NBC To Air Panel On Horse Racing Before Preakness
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Following the heels of the widely successful (sarcasm folks) look into Sports Media, Bob Costas is going to host another panel, but this time on the state of Horse Racing. This time the panel is going to take place before NBC kicks of it's coverage of the Preakness this Saturday.
Fresh off his sports media roundtable on blogs for HBO, Bob Costas will kick off the network's coverage of the Preakness Stakes (Saturday, 4:30-6:30 p.m. ET) with a panel discussion on the filly's catastrophic breakdown and other controversies surrounding Thoroughbred horse racing, says producer Sam Flood.I guess NBC feels it should take the time to address Eight Belles after all of the controversy surrounding the coverage of Eight Belles collapse, and that's probably a good decision. The panel seems qualified and even on both sides to address the issue of airing the animal's death and it should be a good discussion.
Among the guests: Churchill Downs veterinarian Larry Bramlage; Eight Belles trainer Larry Jones; NBC analyst Gary Stevens; and New York Times columnist William Rhoden, who blasted the sport of kings as "only a couple of steps removed from animal fighting."
Costas panel to dissect horse racing's dark side (USA Today)
In other Horse Racing news, HBO's Real Sports debuted this past Monday with an extremely detailed and informative look into the Sport. I pulled the clip for everyone to view, but I have to warn you ahead of time that it's extremely depressing and graphic. It was a trainwreck type situation for me in that I never wanted to see these images, but I couldn't look away. There are parts that detail how the horses are destroyed and the process that some individuals go through to save them.
In true Real Sports fashion it's a great story, but again very very very graphic and depressing. Choose whether you want to watch it wisely.....
9 Comments:
Yeah this is ridiculous. PETA and others are just reaching for anything they can leach onto so they can try and take horse racing down, which is never going to happen.
On the other hand, if you are a fan of horse racing like I am, I recommend checking out www.winningponies.com for the 2008 Preakness Stakes picks. They just hit the Kentucky Derby Trifecta and it paid huge money!
Billy Rhoden is an idiot. Was he a Mike Vick apologist???
With all due respect to Mr. Rhoden, he's always been an alarmist, and sometimes, his opinions border on incredulous. And when the hell did Bob Costas become the moral compass for the sports world?
It is a cruel world that we live in and these stories just clue us in on that fact. I will say that before everyone gets into save the horses mode, if you eat steak or chicken or pork, it doesn't come out of the sky. The same way those get on our plates is the same way it goes for the horses. Anyone who saw Fast Food Nation at the end knows what I am talking about.
Same things happen to cows and pigs, but when it happens to horses it's inhumane? I don't get it.
Horse meat is pretty good.
The coverage from USA Today that I have seen has been remarkably one-sided against the thoroughbred racing industry. I hope that this Costas piece will provide some balance to the issue and some insight to the casual racing viewer.
Some of the comments in this space are pretty ridiculous. Pigs and cows are bred to be food. These horses are not. You can't just use them up and then destroy them. That is incredibly irresponsible.
This blog is great
Good Job! :)
Being a die hard horse racing fan and horse animal lover watching that HBO Real Sports piece was incredibly hard to watch. I had to cover my eyes about 50% of the time but it did expose the cruelness of a great sport. The piece brings up great points and something better has to be done to these horses after their racing career is finished rather then the slaughter-house. Adoption program for one and there are other possibilities.
As for William Rhoden his line that "horse racing is bull fighting" is ridiculous and I hope they (Jones, Stevens, and Co.) absolutely tear him apart up there. But somehow I think he will make it a race issue if they start fighting him.