DRF| Former jockeys give racing broadcasts a bold voice

[TouchOfGrey]

Awesome read. Can't get enough of the Mig!

DRF| Former jockeys give racing broadcasts a bold voice

By most accounts, Migliore is off to a good start with HRTV and telecasts generated by NYRA’s TV department. The rider of horses who won 4,450 races, Migliore rebounded from numerous injuries, including at least two that could have been fatal, before a spill at Aqueduct in January 2010 led to surgery that left him with two plates and eight screws in his neck. The day he announced his retirement, the week of the 2010 Belmont Stakes, one of the first people to call was Amy Zimmerman, the award-winning executive producer for HRTV and associate producer for racing for NBC and ESPN.

Twenty-one years before, Zimmerman had watched “A Cup of Courage: The Jockey’s Story” on the Discovery channel. It was a documentary about the dangers of race-riding and featured, among others, Angel Cordero, Laffit Pincay, Chris McCarron, and Migliore.

“Richie was very good on that show, talking about the day he broke his neck in a spill at Belmont Park,” Zimmerman said. “It was something that just stuck with me over the years. He was so articulate. From that moment on, I thought of him as someone who could help a telecast and be a great ambassador for racing at the same time.”