ESPN is more than ready for the Breeders’ Cup

Len DeLuca, ESPN’s effervescent senior vice president of programming, sounded downright giddy about his network televising its first Breeders’ Cup Saturday.

“We are bullish on horse racing,” he said on a conference call with reporters. “We think the Breeders’ Cup is a growth opportunity for us.”

DeLuca called the event “the World Series of horse racing,” so it’s no surprise that ESPN’s coverage will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. -- two more hours than NBC ever provided during its 22-year run. Plus, there will be nearly six hours of supplemental, commercial-free video-streamed coverage via broadband ESPN360.

ESPN will have Southern California’s Trevor Denman calling the races and will have 28 cameras at Louisville’s Churchill Downs. Among some of the technological advances ESPN may be trying is a virtual yellow line -- similar to the first-and-10 line on football telecasts -- on turf races to show the distance to the finish line. This will allow viewers to see whether the horses have 300 yards, 200 yards or 100 yards to go, according to ESPN coordinating producer Dave Miller.

“We have a number of goals, obviously,” Miller said, “but in addition to documenting the races and bringing the viewer all the fanfare and all the fun, our goal basically is to make this, A, the most important informative and, B, the most technological advanced Breeders’ Cup that you will ever see.”

It’s a big week for ESPN, and big week for Chris Fowler. He did the play-by-play on one of the biggest college football games of the season -- Thursday night’s meeting between West Virginia and Louisville, and on Saturday will serve as the Breeders’ Cup host. Rece Davis will take Fowler’s spot on “College GameDay.”

ESPN, however, isn’t the only network providing nonstop coverage of the Breeders’ Cup. Horse racing and wagering network TVG will too, beginning at 8:30 a.m., but will cater more to bettors.

In some ways, 7-year-old TVG is a success story. It annually televises more than 20,000 races and now reaches about 20 million U.S. homes. And last week, TVG signed a deal that puts it in 11 million homes in Britain and Ireland.

TVG, along with rival HorseRacing TV, also provides a convenience to horseplayers, allowing viewers to bet at home and still watch races live.

But there is another side to TVG’s story. As the nation’s largest “advance account wagering” provider, it is being criticized for not giving back more to the industry that provides its programming. TVG, in some circles, is being blamed for declining attendance at racetracks -- and declining purses.

Trainer Roger Stein, who also has his own horse racing radio show, has been one of TVG’s severest critics. He says the network is “cannibalizing the horse racing industry.”

Stein says that over the last four years, TVG’s commission on the bets it takes in has been $54 million -- and that it has kept $30 million and given $24 million to the tracks for purses. Stein believes the split should be 50-50.

“In 1996, a $50,000 claimer was running for a purse of $50,000,” he said. “Now a $50,000 claimer is running for a purse more like $40,000.”

David Nathanson, who has been TVG’s general manager for one year, denied his network has an adversarial relationship with horse owners and the sport’s governing bodies.

“We don’t always see eye to eye,” he said, “but we are constantly working on those relationships. Our objective is to grow horse racing, to encourage people to drive to the track and experience horse racing live.”

At a recent California Horse Racing Board meeting in Arcadia, TVG’s application to renew its license for 2007 was a hot topic. The issue was continued until the next board meeting Nov. 30.

This is indeed a big weekend for horse racing, and one can’t blame ESPN for being excited. But the reality is, horse racing has some issues, and TVG is in the thick of it.

Commercial-free football

It’s a light weekend for college football. The game of the week was played Thursday night, USC essentially has another off week since it plays winless Stanford, and UCLA’s game at California figures to be a rout for the Bears, not the Bruins.

Two games worth watching Saturday are Louisiana State at Tennessee on CBS at 12:30 p.m. and TBS’ final college football telecast of the season, Oklahoma State at Texas at 4 p.m.

What’s interesting about the TBS telecast is that it will be essentially commercial free. Philips Electronics bought up all 33 minutes of commercial time for the going price of $2.5 million but will not run any traditional commercials.

You’ll see Philips’ name throughout the game but no commercials.

Game commentator Charles Davis said that, besides not getting any bathroom breaks during each half, he and play-by-play Ron Thulin shouldn’t have any problem filling the airtime.

“We always talk during the commercial breaks anyway,” he said.

larry.stewart@latimes.com