NBC Talent, Crew Assess Impact of Crown

It is unlikely that there will be as much interest in a potential Triple Crown winner, if that possibility exists in next year's Belmont Stakes (gr. I), since the elusive feat was accomplished this year by American Pharoah, according to NBC sportscaster Bob Costas.



There was a groundswell of publicity for American Thoroughbred racing before and after the Zayat Stables homebred won the June 6 Belmont Stakes presented by DraftKings (gr. I) to go along with his victories in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) and Xpressbet.com Preakness Stakes (gr. I) triumphs.



"While we'd be thrilled to have a chance to broadcast another run at a Triple Crown, to have it happen next year or the year after, it wouldn't be truthful to say it would have the same impact," Costas said June 8 as part of an NBC teleconference in which some of the network's talent and producers discussed Saturday's broadcast. "Part of the impact here is the idea that people had come to believe it was pretty close to impossible and then they saw something that both excited them and surprised them.



"While there's always going to be fascination with the Derby as a piece of Americana and then with whatever horse that wins the Derby, I think it's logical that if a horse comes to the Belmont Stakes next year with a shot at a Triple Crown, there will be  less fascination because it will not be 37 years (since it was last won)."



There was a consensus among the NBC crew that Saturday's race will go down as not only one of the great horse racing feats of all time, but also ranks among the top sporting events in a long time.

"Each time we'd plan for a Triple Crown winner and each time the plan was filed away for another year," said veteran NBC producer Rob Hyland. "Well, the 37-year drought ended last Saturday, and it was truly a privilege to be a part of documenting this incredible moment in history, and while I hope to be involved with many more defining sports moments, it's really hard to imagine that any will top this one."

Said Drew Eskoff: "I was trying to put this in perspective. People have always asked me what are the greatest events you've ever worked on, and I've been in the business full time for over 30 years now, and I always said Michael Phelps' swim to gold in Beijing headed by the Jason Lezak leg of the 4-by-1 relay, the last three of the Super Bowls that we've done since NBC got back in the NFL business, and the Belmont Stakes on Saturday with American Pharoah will go right into that group... it's smack at the top with anything else. Just thrilling to be part of. I've gotten texts from camera guys and camera women who said when that horse turned for home, they've never heard a volume like that at a sporting event before, and these are people that do 75 sporting events a year, so that put it all in perspective, absolutely amazing."

"It's hard for me to quantify exactly where that moment ranks, but it's certainly right up there," said broadcaster Tom Hammond, who has a long association with horse racing. "I've done 11 Olympics, hundreds of football and basketball games, both pro and college, and it ranks right up there with the great moments, not only because of the crowd, because the crowd was unbelievable. I don't think I've ever heard a sustained loud ovation roar as that, people throwing drinks in the air, people standing on tables, and it started when they turned for home because everyone sensed that it was going to happen, and it continued all the way past the finish line.

"I was there in person when Affirmed won, but that was the third Triple Crown in the '70s, and no one thought so much about the Triple Crown. They were talking instead about the great race between Affirmed and Alydar, where it ranked among all of the great events. It was an emotional time for me a little bit, just because I had been there before and waited so long and had hoped to be a part of the history. As most of you know, my background goes back a lot in Thoroughbred racing, so to be a part of that historic moment was great for me.

"What was almost as good was afterwards where all the people on the NBC crew both on the air and behind the scenes came up to me and gave me hugs and congratulations, and I said, well, I didn't really do anything, but they knew how much it meant to me to be a part of that history making event in thoroughbred racing.  It ranks right up there amongst the greatest events that I've ever done."

"The crowd was incredible, and people have asked me just in the short period of time I've been home, about 24 hours now, about the horse and about where this puts the horse in the list of some of the all-time greats," said analyst Randy Moss. "And although it's obviously pretty early, you know, I mean, he's just through June of his 3-year-old year, I've gone back this morning and I've looked at the past performances of Seattle Slew and Affirmed, the last two Triple Crown winners... I think when you look back on Seattle Slew and Affirmed and you compare those horses with American Pharoah and look at what Pharoah has done so far, at this stage of their careers, I think it's a fair comparison. I think American Pharoah deserves to be placed in the same conversation with all-time greats like Seattle Slew and Affirmed given what he just accomplished and the way that he accomplished it.  He was at least as impressive as Seattle Slew when you look at his Triple Crown races as a whole, and maybe even more impressive."

Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey, the two-time Belmont Stakes winner who is part of the NBC broadcast team, said, "What was amazing to me is how loud it was, and looking at the people from one end of the grandstand to the other, at almost the top of the stretch, the three-sixteenths pole maybe, everybody had their arms up cheering and it was deafening. This might not be the greatest sports feat of all time, but I'm going to guess it's pretty much, at least this year and maybe in the last several, I was just glad to be a small part of it.



Former National Hockey League player and coach Eddie Olczyk, an analyst/handicapper on the Belmont broadcast, said, "What happened on Saturday and being part of that, that was tremendously tremendous."



NBC, which will televise the Breeders' Cup World Championships Oct. 30-31 this year, will try to capitalize on American Pharoah's popularity during the NBC and NBC Sports Network's lead-up to the championships at Keeneland Race Course.



The first broadcast of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series takes place June 13 with the Stephen Foster (gr. I) from Churchill Downs. It will coincide with events taking place at the track to celebrate American Pharoah's Triple Crown. The champion returned to trainer Bob Baffert's Churchill division following the Belmont.



"When we begin to promote the races we have left, the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series and then the Breeders' Cup itself, American Pharoah will be a name that all who witnessed the Triple Crown or read about the Triple Crown or heard about the Triple Crown will recognize, and I think it gives them a star to follow and a reason to tune into those other races to see how the Triple Crown winner fares," said Hammond. "So I think it'll be valuable in leading up to the Breeders' Cup in the fact that we have a horse now that everyone recognizes even if they're not a dedicated horse fan



Olczyk said the Triple Crown finally being won provides racing with an opportunity to sell itself to non-racing fans, and likened it to fantasy sports leagues in which participants compete with each other.



"I think with this momentum, there's other opportunities, whether it's at local tracks, whether it's seminars, whether it's people like us continuing to let people know, and when you get a stage like we had, and it just wasn't the Belmont, we had some incredible performances on Friday and Saturday, and then it was our job to break down and analyze and tell people what is going to happen and what just did happen," he said.

"I just think that this is a chance to really tell people about our game because when I tell people those things (they say) 'I thought you were going up against the track.' So I think that the door has been opened here for us to continue with this momentum and get more people on. Now once they've seen it or they've been a part of it, it'll be like wildfire because they'll be hooked just like all of us."