Network Racing Coverage Finishes Out of the Money

It was rip city for network horse racing coverage in a recent column by Andrew Beyer in the Washington Post.

He commented on the news that the racing industry is committing millions to underwrite expanded major race coverage on television.

“I watched almost all of the coverage from Churchill Downs, and I cannot imagine how it could possibly attract new fans to horse racing,” Beyer wrote.

“The networks fail to tell knowledgeable fans what they want to know, and they don’t tell neophytes what they need to know.

“ABC can’t resist using its absurd ‘jockey-cam,’ and it employs planned shots that have nothing to do with the way the race is being run.

“ESPN seems unaware that viewers might have bet a race and care about its results, though it’s hard to imagine many other reasons for watching the Crown Royal American Turf on a Friday afternoon.

“I called my phone-betting account and played an exacta coupling Dernier Croise and Tenbyssimo, then watched as Dernier Croise won, with my other horse involved in a photo finish for second.

“When the results finally appeared on the screen, with Tenbyssimo in second place, the exacta and trifecta payoffs weren’t shown. Who does ESPN think is watching?”

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Trivia time: What horse is the biggest longshot winner in the history of the Preakness?

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Do you feel lucky? Fans in Dallas have inundated the Mavericks’ offices with good-luck charms before Sunday’s NBA draft lottery. Among them are a plastic four-leaf clover sent by a woman who swears it helps her bingo game, and a horseshoe taken from the winner of the Lone Star Derby, Smolderin Heart.

“I’ll put one or two in my pocket when I go up to the stage,” Coach/General Manager Don Nelson said. “Good luck follows those with positive thoughts, so I want to be surrounded with as many positive things as I can.”

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The unSmithed 500: In the 81 years of the Indianapolis 500, drivers have made the starting field with names like Lewis and Clark; Aspen, Denver and Vail; Savage and Force; and even presidential names such as Ford, Carter, Johnson, Grant, Jackson and Wilson.

There’s even a Schindler on the list.

But no one named Smith has ever qualified for the starting grid of an Indy 500.

The last Smith to be bumped from the field was Mark Smith, in 1993 and ’94.

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Mexico’s Cal: The player known as “Mexico’s Cal Ripken” had his consecutive-game playing streak broken recently.

The Laredo Owls’ Gerardo Sanchez had played in 1,415 consecutive games before missing a game after his plane was grounded because of dense smoke from nearby forest fires in Tabasco.

His teammates made the game by traveling by bus.

Ripken played in his 2,517th consecutive game Thursday night.

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Trivia answer: Master Derby, who paid $48.80 in 1975.

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And finally: A London Daily Mail headline, over a story about a British soccer loss to Chile:

“Chile Con Carnage.”