biggest sports programmer repeatedly preempts your events, the network either is completely inept in scheduling (not likely), or your industry is disposable in their eyes. There is no doubt that racing viewed their contract with ESPN as an achievement by obtaining maximun public exposure on the nation’s biggest sports programmer, a big first step in revitalizing the sport. Instead, they find themselves being an also-ran.