Watchdog

Here is the race that inspired me to put $10 on Alydar to win in the Belmont. Dang. Still the most frustrating 10 bucks I ever lost.

That's a wrap on a solid week of blogging. Thanks for reading and enjoy the Preakness.

The Kentucky Derby averaged 10.2 percent of homes in major markets, up from 9.5 last year and the highest such figure since 1992.

This Saturday reminds me of May 5, 2007, a throwback sports day and night on which the Kentucky Derby and the Mayweather-De La Hoya fight provided a reminder of when two of the three biggest sports in the nation were horse racing and boxing. That was circa 1950.

Two years later, the Derby on NBC will be followed later that night by Hatton-Pacquaio on HBO pay per view.

Pacquiao is cool on two levels: He has four consecutive vowels in his name, a rare feat, and he is a proven producer of huge numbers of page views on our boxing blog.

So I'm rooting for him. As for the Derby, um . . . I'm going with a exacta of Mr. Hot Stuff and Hold Me Back, in honor of Brad Benson.

Baumbach is live blogging a Congressional hearing.

It gets weirder by the minute.

Did I mention that I wrote my first article as a full-time, professional sportswriter longhand in a Las Vegas hotel room, called Anchorage collect and dictated it to my editor?

Sigh.

ABC said the race portion of its Belmont telecast, from 6:15 to 7:15 p.m., attracted 10.5 percent of homes in major markets in overnight ratings. Predictably, that was way up from last year's 3.9, when a Triple Crown was not at stake.

But that was down significantly from the overnight rating for the race portion the last time there was a Triple Crown at stake, when the '04 Belmont on NBC drew a 15.6.

As I mentioned in my Sunday column on the Belmont . . . Deal with it America: Chris Russo was right.

Actually, he stated his case more coherently and succinctly on his Saturday show than he did in this clip from during the week. He suggested the favored horse might simply get up on the wrong side of the bed, or words to that effect.

Yes, I know horses don't sleep in beds. But the gist of Russo's point was on target, assuming there is not something physically wrong with Big Brown:

What if he just wasn't in the mood on the big day, seeing as how . . .well, he didn't necessarily know it was a big day. He's a horse!

I am embarrassed to admit it took 40 years as a New York sports fan and 25 as a New York sportswriter for me to set foot in Belmont Park.

But I got there Saturday, and wrote a column about it in the Sunday newspaper.

I was positioned with the ABC announcers just past the final turn.

I saw Big Brown in third place on TV, then turned to watch him run by our location live. Then the first three horses ran past, then another, then another . . . Where did he go?

Well, now we know, of course. Sigh.

Click below for random Belmont Stakes day observations:

Continue reading "Belmont Stakes patrons brave long lines, alcohol abuse" »

Here is my obituary on Jim McKay in the Sunday newspaper, a tiny, tiny contribution to the torrent of tributes that have poured in from the sports media world this weekend.

I never met the man. But what strikes me is that in a business famous for its behind-people's-back sniping, I never have heard a negative word said about him.

Enjoy Saturday.

Best. Horse race. Ever.

Here is my contribution to our three weeks of Belmont hype - an entire Friday newspaper column about the big race, which will last about 150 seconds.

The main subject was Hall of Fame jockey and ABC analyst Jerry Bailey.

You can read more quotes from him and others if you click below.

What will the TV rating be?

ABC/ESPN exec Len DeLuca declined to guess, but he did say the past two Belmonts were in the three-plus range, and in honor of the fact there is a Triple Crown on the line this time he hopes for about triple that rating.

Continue reading "Jerry Bailey would like to see star horses race more" »

I talked to Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey Wednesday about various things, including the Belmont Stakes, which he will analyze for ABC.

Here is what he said on the subject of banning the use of whips by jockeys:

"I've changed my philosophy. It just looks brutal. We say that these horses are bred to run and love to run and love their job. It’s hard for the public to accept that fact. I understand that perception.

"My position has been we probably don’t even need the whips. I feel if you ran 10 races with the whips and without the whip you'd get the same finish nine out of 10 times, with the times being relatively close.

"I think the majority of horses run as fast as they can without the whip. It’s for show more than anything else . . . It’s a fine line that we run. If it will create more goodwill, take it away."

That's it for me today. Enjoy the 2006 John Duddy-Shelby Pudwill bout at 8 p.m. on MSG.

Click below for the story by Terry Lefton of the Sports Business Journal about Hooters signing on as a sponsor of Big Brown.

(This picture was taken before the sponsorship deal was signed, hence the fact none of the women is holding a whip.)

Continue reading "Big Brown now has a more interesting sponsor than UPS" »

On Tuesday I attended a news conference at the ESPN Zone to preview the Belmont Stakes. They showed the three Belmonts that produced Triple Crown winners in the 1970s. I hadn't seen the '78 race since I saw it live, and yes, it gave me chills.

My favorite horse was Alydar. His jockey, Jorge Velasquez, was there. I shook his hand and asked him how many times he had seen that clip.

"I've lost count," he said.

While there I also met Larry Stewart, who was the L.A. Times' sports TV critic for 30 years and now covers horse racing.

Earlier I attended a luncheon preceding the premiere of an HBO documentary about the 1960 U.S. Open that debuts June 11.

Dan Grimaldi was there. He is the only actor to play two characters on "The Sopranos." He was Patsy Parisi and Patsy's twin brother, Phil, who got whacked early on.