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August 05, 2010

Racing makes for crappy television

By Dave Briggs

Racing makes for crappy television

  

“I am falling asleep or switching channels, and it is very difficult to watch the product that they are putting out there. It’s too long between races; an eight or nine-horse field going one mile with very little passing, big long gaps with just numbers flashing up on the screen and no talking head analysis that I think many sports fans are used to or yearn for. (There is) poor lighting at many racing venues, a blurry picture on the television screen. We never use the side angle from the start car or a low angle, which almost all sports shows use now... Our competition is just basically much slicker. They are high-def in most cases, and even going 3D. I know there is a big funding issue out there to improve this, but I am just thinking maybe in a slot-enhanced jurisdiction this is no longer an excuse.”
 
— Blair Burgess (above), trainer and owner in the third in a daily series of quotes pulled from our Round Table Discussion entitled 15 Essential Ideas for Saving Racing. Dave Briggs’ Last Call Online column about the Round Table is available here. The entire Round Table Discussion booklet is available to download as a pdf by following this link and clicking on the “Now Available” item in the bottom left corner of the page.
 
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August 5, 2010
1:28 PM
It is a shame what we pass off as racing at the track, simulcast centers.

If you are going to show only one track on a signal, at least be like the simulcast from the Delaware County Fair where you have interviews and people discussing the races all throughout the show in addition to recapping what happened in the previous race.

Look at the harness races from Europe, a much better production than we produce.

~ Allan

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