NBC Sports Earns Eclipse in TV Features

NBC Sports has won the media Eclipse Award for national television features for "California Chrome: The Unlikely Champion," the story of the 2014 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) and Preakness Stakes (gr. I) winner who rose from modest beginnings to become America's most popular racehorse.

NBC coordinating producer Rob Hyland and supervising producer Jack Felling led the production team of the 30-minute program, which aired on NBCSN on June 5 of last year. 

Narrated by Bob Costas, "California Chrome" takes a close up look of the horse's co-owners, Steve Coburn and Perry Martin, 77-year-old trainer Art Sherman and jockey Victor Espinoza, and their formation of a winning team. NBC captured the contrasting styles of the extroverted Coburn, a press operator for a company that produces magnetic tape for credit cards, and the quieter, cerebral Martin, who owns an electronic testing plant, in their workplaces in California and Nevada.

The viewer is introduced to Love the Chase, "the $8,000 mare who produced a $1 million winner" in California Chrome. Interviewed at his base at Los Alamitos, Sherman, who was a stablehand with Swaps at the 1955 Kentucky Derby, is living the dream with California Chrome. Sherman gives Espinoza, who rode 2002 Derby and Preakness winner War Emblem, a shot on California Chrome and his gratefulness at the opportunity shines through. Along the way, the feature chronicles California Chrome's electrifying victories and the celebrations of the main characters and the 3-year-old's legion of fans.  

"By the time California Chrome won the Preakness Stakes it was clear that this horse had captured the imaginations of fans across the country," said Felling. "At the same time, the connections became transcendent sports folk heroes, a blue collar team who endeared themselves even to fans who might not typically follow Thoroughbred racing. 

"So in the weeks between the Preakness and Belmont we set out to produce a film that aimed to explain how such an unlikely horse made his way to the doorstep of history, and how such an improbable team of horsemen got him there. 

"We scrambled crews to shoot with jockey Victor Espinoza in Los Angeles and New York. We visited owners Steve Coburn and Perry Martin in California and Nevada. And we saw trainer Art Sherman at his unassuming stable at Los Alamitos racetrack.

"Three production teams worked around-the-clock for 15 days to prepare the show. In the end, it was the kind of story you feel privileged to share. And, frankly, it's a story that simply could not exist in any other sport; the tale of a team of regular folks who chased one of the most elusive titles in sports." 

In addition to Hyland and Felling, "California Chrome: The Unlikely Champion" was co-produced by Matt Allen, Phil Parrish, Dave Picker, and Paige Westin. Ryan Yeager and Will Moss were the editors and Max Rahamin and Kim Brown were the associate producers. 

Judges for the National Television-Features category were Jay Posner of the San Diego Union Tribune; award-winning producer Toni Slotkin, and producer Doug Wren of Wren Productions.