This has trouble written all over it
 

The USA Today is reporting that Saturday's Preakness telecast will begin "with a panel discussion on the filly's catastrophic breakdown and other controversies surrounding Thoroughbred horse racing, says producer Sam Flood. Among the guests: Churchill Downs veterinarian Larry Bramlage; Eight Belles trainer Larry Jones; NBC analyst Gary Stevens; and New York Times columnist William Rhoden, who blasted the sport of kings as "only a couple of steps removed from animal fighting."

(http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colum...cCarthy_N.htm).

This doesn't sound to me as though anything good can come from this. Further, it means less coverage of the live action. I can hardly wait...

Paul

with your closed mind nothing good of it can come for you. for horses and our sport i hope it will lead to something good and humane.

ESPN will still have a 1/2 hour of live racing at 4:30 PM, which is also post of the Dixie Stakes

Dr. Bramlage and Larry Jones will be very prepared and I hope will give an eloquent defense of the game in the face of the blathering extremists. Rhoden is an idiot and I hope he is proven the fraud he is. Might not be the worst thing in the world.

Hopefully Kettle smokes pot upside the head

This is like discussing the Middle East on Meet the Press...what good can possibly come from it, no matter what your personal thoughts are on this?

Exactly, if anything, that panel looks sided towards horse racing. This other guy could get blasted when he starts getting out of control

Which synthetic track company do you work for?

Discussion is a good thing

Hopefully better than he was on The Today Show....didn't think that was strong, although he's a trainer, not a professional PR guy

Thank you. I agree completely.

Bramlage will crush him like a grape.

OOOOOO!

Without getting into the players involved, is the Live NBC Preakness telecast the best place for this kind of thing? It might be viewed as too self-serving, and perhaps won't be taken seriously.

Just a thought.

when people are lead out in handcuffs for horse abuse and spend hard time in jail like Michael Vick this game will know time is up...the abusers and those that allow the abuse are on borrowed time. those committing fraud on the buying and betting public as well...so i advise anyone to do the right thing. God is always watching and the "world" will be watching Saturday. Shame on the abusers. Shame on those that condone it.

William Rhoden is just the Jerry Springer of the NY Times. He will say anything to get attention because he is a terrible writer that nobody wants to hear from.

I'm worried about Gary Stevens reacting to questions in real time.


Please don't tell me he's the mediator in all of this. Please God and baby Jesus no.

You're more likely to be led out in a muzzle and have your hands chopped off for being a horrendous poster before that will happen.

They should let Millie Ball do it. The looks and the accent soften the image of racing.

Now that Isiah is gone he has nothing else to do except knock a sport that he pays zero attention to. Will probably play the race card and say we dont care about the horses much because they have brown skin. I wont read the NY Times except in rare occasions but the times i've seen him on the Sports Reporters he usually comes off as a moron but I guess most of the guys on that show do.

If God is watching, I wonder who he likes to fill out the super.

Oh my goodness.

well, that's all well and good, but what has any of that to do with eight belles?

In my heart He has a fav. But the Devil is in control of this game and it must be wrested away from his followers. There are great people in this game , that together, can do this. The sport will be so much better off for it. Real opportunity for all exists in a clean game.

g nite

pass the collection plate, sir.

I agree Hoss. Every thread, no matter the topic, ends with some ridiculous holier than though poly or drug rant. Its tiresome at best and borders on insanity.

It's getting crazier and crazier by the post too.

yeah, but i'm guilt free sleeping in on sundays.

Personally I think that this a terrible idea. Racing only makes it on to national TV a handful of times a year. Now on one of these days you are going to have a panel discussion on everything wrong and bad in the sport. They should be showing live races and promoting the game, the races, horses and people involved to the audience and any new possible fan base that is watching. Try to sell the sport and get people to the track, instead of scaring them away with talk of breakdowns, drugs and synthetic surfaces. I have nothing against a forum of things that need to be fixed in the game(there are real issues), but I do not think that this is the time or the place for it.

The Eight Belles breakdown was horrible and NBC should spend a few moments addressing the issue. Even though breakdowns happen in racing and it is a part of racing finding the definitive answer to why they occur is impossible. They could blame the dirt surface but breakdowns happen on grass too. Look back at the last few Opening Day 1st races at the Spa.

Hopefully Dr. Bramledge and Larry Jones will articulate a sensible response to William Rhoden's uneducated rant about how horrible horse racing is.

I would think that everyone on here wants a clean game, but what does that have to do with Eight Belles?

perhaps they could take a moment to remind everyone that his race has been run every year since it's inception in 1875 (133 runnings) with only one fatality ever in the field, eight belles.

But isn't that sort of the point? Horses are getting more fragile, drugs are corrupting the sport, etc. . .

Why is William Rhoden's uninformed opinion part of this panel anyway? Just because he wrote a column?

I think God plays pick 6's more..

Racing is broken and it needs to be fixed. As of right now, racing is dying a slow death. Tracks are closing down all over the country. Hollywood Park may be next. There are serious problems in racing and they need to be addressed.

The bettors and the fans are well aware of the problems. The problems are not going to go away until they are fixed. You can't just sweep them under the rug.

You guys have the whole thing backwards. You guys seem to think that if they just shut up about Eight Belles, then everything will be fine. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's just the opposite. If we just shut up and don't make any changes, we will continue to see Eight Belles type incidents and racing will continue to go downhill.

Instead we should seize the moment, and use the Eight Belles incident as a wake-up call to finally start making some of the changes that need to be made.

Having discussions on television is a huge positive, not a negative.

You're missing the point, IMO. It's WHO is speaking, not that the discussions are going on. I can't speak for everyone else, but I welcome open discusions about horse racing, its issues and what can be done to make improvements. But when uninformed people get a forum to voice an opinion, it does no good.
NBC should have chosen someone more aware of horse racing issues for this panel than Mr. Rhoden. Who's going to take him seriously?

Exactly, informed discussion is one thing. Ranting without any knowledge of the subject doesn't do an ounce of good.