The Triple Crown:The Kentucky Derby was two weeks ago, and the Preakness took place on Saturday. Smarty Jones won both of them, very impressively.

I can remember when the coverage would be an hour (2 minutes of racing, 30 of filler, and 28 minutes of commercials). Now it's 2 minutes of racing, 30 of filler and 58 minutes of commercials. The Preakness coverage was two hours, mainly because one of the horses threw a shoe at the last minute.

You get the back story of the horse, the owners, trainer and jockey. Once, this is reasonably interesting. Five times, not so much. You get everybody's predictions, the horseracing equivilent of a horoscope, and just about as useful. You get that bane of modern sports programs: Stupid Statistics ('A Philadelphia horse hasn't won since 1931' 'the third undefeated horse to win the Kentucky Derby' etc.) Like: who the hell cares?

Nothing about the horses' pedigrees, which interests me, but apparently nobody else.

The press is milking the 'underdog' story for what it's worth. An underdog in horseracing is any horse not owned by a Gulf oil prince. That said, it was kind of amusing to see Smarty Jones, a rather small, undistinguished-looking horse, kick the ass of Hard Rock Ten, a very big, very handsome California bred. The Seabiscuit syndrome, I guess (what they don't emphasize about Seabiscuit is that he was the nephew of War Admiral, the Triple Crown winner he beat in a famous match race. War Admiral was a son of Man 'O War, and Seabiscuit was a grandson.) Irony: Hard Rock Ten was ridden by the jockey who played George Wolfe in the movie "Seabiscuit."

The Belmont is the last, longest, and hardest race of the three. Seattle Slew was the last winner in 1978. Lots of horses have won the first two races, only to fail in the Belmont, so the odds are against Smarty, but that's Stupid Statistics, so who cares?

Is "Rock Hard Ten" the horse's porn name?

I thought it was any horse not trained by Baffert or Lucas.

I've been wondering if the Preakness has been fixed in recent years in favor of the Kentucky Derby winner, in order to keep up interest (i.e., TV ratings) for the Belmont Stakes. The "almost Triple Crown" has happened too many times during the past decade to be a coincidence, it seems.

Even if Smarty Jones does win in three weeks, people aren't gonna start watching more horse racing afterwards.

I was just complaining to my mother that I remembered the good old days when the television coverage started at 4:30, the race started at 4:57, and the race was over by 4:59. None of this up close and personal garbage that they insist on showing over, and over, and over again. But at least now it's on NBC and I don't have to listen to Jim McKay stumble over every other word.

I don't think the Preakness is fixed. It's just short; the shortest of the three races. A lot of horses don't have the staying power for the Belmont, which is by far the longest. Occasionally a horse wins the Derby and the Belmont (that happened to Riva Ridge, Secretariat's half brother). It was raining on Preakness Day and he wasn't a mudder. And occasionally a horse wins the last two races, which I think was true of Little Current (I might be wrong, there). Also the Derby and the Preakness are two weeks apart. The Belmont is three weeks after the Preakness, which throws some horses off. I wondered if the rain on Derby Day was going to affect Smarty Jones. Apparently, however, he's a mudder.

I don't agree about horse racing; if more of it was shown on television, I'd watch. I thoroughly enjoy the Breeder's Cup, which is held in the fall, and has seven races: which include a juvenile (2 year olds), a filly race, a sprint, a turf race (on grass a l'Europe), and a "Horse of the Year" race for a big purse.

There is a Canadian Triple Crown, too: The Queen's Plate (the big race), the Prince of Wales stakes, and the Breeder's Stakes (a turf race). The Queen's Plate is usually televised.

I'd like to see the European races on television, especially steeplechasing, which isn't popular in North America, dunno why. However, most of the good European horses do come over for the Breeder's Cup.

Word to not missing Jim McKay.

I think the top 5-6 horses in the Preakness are usually not as talented as the top 5-6 in either the Derby or Belmont. Several horses each year run in the Derby, do reasonably well, but their trainers skip the Preakness because the two-week layoff is deemed too short or they figure their horse is better suited for the Belmont.*

That move paid off for Bobby Frankel last year; Empire Maker finished 2nd to Funny Cide in the Derby, skipped the Preakness, then came back for the Belmont and won it.

Horses in that situation (ran in the Derby, skipped the Preakness, will likely run in the Belmont) this year are: Tapit (9th in the Derby); Master David (12th -- trained by Frankel); and Friend's Lake (15th).

That being said, there are a lot of filler horses that don't belong in the Derby (maybe 5-8 in a field of 20), because owners (and the trainers who advise them) get greedy and want to say that they got a horse into the Kentucky Derby, if only to finish last.

Thanks to zenner for starting this thread; I'm a Louisville native so horse racing is in my blood. :) I'm always interested in hearing what other fans have to say.

* USA TODAY had a good article last week about the difficulties trainers face in preparing their horses for the Kentucky Derby, much less one or both of the other two Triple Crown races.

Here are highlights:

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Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, emphasizes that the Derby alone, with the grueling preparation required to succeed over 1 and 1/4 miles -— a distance most will run for the first time -— takes a tremendous toll on still-developing Thoroughbreds.

"You ruin $100 million worth of horses," Frankel says, "to try to win this race."

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D. Wayne Lukas, who trained Charismatic and owns a record 13 Triple Crown titles, says the spacing of races works against keeping horses sound.

"When we train horses, time is our ally," the Hall of Famer says. "And we don't get the time."

Lukas has an immodest proposal.

Reduce the Kentucky Derby by one furlong to 1 1/8 miles. Push the Preakness back one week to allow three weeks between races but keep that distance at 1 3/16 miles. Slash the Belmont distance, an amount of ground Thoroughbreds are never asked to cover before or after that endurance test, from 1½ to 1¼ miles.

"Traditionalists are just going to scream, but these would be the same people who kicked about the three-point line that is so popular now in basketball," Lukas says. "Change sometimes is good."

----------------

Breeders' Cup President D.G. Van Clief, an industry leader, says "momentum will grow" to change the format if there is not a Triple Crown breakthrough this year or in the near future.

"I'd be hesitant to change the format just because it is such a recognizable sporting fixture," he says. "On the other hand, each year we go without a Triple Crown winner, the case is building for more space between races because we are asking a lot of these young horses."

I would definitely watch if it were televised more often. The problem with the Triple Crown coverage on NBC is that they try to appease both the intense, educated, experienced audience (maybe 20% of those watching), and the passive audience (the other 80%) -- the kind of people who are avid sports fans but never go to the track or think much of horse racing 362 days of the year.

The team of announcers and analysts NBC has is very good and can speak to the intense audience, but they stay away from details for most of the telecast and focus on the "vignette" pieces on individual horses, trainers or owners that will hopefully create the kind of story with enough pull to appeal to the passive audience.

I think that if NBC had horse racing telecasts throughout the year, the total number of viewers for the Triple Crown races would increase, and a larger percentage of the Triple Crown audience would be interested in more detailed coverage.

It seems like the entire horse racing industry uses the Triple Crown as a crutch, and they pray to God that there's an interesting "story" to sell to the public every year.

The funny thing is that a) Smarty Jones was undefeated heading into the Kentucky Derby, and b) by mid-afternoon on Derby day, he was the favorite in the betting odds, so he wasn't exactly an underdog!

The official "morning line" odds on this year's Kentucky Derby, which are set on Wednesday of Derby week (three days before the race), had Smarty Jones as the second choice at 9-2, behind The Cliff's Edge, who was 4-1.

In the 2003 Kentucky Derby, Funny Cide's odds at post time were 12-1, which are long enough to qualify his win as a big surprise, especially given Empire Maker's hype.

Anyway, Smarty Jones does have a pretty interesting story for the the media to milk on all three fronts a la Seabiscuit: the horse himself, the trainer, and the owner.

One more note that is on my mind: I cringed during the Kentucky Derby telecast when Smarty Jones won and it took his wheelchair-bound owner, Roy Chapman, about 10 minutes to navigate his way from his box in the grandstand to the winner's circle, fighting his way through crowds of able-bodied people, having to take a roundabout path because of a lack of ramps, and then struggling to get traction on the rain-soaked grass for the last 20 yards.

Churchill Downs is 130 years old, so I wouldn't expect them to be very wheelchair-accessible, and to make matters worse, they are undergoing a huge renovation which has closed off certain areas and created headaches for all fans attending the Derby this year.

It occurred to me that the Churchill Downs management should have planned a better way for Chapman to quickly make the trip from his seat to the winner's circle, especially since the whole thing is time-sensitive for NBC (about 25 minutes allotted for all the post-race stuff).

This is always important to remember between the Derby and the Preakness, because those filler horses, while they have no chance of winning, often get in the way and screw up the chances of others. This seems to happen less in a field of 11 or 12.

What was with the story about the nuns and the medallion? Isn't Smarty's story compelling enough?

I think during the Preakness coverage they said that they asked him if they could carry his wheelchair to make it easier, but he declined.

I read that article, too, and I'm not sure I buy it. The point of the Triple Crown is, only the very best horses win. If it was achieved more often, it would have less value. I have no problem in lengthening the time between the races, but shortening them: no. The five million bonus is because it's hard to do. Though if Smarty Jones wins the Belmont, he will collect his second $5 Million bonus, and good on him.

I guess they do have to do the human interest stories on television, but wouldn't this be a great time to try to introduce people to the mechanics and background of the sport? How horses are sold, marketed and trained? I'm sure a lot of people are tired of 'Up Close and Personal' stuff.

I agree. I think the Triple Crown is the sort of thing that sorts itself out naturally; because of the three different distances, three different tracks, compressed time frame, and all the other uncertainties, only the very best thoroughbreds should be expected to win the Triple Crown.

I was lucky enough to tour Three Chimney's Farm in Kentucky about seven years ago, and I got to see Seattle Slew up close and personal. I've seen hundreds of thoroughbreds in person, and even at the age of 23, Seattle Slew was a different species: a huge body, an intelligent presence, and maybe a little bit of a cocky attitude. Those types of horses don't come along very often.




That's perfect material for a two-hour Dateline NBC special! They could do an episode of background material on the sport for the week before the Derby, then another episode of material specific to the Derby winner the week before the Preakness. If we get a Derby-Preakness winner vying for the Triple Crown, then they could do an episode on the history of Triple Crown winners and near-misses the week before the Belmont. Why am I not running NBC? :)

I agree about more features on the pedigree -- I wish during the post parade, NBC would use their graphic windows to list the sire and dam. It's important.

On the whole, I think NBC does a much better job in leveraging their broadcasts. The ratings are *far* better than what they were on ABC.

As a side note, a couple corrections to the info in this thread (gentle corrections):

* Riva Ridge was not Secretariat's half-brother; he was Secretariat's stablemate (Meadow Farm).

* The last Triple Crown winner was Affirmed (Seattle Slew won in '77).

BTW, I am fine with the distances and spacing of the races as they current exist (and I'd like to bitch slap D. Wayne Lukas for his stance on this, because it makes no sense that he feels tradition isn't important on the TC, but he feels "tradition" is so important that the bottom weight scale can't be raised for jockeys. WTF?).

::: deep cleansing breath, D. Wayne gets my goat at times :::

Anyway, back to the distances / spacing of the races...IMHO, the Triple Crown is supposed to be hard. That's what makes it great. :-)

ETA my rant on D. Wayne

Isn't that the truth. I was rooting for Silver Charm even before the Derby, and his close loss in the Belmont was terrible to watch.

On the other hand, I suppose I'm a hypocrite - the year after that, I was on Victory Gallop's side, and I cheered when he beat out Real Quiet in that same way.

Re: the pre-race - while I have no trouble with showing background on the horses, I suppose I'm asking too much for them to flash the spotlight on all of them. The field isn't that big, and you'd think they could spend, say, two minutes on each of the 'minor' horses.

Agree with stretching the wait to three weeks between the Derby and Preakness, though I think the race lengths should stay put.

Just as an aside, loved the Citation feature they did for the Derby this time around. One of the stables I used to ride at boarded one of his great-granddaughters, so he's always held a special place for me.

I dunno. The cynical side of me wonders how drastically the ratings for the Belmont Stakes would fall if the Kentucky Derby winner lost in the Preakness (i.e., the Triple Crown was no longer at stake).

Well, silentbob, look at it this way...in the last few years, the horses that accomplished the Derby / Preakness double were the class of the field. (Although Empire Maker was definitely all class, but he was compromised by his hoof bruise in the Derby....so when he screwed up Funny Cide's quest for the Crown, EM came into the Belmont as a fresh horse.)

Lara_2113, I agree with you on Silver Charm...I was crushed when he lost the Belmont. And I will go to my grave believing that if Charm had just seen Touch Gold coming (Free House was between Charm and Gold, hence Charm didn't see him until it was too late), Charm would have won. Charm was the type of horse who dug in when another horse looked him in the eye.

Great article today in Nat'l Post on Smarty's Jones dad, Elusive Quality, and how Smarty's success is boosting his stud fee. Also lots of background on Smarty's mom and why they were a match, so to speak. Why can't the television coverage do something like that, instead of the incessant (and stupid) predictions?

Article said the best current stud is Storm Cat (!)

It's the Belmont this Saturday, correct?

Correct. Post is a bit after 5 CDT, I believe. Which means that coverage begins at about, oh, 2.

In fact, NBC's coverage doesn't start until 5:30 Eastern time. The broadcast is listed for 5:30-7:00, but if Smarty Jones wins the Triple Crown, maybe they'll go over time instead of cutting to their affiliates' 7:00 programming (which on my affiliate is "Access Hollywood").

Found this on the AP and thought some of you would like to have the upcoming US programming times (all times are Eastern):

**
June 4 Acorn Stakes and Flash Stakes (Belmont Park), 5:00-6:00 p.m., ESPN2

June 4 Smarty Jones Visa Triple Crown Challenge; 6:00-7:00 p.m., ESPN2

June 5 Smarty Jones Visa Triple Crown Challenge; 1:00-2:00 a.m., ESPN2

June 5 Smarty Jones Visa Triple Crown Challenge; 12:00-1:00 p.m., ESPN2

June 5 Wire to Wire, 5:30-6:00 a.m., ESPN (repeat from Tuesday)

June 5 Belmont Stakes Special; Vagrancy Handicap, Just a Game Breeders' Cup Handicap, Riva Ridge Breeders' Cup Handicap and True North Breeders' Cup Handicap (Belmont Park), 1:00-5:30 p.m., ESPN

June 5 Belmont Stakes (Belmont Park), 5:30-7:00 p.m., NBC

June 5 Visa Triple Crown 2004, 7:00-8:00 p.m., ESPN

**
BTW, for those with ESPN Classic, tonight at 8 PM Eastern is a retrospective on Affirmed and Alydar. Also, tomorrow ESPN Classic is running a *bunch* of Triple Crown retrospectives, including their award winning "Sports Century" profile on Secretariat.



Last year my local affiliate cut away for Entertainment Tonight, despite the fact NBC's Belmont coverage ran over...I left them a voice mail message full of various four, five and seven letter adjectives.

After approximately five minutes, they cut back to the Belmont when someone figured out "oh, we screwed up!", but man, did it piss me off.

I don't have ESPN Classic, unfortunately. I would love to see those retrospectives.

I live in Philadelphia where there's entirely too frickin' much Smarty Jones coverage. I hope he wins but I want him to just go away after Saturday.

You can't have it both ways! :)

There will be yooge (TM: Donald Trump) media coverage for weeks if Smarty Jones wins the Triple Crown. Funny Cide got about two solid weeks of national media coverage last year after the disappointment of him losing the Triple Crown.

Just outside of Philly here, and it's not any better. Drives me mad, I've never been able to understand the 'root-for-the-home-team' mentality. Similarity of birthplace is no reason to throw your support one place or the other.[/rant]

Anyway, I'm pulling for Rock Hard 10. Hey, maybe if the crazy colt hadn't spent his energy fighting the gate, he'd have taken the Preakness. Here's hoping he pulls a Victory Gallop-syle upset.

Sports fans have been rooting for the home team since the ancient Greek Olympics. :)

From what I've heard, Philly has some of the most intense sports fans anywhere, and the major impetus for the Smarty love is that the Philly major-league sports teams have not won any titles recently.

Well, with the Eagles and the Flyers both stopped at the championship door, I'm guessing Philly fans needed something to hang their hats on.

Does it seem like everybody is assuming that Smarty Jones is going to win it? I don't think any other recent close-but-no-cigar horse has had as much unanimous concession for the Belmont as he. But I have to admit I'm pulling for him. My grandmother turned me on to betting horses, and I'd like to see a Triple Crown winner in my lifetime.

Does anyone have the urge to shout "Smarty Jones" in a smart-alecky way, like SMMMMMMMMMMMMMAHTY JONES!!! Just me? OK, then.

I'm afraid I might actually burst into tears of joy if Smarty wins. It's not that I'm such a Smarty fan, it's that I've been a racing fan all of my life and I've never seen a Triple Crown winner. I can't even imagine a Triple Crown winner. I certainly hope if he does it NBC expands their coverage. Getting the Triple Crown trophy, etc. should be on the air.

Of course, it's sounding more and more like Smarty won't race much more past the Belmont. Apparently the insurance premiums would make it too expensive. I expect that to be a big story today.

I also won't be that disappointed if Rock Hard Ten wins. To me, he's a living, breathing Black Stallion. He's magnificient. I was chuckling during the Preakness telecast over how all the announcers were gushing over how pretty he was, even the men.

Word to everyone who wants pedigree info displayed. People bitch about how quickly racehorses are retired, but the flip side of that is that you get to watch their sons and daughters run 5 years later.

So Lukas wants to make the Triple Crown easier on the horses? Screw making them run. Just make a short video about each horse, groom them 'til they gleam, and bring them out for a short canter. Then America can power vote, power vote, power vote by phone for a winner. Everyone's happy, the horsies are safe, nobody will have any reason to go to the Grassy Knoll ...

What?

Anyway, I'd love to see another Triple Crown winner. I was a horse mad kid who wept into my pillow over Canonero II and Riva Ridge, but I did get to see Secretariat win the Belmont BIG in '73. (Hey, have you all heard that upon autopsy, Secretariat's heart was revealed to be three sizes too big, like the Grinch at the end of the story? It was something like 22 pounds, when the average thoroughbred heart is closer to 7 pounds. Some have speculated that one reason why a little guy like Smarty Jones can outrun the big buff guys is that he's also carrying around something outsized in his chest.)

But at the same time that I watch and love horse racing, I still worry about the stress and danger these big, surprisingly fragile kids go through. Just a few years after I watched Secretariat round out his career at Woodbine, I watched Ruffian break down in her hyped match race against Foolish Pleasure. Stupid, brave bitch kept trying to run even after her leg snapped, grinding it down beyond any hope of repair, and she kept fighting and running even after they put a cast on her. Of course, she couldn't be saved.

Racing is hard on horses. I really hope they're doing what they want to do.

ETA: fuckshitpissdamn

Sorry, but I'm thrilled that Birdstone did it. It's always nice to see one of the horses they don't deem worth of pre-race coverage take the first.

No, the one I'm disapointed about is Rocky. But it was too much energy too early - both fighting the gate and in the beginning of the race. You could tell the jockey was trying to hold him back, but from the way he was tossing his head, there was nothing more to do.

Oh, and word on the pre-race pedigrees.

Normally I'd agree with you Lara_2113, especially when it comes to the Kentucky Derby, but I really wanted a triple crown winner.

The media coverage has been unbearable, but what makes this lost worse in my opinion, is that we're going to have to go through the whole sordid thing again next time the media thinks they might have a triple crown shot.

Well, once again my local NBC station cut away at precisely 6 PM, despite the fact the NBC broadcast WASN'T OVER!

Asshats. They wouldn't have done this for the World Series or Super Bowl!

Do me a favor gang...please send a e-mail to sixonline@wowt.com and royally bitch them out.

I want them to understand that racing fans are tired of being treated like crap.

Wooo! I was cheering for Birdstone at the end there. That was definitely exciting. I mean, I was actually at the Preakness, so it would have been awesome to see Smarty win it, but that was a great race.

However. I want to smack all of the announcers. It's over an hour after the race - we're still obsessing about why Smarty lost, not why Birdstone won. It's like they have no information about Birdstone, and so they're like "Well, I know a lot about Smarty, I'll keep talking about him." It's a huge deal to lose the Triple Crown, but I'd say it's almost more interesting to hear about the horse that literally came out of nowhere to spoil the bid. I could not believe when the interviewer literally cut Nick Zito off mid-sentence so they could go talk to the Smarty trainer. Dude. That was unbelievable. And then they did the race replay with commentary by Smarty's jockey. Wouldn't that have been more interesting with Birdstone's winner, to see where and when he made all his moves? Because I still can't figure out how far back he was. How many cameras did NBC have there? Were they ALL on Smarty - except for the on that was on Smarty's owner and trainer? I loved that they couldn't find Birdstone's owner after the race.

I don't pay that much attention to racing, but isn't this like the 4th time in 5 years that a horse has come in to the Belmont with two legs under their belt? Has their been this much hype about the other horses? It turned me off, completely.

Ah, it was bittersweet. I did feel bad that Smarty lost. But I was happy for Birdstone because he won and he deserves props for doing so. Its just a bummer because the media takes this and runs with it, so when Smarty didn't win, everyone gets mad at the one who won. I thought it would be cool to have a Triple Crown this year, and Smarty Jones is an adorable horse who almost made it happen. But alas, it wan't meant to be. But good for Birdstone for his win and he looked proud with his blanket of flowers on.

Smarty is a great horse and he ran three good races and he deserves alot of props for it. Birdstone won this race, he came out of nowhere and won it and he deserves to be recognized for it. So, I cheer them both!

dzdzsty - yup, which is why I was hoping this was the year. The hype gets more annoying with each close call.

Hey, just spotted something on one of the online articles. Birdstone, the winner, is the son of Derby winner Grindstone. Hmm, we might have known that if they'd deign to show pedigrees.

Geez, they didn't even show Smarty's sire and dam - and considering that they spent an average of two hours per race covering his owner, jockey, trainer, name, nickname, and astrological sign, you'd think it might have been mentioned.

What - do they think these horses just spring into being at the call to the post? Oy.

I totally agree, mooncreek. The media hypes the assumed place in history of Smarty Jones like Funny Cide, War Emblem and Charismatic were just chopped liver. And I didn't realize I should have been outraged until I read your post, dzdzsty. That they had Stewart Elliott -- I see he outgrew his fascination with ballet dancing -- analyze -- well, "analyze" -- his ride was an appropriate thing to do. But to not have Edgar Prado, Birdstone's jockey, do the same is unacceptable, so you're right.

I didn't care at all for the nearly 90-minute pre-race coverage NBC gave the Triple Crown, but I managed to tear away from ABC's coverage of the death of President Reagan (aside: ABC was the first of the broadcast nets to break it, and the last to return to regular programming. Is it because they had the WNBA while CBS had golf and NBC had Arena football?) to soak in the anticipation. But then I switched back as soon as they had paddock reporters detailing every single thing going on with the horses in their stalls. I didn't catch who kicked an assistant's son or whatever, but I didn't really care. Haven't winning horses reared up and pitched a fit and gone on to win the big race? But then I realized what this reportage felt like. This is horse gossip, something akin to Entertainment Tonight, what Kristin Holt wanted to do living with the contestants of American Idol 2, or TV adaptation of a British tabloid. Oh, I could hear it now ...:

"Well, Mr. Hammond, a little Belmont birdie told me that last night, Smarty Jones had a 'jones' he needed to fix. And no, it wasn't about eating oats, but sowing them! Allegedly, well past curfew, SJ took a little stroll to the stall of a pacehorse he's apparently had his eye on during his training runs. They supposedly were making a lot of noise and a huge mess -- hay and manure were splattering all over the pacehorse's walls! But, according to my source, Smarty Jones's equine extracurricular activity didn't last long. Talk about the fastest two minutes in sport! He said that if he was as fast racing this afternoon as he was having that little rendezvous, he'll win the Stakes by 30 lengths! And speaking of 30 lengths ... my friend at the track watched the whole tryst, and it looks like he's blessed with more than just speed and acceleration!! And here's the biggest shocker of all ... when I say 'he' I'm not just talking about Smarty Jones. Yes, it looks like our Triple Crown king-to-be would rather go for the fifth leg than the third, if you know what I mean!!! So Tom, pay special attention when rider Stewart Elliott mounts Smarty Jones ... it may not be the first thing to mount him that day! And if you see some red stuff coming out of the horse's ass -- I'm just saying! ..."

I'm not weird. Seriously, I'm not.

I'm kind of bummed that yet another horse that was a seemingly "sure thing" to win the Triple Crown lost again. But I, too, am incredibly annoyed by the focus of all the media attention yesterday. Yeah, it's great to get a little backstory on Smarty Jones before the race. But let's hear about the other horses, too, and not just a few of them, but all of them. What I was really annoyed by was when the horses were being led to the track and the cameras kept focusing on Smarty. Hello, there are eight other horses to focus on! And the way that the announcer said, "Let's listen to the audience reaction when Smarty enters the stadium." How about, let's actually cover the race and not just one damn horse? Geez. It's crap like this that makes the owners and the jockey of the winning horse feel like they need to apologize for winning the race, which is ridiculous.

The way I see it, NBC was in a no-win situation. There were only so many longtime horse racing fans tuning into the Belmont, and the vast majority of viewers were casual sports fans (or indifferent sports fans!) who had been hooked by Smarty Fever. To keep the casual viewers glued to the TV, they needed to focus on Smarty.

There are similar parallels to how networks covering the PGA took advantage of Tiger Fever, which peaked about four years ago, covering Tiger Woods ad nauseum even if he wasn't on the leaderboard in a given tournament.

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There was a piece in the New York Times on Sunday headlined "According to NBC, It Was All About Smarty", where the author really skewered NBC for their one-sided coverage.

Here is a link, and here are my favorite highlights:

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Smarty was our hero. Smarty was our horsey saint. Between stud appointments, will Smarty build new stables for Habitat for Equinity?

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By the time the starting gate opened for the race, Smarty had individual face time totaling 15 minutes 46 seconds. Smarty in his stall. Smarty walking. Smarty on video. Smarty with his pony pal Butterscotch. Smarty's posterior. Smarty walking from the paddock. Smarty watching as others loaded into the starting gate. Smarty as he entered the track. The most frequently uttered phrase by Tom Hammond, NBC's anchorman for the race, was, "And there's Smarty Jones."

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In a feature about letters to Smarty by schoolchildren at a Bensalem, Pa., elementary school, one young girl proclaimed, "I want to be just like him." Holy reverse anthropomorphism, Batman!

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Down the stretch, for 11 seconds, the camera stayed exclusively on Smarty. Then along came Birdstone, like the Road Runner. If Smarty had ordered up this treatment, you'd have called him a narcissist.

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Should NBC have acted differently? Really, who cared about anyone else? What did we want, schoolchildren writing mash notes to Caiman?

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Would we have cared for a rundown of the previous 24 hours in Birdstone's life, as we did for Smarty's? We had come to care about how long Smarty snoozed, how much he ate for dinner (10 quarts of oats) and breakfast (2 quarts).

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The NYT article is pretty good (though at the end they seemed to agree with all the focus on Smarty). I especially liked that they called out the announcers for saying Smarty "looked positively beatific." I understand, as a sportswriter, that they needed to make a transition to talk about the nuns betting on him, because that's a good story, but dude. He. Is. A. Horse. He is not beatific. God, that was awful. And "Smarty sure knows how to make an entrance." He. Is. A. HORSE! All he did was walk, then turn left! Oh, it irritated me.

Jerry Seinfeld had a bit in his stand-up routine where he wondered whether thoroughbreds even know that they are in a race. He concluded that all the horses care about is the bag of oats they'll get after the race, win or lose.

Honestly, I've wondered that too. Are horses intelligent enough to know? Also, there was earlier discussion how today's racehorses over-exert themselves, making them useless in their later years. How? Wild animals run at top speed all the time when they're being chased.

Heh.

I'm still convinced that the Preakness is fixed in favor of the Kentucky Derby winner. Not surprisingly, NBC's coverage of the Belmont drew a 13.4 rating and 27 share. There is no way in hell the ratings are that high if someone other than Smarty Jones had won the Preakness. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'm willing to bet a ton of money that the ratings for the Belmont are much, much lower when the Triple Crown isn't at stake. It's simply not in the network's best interest for the Kentucky Derby winner to lose at the Preakness.

As someone who used to be deeply involved in the racing industry, I can tell you the answer is yes.

A long time friend is a classic winning trainer -- one of his horses used to literally sulk in the back of his stall after losing a race. When this same horse won, he would toss his head and snort all the way to the winners' circle.

A well known story about Secretariat -- in retirement, when Claiborne fed all the stallions, *all* the other horses waited to eat until Secretariat was finished.

Stories on Cigar racing are also legend -- he looked very quiet around the barn, but as soon as he had the saddle placed on him in the paddock prior to a race, his eyes became rimmed with white and he "puffed up" his chest. When I saw him at Arlington Park, once he was saddled, he let out this incredibly loud stallion shriek. (Not a neigh, but a *shriek*.) It was his way of telling the other horses who was Da Boss.

And not just the TV audience, but also the track attendance.

I found these (rounded) attendance figures for the Belmont (thank you, Google!), starting in 1989 when Easy Goer beat Sunday Silence, who had won the Derby and Preakness...

1989: 67,000 (Sunday Silence lost TC)
90-96: 45,000 avg. (No TC possibilities)
1997: 71,000 (Silver Charm lost TC)
1998: 80,000 (Real Quiet lost TC)
1999: 86,000 (Charismatic lost TC)
2000: 68,000 (No TC possibility)
2001: 74,000 (No TC possibility)
2002: 103,000 (War Emblem lost TC)
2003: 102,000 (Funny Cide lost TC)
2004: 120,000 (Smarty Jones lost TC)

They bottomed out in 1995, with an all-time worst Belmont attendance of 37,000. Ouch!

So since 1989, the Belmont attendace has averaged 90,000 in years when there is a Triple Crown possibility but only 51,000 when there is no Triple Crown buzz.

You can draw a lot of conclusions about the importance of a Triple Crown contender from those numbers, but I just wanted to point them out. :)

Very eeeeeenteresting.

Also, thanks, Skategrrl, for that information about the horses. I didn't know that. I knew they were highly temperamental creatures, but I was never sure that if they knew what they were doing. But still, "beatific"?

He's a horse!

Here's the TV schedule for racing this weekend:

ESPN, Saturday, June 12, 4:00 - 6:00 PM (Eastern); part of the NTRA Super Saturdays series:

* Stephen Foster Handicap (this promises to have a rockin' field -- go Perfect Drift!) and Fleur de Lis Handicap, from Churchill Downs
* Brooklyn Handicap, from Belmont Park
* Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap from Hollywood Park
* Ohio Derby from Thistledown




Yeah, I know what you mean...wrong adjective, but I cut Charlsie some slack since she's been an exercise rider / trainer since the '70s. <g> She used to be on CBS' broadcasts of the Belmont handicap series, then worked for ABC...and finally, with NBC. But, yes, I also went "WTF?" when she said that.

Probably a better description would have been the old racing term -- "he has the look of eagles." The great horses have it; the late Joe Palmer once described the look of eagles in Man o' War by writing in one of his famous columns, "He was near to a living flame as horses ever get, and horses get closer to this than anything else...it was that even when he was standing motionless in his stall, with his ears pricked and his eyes focused on something slightly above the horizon which mere people never see, energy still poured from him."

BTW, if anyone ever wants another racing book to read other than "Seabiscuit" (which is fantastic), pick up William Nack's "Secretariat -- The Making of a Champion". The Belmont chapter alone is worth the price.

ETA the "look" stuff.

Depends. Depends on the horse, depends on the way they lose. It is possible for a particularly sensitive animal to become discouraged after, say, being neck and neck with another horse only to watch him pull away in the stretch run.

OK, why was Catherine Crier ESPN's co-host of NTRA's Super Saturday?

She lept talking over Randy Moss, which Pissed. Me. Off.

Let Randy host the damn show himself.

Me too!