NBC Producer Rapaport Doubles As Restaurateur

You really haven't made it in horse racing until you've been yelled at by Billy Rapaport. An equal opportunity screamer, Rapaport doesn't care if you're a stranger or a friend; get in the way of a camera shot or a horse walking into the winner's circle, and you'll be on the receiving end of a loud warning to move. Now. 

Rapaport, 56, is a field producer for NBC and has worked most of the Triple Crown and Breeders' Cup telecasts done by the Peacock Network for the past 30 years. If not by his voice, he is easily identifiable by his clothes—if Johnny Cash hadn't claimed the nickname first, Rapaport could have become The Man in Black.

A producer/director of everything from Broadway plays to concerts, Rapaport and his wife, Elizabeth, embarked on a very different venture in August when they opened Top Round Roast Beef on Shelbyville Road in the St. Matthews section of Louisville. The gourmet sandwich shop is the first franchise spun off from the original restaurant, which is located in Los Angeles.

"While working out west, Elizabeth and I went on the recommendation of a co-worker, and it was amazing," said Rapaport in his fast-paced style. "From the first bite, we looked at each other like, 'Are you tasting what I'm tasting?' It was ridiculously good. So when I heard they were franchising, we decided to give it a shot.

"We're definitely skating outside our lane, but I'm trying to take the skill set from my day job and apply it to the restaurant. It's been a very challenging and interesting experience, and it may land me in Bellevue, or as they say in Louisville, in Our Lady of Peace."

Rapaport began in show business as a teen, his first claim to fame being the kid who ran to the stadium bar to bring Howard Cosell vodka stingers during "Monday Night Football" telecasts even though he himself wasn't old enough to drink. The experience left him with the capacity to do a spot-on impersonation of Cosell.

Rapaport also worked on shows like "Superstars" and "Battle of the Network Stars." He taught Angel Cordero Jr. how to swing a golf club, and Cordero ended up winning the golf portion of one of the shows. In return, the Hall of Fame jockey brought Rapaport on his maiden voyage to a racetrack. After a day of meeting characters, Rapaport carried his intrigue with the sport forward.

He worked for the SMTI agency in the mid-1980s when it handled the just-formed Breeders' Cup, and that led to him working the NBC telecasts of the Breeders' Cup World Championships for its second running in 1985 at Aqueduct, where he cashed a big ticket on Proud Truth. He has worked the event most years since.

Producing a horse racing telecast is unlike most other sports, which are physically contained by a field or arena. Horse racing, however, is splayed out over a vast area, where cameras may need to be placed in the jockeys' room, paddock, barn area, box seats, and racetrack simultaneously.

"The footprint is massive, and the people in the (production) truck can only see what the cameras are showing," said Rapaport. "You have to have eyes in the field, and I'm out there working with the camera people and the folks in the truck to make sure we're telling the right stories and getting the right shots in position to be put on the air. I help the producer and director tell the story."

But to those who participate in or cover horse racing, Rapaport is best known for being the ultimate traffic cop in and around winner's circles. And woe is to those who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"You have camera people running around, connections of the winning horse who are in the most exciting moments of their lives but don't know where to go, and then there's a 1,200-pound animal who certainly doesn't know what's going on, so it can be chaotic," he noted. "My job is to make sure both humans and equines are safe and in the right place so we can tell the story that needs to be told.

"I've been known to raise my voice once or twice. When you have the loudest voice, that tends to work."

Having been on the receiving end of one or two of Rapaport's outbursts, we can assure you they are very effective. Which is why it is important he succeeds in his new career, because it is impossible to yell while you're enjoying a savory mouthful of roast beef.