Ok, the race itself is about 2 minutes. But NBC devoted 90 minutes to it.
I can understand running a short bio on the horses / owners/ trainers/ jockeys, and a discussion on the current odds, but does that take an hour and a half?
Thats a ratio of 45:1 (maybe 40:1 for the slower horses) Not even the Superbowl is so padded.
Yes, I was not forced to watch the whole thing (I just came back from the store about 20 minutes from race start), so this isn’t a rant per se. just an observation.
Brian
ESPN also did a few hours of coverage earlier in the day. I’m trying to think if there are some other races that get airtime like this.
there are a tons of verses to “old kentucky home” gotta fit that in.
the derby is THE race. the other 2 don’t have the same panache. although race 3 will get very interesting if there is a possibility of a triple crown.
What about Kentucky’s own Tom Hammond stealing a line from “The West Wing” during his opening voiceover?
“But every time we think we’ve measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we’re reminded that that capacity may well be limitless,” comes straight from the episode 20 Hours in America II.
If you think the NBC network coverage was excessive, you should try living in Lexington or Louisville. WLEX here in Lex Vegas started their live coverage at 9 a.m. and covered every race as well as talking to virtually every person on the grounds.
I only watch it for the hats 
VCNJ~
I placed bets for many people this morning at Keeneland’s drive-thru betting windows (including my own $2 straight-across bet on Barbaro ) and then ignored it until about 5:45 or so… That was about right.
Didn’t you hear? They changed the requirements for running in the Derby from a fee of $50,000 to a fee of $50,000 PLUS an inspirational background that can be packaged into a heartwarming pre-race feature. So if you want to run for the Roses, bring your Visa card … and a story about how you once saved some puppies from a burning building.
Don’t forgot to stop and eat something sponsored by Yum!
And I had thought the Visa ads in the previous years were obnoxious. Though I did like that they called Tacky Bell “Mexican inspired” food. They have some shame, at least.
If KFC is the biggest restaurant in China, that should take care of their population problem soon enough.
Yum, the best restaurant chains
<pop>
for clogging your arteries.
I’m just impressed that they got a company with Kentucky ties to sponsor something for once. I am surprised that Toyota didn’t have a bigger presence, since the Georgetown plant is a key part of the Toyota manufacturing empire.
I live 15 miles (+/-) from Churchill Downs. I didn’t tune in until 5 minutes from post time, just in time to hear the Kentucky National Anthem. And I grew up here! For me, the lead-in for the race started with Thunder, not at 9:00am this morning.
Vlad/Igor
Well, one of these days I won’t be working on Derby Day and I am going to wear a silly hat and drink mint juleps and I won’t care how much they pad the pre-race show.
Huh, I was going to nominate sumo wrestling as “most padded”.
And speaking of hats, I had it running for about 20 minutes before the race, and there was one woman in the background during one interview who you could only partially see, and it looked like she’d made her hair stand straight up 6 inches spiked in every direction. It took me a moment to realize it was actually a hat. I haven’t seen a hat that crazy since I was a child and women always wore hats, most of which offered no actual protection but were simply stylistic creations, the more absurd the better.
But the Derby a too-padded sporting event? Oh, yeah.
The Preakness, maybe? I don’t know about national coverage, but the day of the race, the local channels have nothing but non-stop coverage, starting at 9:00 am. All for a minute-and-a-half race.
If the winner of the Preakness finishes in 1:30, then it will be big news! That horse would be flying.
Barbaros won me twelve bucks from my girlfriend’s sister. Good enough for me.
The early Mike Tyson fights were similar in regards to the ratio of actual event time versus broadcast length.
Let’s see:
Race: 2 minutes
Suffering race related nonsense: Two weeks
Leaving town while all this is going on: Priceless
I used to live half a block from Churchill Downs (in fact they were my landlord – and not really bad ones either). Imagine having your house in the middle of Woodstock’s field of excess – now imagine it happening every year.
I HATE HATE HATE HATE the KY Derby and all it stands for – however, I’m certain the abnormally inflated prices for those two weeks allows us to live fairly cheaply the rest of the year – so I’ll tolerate it.
If you want to see expanded coverage, check out pro boxing.
If a match actually goes 15 rounds, that’s one thing. But if you have the misfortune to pay $39.95 for a pay per view match that ends in the first or second round, you’re going to get a night full of talking heads and replays.