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.