Salvage Heart

Rags to Riches, a three-year-old filly, won yesterday's Belmont Stakes to become the first female to win the race since 1905, and the first to win any leg of the Triple Crown since Winning Colors captured the 1988 Kentucky Derby.

The Belmont, run in New York, the last jewel in that crown, tends to lose some luster in these non-Triple Crown contender years. With the Derby winner Street Sense beaten two weeks later in the Preakness and a no-show in the Belmont, the storyline reads a little warmed over: Can Curlin come back from a Preakness victory to win the Belmont? Do we care? Will we even hear from him again after this year?

With Rags to Riches win, Todd Pletcher broke his string of 28 Triple Crown losses (although second pays pretty well), and the jockey John Velazquez snapped his own 0-20 in the series. (Video here.)

But what was truly noteworthy about yesterday's race was the broadcast of it on ABC/ESPN. In the half-hour I watched leading up to posttime, and then the seemingly interminable post-race coverage, I saw an abysmal effort. Of note:
Sound? The host team cut away to an interviewer down in the paddock (I think) before the race, and then watched with millions of others as, what? Who knows. There was no sound for, I don't know, maybe an entire minute? CUT AWAY.
After the race, they compensated by broadcasting TWO SIMULTANEOUS interviews (but only showing one). Again, they did this through the entire piece.
This was not the NBC team, and it showed. No outrider interviews leading up to post. The camera work was terrible (can we get a shot in the backstretch mid race that doesn't include the ambulance in the frame? No? Really?) and the commentary worse.
Also, are those really the words to "New York, New York"? Sounded like the singer flubbed. For the Derby, roses. The Belmont, carnations.

Of course, the usual contractual obligations: presentation of the trophy with WAY too many people on stage (and camera...who are all those women in hats?), the New York racing commissioner, and so forth were boredom as usual. The race to capture as many female-oriented slogans to drive home the fact that a filly one was annoying. And the post-race analysis, terrible.

I don't love Tom Hammond, and I don't need to see Bob Costas to be convinced that an event is classy. But the difference between this race and the Kentucky Derby (or the Preakness or the Breeders Cup this fall) was significant. The ratings will be terrible, but the network is competing with golf and infomercials during that dead Saturday p.m. slot anyway. Evidently the New York Racing Association broke up the three-race deal that previously aired on NBC; when Visa pulled out as a major sponsor, it left the series television coverage in flux.

Still, we saw a great race. Slow, but big finish, with five of the seven horses still legitimate contenders coming into the far turn. It's a pity that the broadcast itself was such a nag.

Will we ever again see something like this?

Lots of coverage, including a nice (albeit familiar) piece in Newsday: "For one day, Belmont has 'the feel'"

Labels: Belmont, horse racing, sports, television, Triple Crown