No not the Eclipse Award coverage...congrats to Zenyatta and the Mosses; it was either Mr. B earlier in the day picking a horse we own a piece of to break his maiden at Aqueduct and the horse ran up the track, or Ken Rudulph's unbelievable explanation of why he would have voted Smiling Tiger the Eclipse for top sprinter even though he was beat head-to-head by Big Drama in the BC sprint: he stumbled out of the gate. He was serious.
Have a super sparkly day!
Thank god the Eclipse awards didn't find their way onto one of the ESPN networks and was left to obscurity on TVG. If some casual viewer happened onto last night's broadcast, they would wondered how the hell anyone could be a fan of horse racing. Rudolph and his cronies are actually interesting compared to that three hours of pompous blowhards back patting BS on TVG last night.
It was okay by me since I recorded it. I watched my UConn girl's stomp UNC at Chapel Hill and checked in during the commercials and fast forwarded to find out there were no surprises the entire night. Ripole was the only owner I listened to. He might ramble on but he at least he is a breathe of fresh air rather than the typical snobs that win most of the awards
Your don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.....RZ
Rudulph and Schrupp test my wits-they grate on me to no end
Last edited by Whos the Cowboy; 01-18-2011 at 09:52 AM.
TVZ did another poor job yesterday.I wish HRTV could get the rights to the eclipse awards...they are more professional.
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on
the support of Paul.
~George Bernard Shaw
The Obama admin mantra -
The 1st 4 years - "It's Bush's fault."
The next 4 years - "I don't know nuthin'."
~Bal 2013
"The budget should be balanced..... public debt should be reduced....... and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."
~Cicero - 55 BC
NTRA runs the awards program, it wouldn't have been any different.Originally Posted by BARNFOUR
The show would not be that hard to fix, at least the TV portion. But not enough viewers for them to care. Well, really, they just don't care, period.
I will say having Laffit host it would be much better. But they are looking for someone who has been on national telecasts or a b list celeb.
I guess I didn't stay with it, or didn't tune in early enough, to see Ken Rudolph do anything because all I saw were Todd and Simon (in the studio) and Christina at the hotel.
I keep hoping things will improve, but they just don't. It's a gruesome show to watch. I think Hermes has the right idea. Sean Clancy, who knows how to write (and speak), knows which in jokes he could get away with, but probably wouldn't resort to much of that would be more along the lines of the man they remembered early in the show ... John Forsythe.
I have nothing against Kenny Rice, but it's painful to listen to what might be a somewhat amusing joke .... and the audience sits there like stone. It's a wicked group to have to entertain, that's for sure.
I thought Mike Repole was entertaining. I don't care how long he talked. It was all coming from the heart so for heaven's sake, let him talk! Same with Ken Ramsey. So the man rambles. Let him. He's earned his right to try to get some of his friends into steeplechasing, if that's what he wants to say. What's the big deal. Clearly his wife is not in good health which is unfortunate.
I do think the handicapper shouldn't have been allowed to ramble on regardless of whether he was saying something important or not. You have a minute to thank the DRF and then get off the stage!
I actually liked that they interviewed the media winners rather than listening to a bunch of speeches no one really cares about. That was a more efficient use of time for them, but I disagree with Hermes, that they shouldn't be given their awards at the dinner. The folks who write about, photograph, and produce shows about racing ought to have a moment to be recognized. I'll bet a lot of people here have no clue who Amy Zimmerman is so why not put her front and center, where she deserves to be if only for a minute or two.
I was getting a little tired of hearing "we have to get the fans involved". While that's a lovely idea, it only makes sense if you have a nice, polite, sweet horse who is the darling of racing, and weren't we all lucky that Zenyatta was such a horse. It would be a giant mistake to expect a nasty on-the-muscle stallion (or even a mare for that matter) to stand by peacefully posing for photos with Jack and Jill and their two kids. I'd bet that most people who became huge fans of Zenyatta ... or Rachel or Cigar or whomever ... will remain or are still interested in the sport of horse racing.
Fans will always latch onto the latest and greatest, but far too many don't stick around unfortunately.
And Lordy, Seth Hancock couldn't have looked any more unpleasant if he tried. Yikes. Maybe he could have faked graciousness, but clearly he was having none of that Zenyatta Horse of the Year stuff. Apparently his brother got all the personality in that family. My heavens.
Last edited by GinTalking; 01-18-2011 at 11:00 AM.
Gin, I want the media to get their awards at the dinner, just not during the on the air TV portion. IOW, give it to them earlier and then go on the air. Although Amy was awesome. But the photog and the radio guy went on way too long. Thought of you while the photog spoke of how hard they worked to get that shot.And does anyone really want to see Finley's comb down?
Like some technical awards for Emmy's - they aren't given during the on air show.
On getting fans involved, I think that several took a cue from the Mosses and JS is a good thing, but I don't think they just mean petting the horse. Repole is really making sure the Mo social media is front and center right now, that's good. Although Uncle Mo is a very friendly colt, as was Blame, just as examples, so was QR for that matter. It is all relative and there is a time and place for everything. Contests, letting fans participate in other ways is possible. Letting them have a sense of investment in the horse. Tying it to betting might make sense to do, but this is horse racing, so it will be easier for them to complain that the new fans aren't betting than try to get them to do so.
I agree, that horses like Zenyatta can make a fan for life. I know it happened to me as a child. But I don't bet much, or enough, so who cares?
As for Seth, he has always been like that. Arthur did get all the personality and then some. I thought he kept it pretty poker considering how he felt about it and I don't Blame him. He is who he is. His trainer Al Stall is an excellent spokesman for the team, and frankly, came into his own in handling the press this past half year with Blame and I look forward to having the man front and center going forward. Stall gets the Z love and accepted it instead of fighting the tide. Great perspective he has on what matters.
ps on the Handicapper Award, I'd make a new rule. He pays back $1,000 per second for every second he goes over 30 sec allotment for his speech.
Last edited by Hermes; 01-18-2011 at 11:39 AM.
My suggestion is to quit televising the thing and just announce the winners by press release.
Just think, I hate the Emmys and the Oscars and the Golden Globes, if I watched this, I'd hate it too.
I prefer not to.
So then, you didn't and won't. The rest of the world isn't just in your head.
Who says that I have a head?
As I posted in the other thread, this was the first time I'd gotten to actually see the awards. I didn't have TVG for a long time or HRTV. And I really didn't feel like I missed anything. Kenny Rice was awful. And it just was mostly dull other than Marylou's speech and I enjoyed watching Uncle Mo's owner and Z's connections. But I wasn't overly impressed with any of it, other than Z winning HOY.
I still don't get Kenny's joke about "Don't Stand So Close To Me" to Moss. Like he was trying to use a Zenyatta Mondatta Police reference for the heck of it even if it didn't have anything to do with what he was trying to say.
And the stuff about the Zenyatta movie coming out in 2040. Not funny.
Horse racing fanatic, Philly sports die hard (GO PHILLIES!), Clinton Democrat, political junkie, and Fleetwood Mac groupie.
How did ESPN win an Eclipse award for their BC coverage which was little more than a repetition of the Borel/Castellano dust up?
I was actually at the BC so I did not see it...but I understood from folks here that their coverage was not that great...
"...and God took a handful of Southerly wind, blew his breath over it, and created the horse." - Bedouin Legend
PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL HORSE RESCUE OR OLD FRIENDS KY OR NY - AND GIVE THE GIFT OF LIFE.
Oh, I have NO IDEA how they won that. Their coverage was awful. And Hank Goldberg and Jerry Bailey got to go up and talk about themselves. Blah.
Horse racing fanatic, Philly sports die hard (GO PHILLIES!), Clinton Democrat, political junkie, and Fleetwood Mac groupie.
It was worth watching just to see Christina in a gown. That woman won't be on TVG long, she handles herself very well in any circumstance.
Everyone come home sound
Can't disagree with anything you wrote .... the last sentence particularly. ;-)On getting fans involved, I think that several took a cue from the Mosses and JS is a good thing, but I don't think they just mean petting the horse. Repole is really making sure the Mo social media is front and center right now, that's good. Although Uncle Mo is a very friendly colt, as was Blame, just as examples, so was QR for that matter. It is all relative and there is a time and place for everything. Contests, letting fans participate in other ways is possible. Letting them have a sense of investment in the horse. Tying it to betting might make sense to do, but this is horse racing, so it will be easier for them to complain that the new fans aren't betting than try to get them to do so.
I agree, that horses like Zenyatta can make a fan for life. I know it happened to me as a child. But I don't bet much, or enough, so who cares?
His trainer Al Stall is an excellent spokesman for the team, and frankly, came into his own in handling the press this past half year with Blame and I look forward to having the man front and center going forward. Stall gets the Z love and accepted it instead of fighting the tide. Great perspective he has on what matters.
ps on the Handicapper Award, I'd make a new rule. He pays back $1,000 per second for every second he goes over 30 sec allotment for his speech.
When "fan clubs" first started up ... some by people right here on this forum ... I thought that was a great idea. Definitely got them involved and amazingly, a good number have ended up working in some capacity in racing. KTTC did that. Perhaps Facebook and the pages for a variety of horses will pick up where KTTC left off.
Re the posing for photos with Z, I only hope that any of her new fans who want to continue to be involved in racing don't think that's the norm. That's really what I was aiming for although maybe I missed the mark. I'm no writer ... thoughts come spilling out of my head, but all too often, in kind of a jumbled mess. I know that.
I thought Al Stall handled everything beautifully and while I don't know the guy at all, I'd have been very disappointed if he hadn't. I understand Hancock isn't Mr. Congenialty, but a few of those shots of him, sitting there all stoic and harsh looking, were hard to overlook.
I just don't recall when the show wasn't a boring mess unless it was so long ago that I've forgotten. Maybe if Chris Lincoln had something to do with them. Great sense of humor and knew everyone well enough to get away with some jabs here and there.
But most of all, is that not the dullest group of people at an awards ceremony that you've ever seen. It's as if this dinner is some kind of detention for these folks. You will go to this thing dammit ... so dress up nicely and act like a lady/gentleman! It's scary bad and I don't know about anyone else, but I feel horribly uncomfortable watching most of them. I feel as if I shouldn't be there, intruding on their moment. Maybe it should go back to just being a dinner for them and the TT and BH can put up the results as soon as they are known.
Rick, for a change I agree with you. ;-) She should be picked up by a larger organization assuming she knows something about more than just racing.
Jeannine Edwards seems to have gone onto to other things with ESPN.
Was Mike Smith at the awards ceremony with Chantal Sutherland? The video clips I saw of the HOTY/Older Female announcements didn't show the whole table.
"Sinclair Lewis aptly predicted in It Can't Happen Here that if fascism came to America it would come wrapped in the flag and whistling The Star Spangled Banner." ~Harrison Evans Salisbury
Why Christina hasn't been picked up by NBC yet for racing is beyond me. She is a STAR. At least TVG knows to put her front and center when it matters.
Christina should be picked up to work on other sports by a network. Now. Not that I want to see her leave racing.
No idea. I didn't see her. I DVRed it, I should go back and look.
Horse racing fanatic, Philly sports die hard (GO PHILLIES!), Clinton Democrat, political junkie, and Fleetwood Mac groupie.
NBC may be her best chance. ESPN is heavy with female talent right now. The woman has "it". When she first appeared, she was just a kid, but you could see that star quality. When she is on the set, no one else matters.
Everyone come home sound
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