If the Santa Anita Derby and Wood Memorial aren’t important enough to be televised, there are only five days of racing that are. It may be in this decade that they, too, will evaporate. Horse racing has long been considered a niche interest. But dismissing historic fixtures with such disregard makes the niche a mere secret.
Throughout the year, only the Triple Crown races and two days of Breeders’ Cup action – five days in all - will bring horse racing enjoyment to television audiences. Bowling, rodeo and boxing are on more than that. Surf the dial and find totally unwatchable trash on a regular basis. Yet, no person of marginal horse racing knowledge would think to abandon these poor offerings for the industry-produced sources that will carry this weekend’s action in alternate fashion.
Regulars maintain that the slight won’t affect them in one way or another. They know the landscape and can make do with computers. Nevertheless, witnessing horse racing’s main competitions disappear from key media has not been a pleasant experience. Considering the sport’s almost universal exclusion in newspapers and its status as “other” on Network Internet sites, the introduction of horse racing to new fans using conventional tools is nearly impossible.
As for upcoming Grade 1s like the Blue Grass Stakes and Arkansas Derby, the future’s no better. With fewer people able to learn about Dialed In and Uncle Mo by TV discovery, the Kentucky Derby will lose luster and probably viewers. Promotion occurs as a result of compounded effort.
There are two ways to become newsworthy. The first is to make news. The second is to buy it. Horse racing, at least on this weekend, seems incapable of either.
Vic Zast will be back on Monday morning with TrackWords. Find him on the weekend at Facebook and Twitter.
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09 Apr 2011 at 06:56 am | #
Fine and dandy.
Churchill Downs bought the time last year. Are thy expected to do it every year?
Who else is going to spend millions promoting the sport?
09 Apr 2011 at 07:03 am | #
The problem is this:
A lot of sponsorship has dried up in the past couple of years since the financial crisis started, and that has made it difficult to pay for airtime. Further problems come from the likelihood (based on what I’ve read over the past year on message boards devoted to sports broadcasting) that more and more network affiliates west of the Mississippi don’t want sports on their channels [I]at all,[/I] except for the NFL because of it being the 800-pound gorilla of TV ratings (as many of those stations not owned and operated by the networks actually make more money from infomercials in some cases as opposed to regular programming, and a sports overrun in many cases is costly for these stations!).
That said, the tracks are at fault as well. The tracks need to be MUCH more flexible with scheduling of events to make them more television-friendly, and that in some cases means having to move major stakes events into the evening, especially time slots where the networks would likely welcome having horse racing because of the likelihood it would bring in viewers that normally would not be watching TV at all, especially on Saturday night, which has become a black hole for the most part with minimal exceptions.
This is an example of what could be done on April 14, 2012 in a three and a half hour broadcast from 6:30-10:00 PM ET, though it would require Aqueduct, Hawthorne and Santa Anita to all move back their final major Derby preps by one week so they are three weeks before the Derby instead of two:
6:35—The Grade 3, $150,000 Comely (Oaks Prep) for three year old fillies at 1 Mile from Aqueduct.
6:47—The Grade 1, $300,000 Vinery Madison for fillies and mares, four year olds and upward at seven furlongs from Keeneland.
6:58—The Grade 2, $350,000 Oaklawn Handicap for four year olds and upward at 1 1/8 Miles from Oaklawn Park
7:10—The Grade 1, $250,000 Carter Handicap for three year olds and upward at Seven Furlongs from Aqueduct.
7:22—The Grade 1, $300,000 Maker’s Mark Mile for four year olds and upward at 1 Mile on turf from Keeneland.
7:34—The Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap for fillies and mares, four year olds and upward at 1 1/8 Miles from Oaklawn Park.
7:47—The Grade 1, $1,000,000 Wood Memorial for three year olds at 1 1/8 Miles from Aqueduct.
8:09—The Grade 1, $750,000 Blue Grass for three year olds and upward at 1 1/8 Miles from Keeneland
8:24—The Grade 2, $150,000 Providencia for three year old fillies at 1 1/8 Miles on turf from Santa Anita.
8:40—The Grade 1, $1,000,000 Arkansas Derby for three year olds at 1 1/8 Miles from Oaklawn
8:57—The Grade 2, $150,000 Arcadia Handicap for three year olds and upward at 1 1/8 Miles on turf from Santa Anita.
9:14—The Grade 3, $300,000 Illinois Derby for three year olds at 1 1/8 Miles from Hawthorne.
9:37—The Grade 1, $1,000,000 Santa Anita Derby for three year olds at 1 1/8 Miles from Santa Anita.
This telecast would jam 13 races into a fast-paced, three-and-a-half hour format. It’s exactly what the sport needs at this time, especially since it can be a perfect set-up telecast for the Kentucky Derby three weeks later while at the same time giving other divisions a spotlight they would not normally have at this point in the year. While many traditionalists would whine about having races moved into the evening (and in some cases run at night), if this sport is going to create new fans, this is the kind of telecast the sport needs to do (that I would be actually looking to do as a monthly series of mainly three-hour telecasts that would run from 8:00-11:00 PM ET on Saturday nights during the summer). Given how bad prime time ratings are on Saturday night as a whole, it’s the one time where the NTRA and other outlets might not have to pay as much (if at all) for airtime because nothing else does well, and a network might be ecstatic with a 2.0-2.5 rating on a Saturday night given how poor ratings really are, especially if those viewers are mainly ones who otherwise would not be watching TV at all on Saturday night.
09 Apr 2011 at 07:18 am | #
Vic, I guess we’ve discussed this in person a number of times.
I remember when the Wood Memorial would get 30,000 plus. Now they’ll be lucky to get 6,000, half of which are there only because NYC OTB closed!!
I remember when every Saturday channel 9 had the racing show with Frank Wright, Charlsie Cantey, and Fred Capposella. They even had the trotters show 3 times a week.
I remember the day after the derby when the results would be the front page lead story on every newspaper.
While I think casino gambling and OTB has done a lot to harm the sport I also think the failure of the sport to promote itself has something to do with it. I remember wher every single bus in NYC had a big poster “the fastest animal in the world” on it.
Ask the average NY’er where Aqueduct is and they won’t be able to tell you.
I remember driving to Baltimore to go to Pimlico and asked two Baltimore cops for directions and neither one knew how to get there. But I bet they knew how to get to the Oriole’s Stadium.
Sorry, but I don’t think racinos are the answer. They are just slot machine emporiums that just happen to have horse racing as a sideline the same way they have buffets!!
10 Apr 2011 at 12:15 am | #
Jeffrey:
They actually drew 12,144 to Aqueduct on Saturday, and it likely would have been more, but due to the construction that is close to the limit Aqueduct can currently handle on a given day (plus, the weather was not all that great for early April and you had Yankees-Red Sox airing on FOX in New York). Given everything going on around the Big A, there being limited in capacity right now and some subway lines being re-routed, that is a very good number that I would be pleased with for Saturday.
10 Apr 2011 at 08:36 am | #
The results of the Wood are a perfect example of the unfortunate (for racing coverage) situation where a potential “superstar” gets unexpected media attention prior to the race and then, when he falters, the excitement about his future fades right along with the momentary boost in interest in the sport by the public in general.
Case in point: I was surprised when watching the NYC sports report earlier this past week to see sports reporter Bruce Beck from WNBC out there at Belmont interviewing Todd Pletcher about Uncle Mo. For the Wood? Even if it’s a NY race, the days of its being mentioned in connection with the run-up to the Derby are long since gone. So I was really pleased when his report drew some favorable comment from the news anchors. Imagine that? Excitement about an upcoming race that’s NOT the Ky. Derby! Well, it’s all gone now. The race was run, and now whatever excitement the general public might have embraced is gone with it. That’s just racing. But it’s another unfortunate outcome of the media world in which we live today.
As Jeffrey Rosen so accurately writes, in the days of ch. 9’s reports with Frank Wright, etc. (I grew up on those and became a Kelso fan because of them), you got to know the horses on a regular basis because the media exposure for the general public was there. You didn’t need cable TV. Like everything else in America, people’s circle of interest today is no longer expanding, it’s decreasing and being confined only to the subjects and the viewpoints one wishes to follow. There is no such thing as broadcasting anymore; everything is narrowcasting.
With NBC televising the Triple Crown in its entirety, you might have thought that at least they could have covered the Wood on its Universal Sports or Versus cable outlets if only to serve their own interests in building up viewership leading to the Triple Crown. (Check out the virtual saturation coverage on Universal Sports of skiing...) So I guess that’s why I was so happy that at least the local media did a report on Uncle Mo. It’s sad when a few crumbs have to count for a full meal. My stomach is already growling.
10 Apr 2011 at 08:20 pm | #
Number 19:
Uncle Mo got the press he did in New York because of his connections (owners being from New York) in addition to being the top Derby horse. Pletcher actually wanted to run Mo in the Florida Derby, but Mike Repole wanted Mo to race at Aqueduct. His grabbing a quarter probably compromised his effort, but it may also have been Toby’s Corner in particular jumped up and improved sharply (the last quarter was not exactly slow for the distance).
The coverage we had last year was because Churchill Downs put up the $2 Million+ of their own money to do it. They likely could not find sufficient sponsors to do it for the Wood/Illinois Derby/Santa Anita Derby, especially since it was airing directly opposite third round coverage of The Masters on CBS (and enhanced coverage of that on DirecTV), which I believe killed the Blue Grass and Arkansas Derby when those two races aired opposite the Masters last April (The TC preps are essentially a week later than normal this year due to the calendar).
As said upthread, if the sport wants to get coverage, they are going to have to be willing to go into more “television friendly” time slots, even if it means pushing races back into the evening. Given how Saturday night prime time ratings have been in the toilet with limited exceptions in recent years, I think NBC would relish having a “Super Saturday” in prime time leading up to the Derby as posted above.
10 Apr 2011 at 08:27 pm | #
Adding to what I said above:
Basically, what is needed is for tracks to come together and create a series of made-for-TV racing programs grouping a mix of major and significant stakes together that can air as usually a 9-10 race, three hour program from various tracks around the country (that could be launched either with the 13-race, three and a half hour telecast noted above or an earlier one in March).
11 Apr 2011 at 03:08 pm | #
Well, Uncle Mo and the other Derby contenders are apparently making the CBS Evening News tonight:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/10/eveningnews/main20052614.shtml?tag=nl.e887
As far as I know, CBS doesn’t have a dog in the fight, so to speak, although their sports honcho is Sean McManus, son of Jim McKay…
11 Apr 2011 at 08:02 pm | #
It is nice to dream. I would like to get the odds of that happening and put $1 on it NOT happening. Have to be millions to one against.
IMO, the answer is: IT CAN’T… This damn industry can’t fill a card with more than 6 competitive horses on a regular basis. The product you wish to televise is corrupt and terminal.
How many more meetings does the crippled bleeding life of this industry have left in it???
The only results EVER are to meet again to discuss doing more nothing. Status quo is a death sentence. It is already too late for California. How many short fields of odds on choices will the bettors stand? Once the rebaters are the only raiders left in the pools how long will tracks and ADWs put up with the negative pools? Racing is already full of cheaters and habitual rule breakers. Enforcement is almost non-existent or it is anti-betting fan. Anti-truth. Anti-fact sharing.
Exchange wagering is not going to help the current situation right itself. It will give the betting public a chance to get even money or better a few more times before they quit for good. Trainers and jockies are already throwing races to collect bets on other runners. It is not illegal for them to bet. CRAPOLA, it does not even seem to be illegal for them to cheat.
Anyone notice how terrible NY racing is getting? Close your eyes and they are a California twin. Short fields full of odds on choices and pools full of rebate raiders. It will not cure itself and those making the decisions are not!!! RIP racing.
More racing on TV??? God, most of us cannot stand watching it live. The reason bowling is on more is that it still has an honest game for the audience. Look at the results of the Life At Ten investigation.
A couple of scape-goats and strong suggestions that jocks and all racing employees be muzzled. No discussion whatever with the public about anything racing. Do not reveal what a cesspool they are being asked to swim in. Yeah. Put more of that on TV…
05 May 2011 at 10:05 am | #
NEWSWORTHY???
If not the Feds, then who, these people???
These are the very same people who are going to change and clean up the industry (NOT).
Excerpt from the Bloodhorse website News article:
CHRB Whistle Blower Sues Agency
By Jack Shinar
Updated: Wednesday, May 4, 2011 5:26 PM
Posted: Wednesday, May 4, 2011 4:17 PM
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According to his lawsuit, Atashkar’s problems began in 2006 when he informed Fermin of illegal computer activity by Roy Minami, who was then the agency’s assistant executive director. Minami eventually resigned and was replaced by Smith, whom Atashkar also alleges used the CHRB system for “problematic email.”
He said his initial complaints to Fermin went nowhere.
“I was very naive,” he said. “I didn’t know who my friends were.”
Beginning in July 2006, Atashkar alleged he became aware of improper activities by Fermin, Shapiro and others, including “misappropriation of taxpayer funds by CHRB executives; backdating of contracts in favor of friends of CHRB executives; the illegal collection of funds for the benefit of Shapiro and Fermin; pornography and inappropriate video stored in CHRB computer system.”
He claimed, in an interview, that he has the documentation to prove that Fermin and Shapiro misused the testing system for Total Carbon Dioxide (TCO2), known as “green sheets,” to target individual trainers for prosecution. They also used insider information to warn favored trainers of upcoming tests for particular medications, he charged, and circumvented state hiring practices to employ trainer Darrell Vienna as a board consultant and Dr. Rick Arthur as the CHRB’s equine medical director.
Once the defendants were informed of his charges, Atashkar said hostility on the job forced him to take an illness leave in late 2006, In February 2007 he and Frank Moore, then the CHRB’s head of investigation, took Atashkar’s allegations to the California Highway Patrol. As a result of that, he contends in the lawsuit, Fermin, Shapiro and Smith “began a campaign of retaliation.”
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