The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), Daily Racing Form
and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters announced Tuesday that
ESPN has won the Media Eclipse Award for Television — Live Racing Programming
for its telecast of the 2010 Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs in Louisville,
Kentucky. The Breeders’ Cup program, which culminated with the dramatic battle
between Blame and Zenyatta in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), aired on ABC and
ESPN and ESPN2 on November 5-6. Mike McQuade was coordinating producer.
This is the second consecutive Media Eclipse Award in the Live Television
category for ESPN, which won the award in 2009 for its telecast of the Belmont
Stakes that was shown on ABC.
“We are extremely proud to win this award for the second consecutive year,”
said McQuade, who is vice president of Event Production for ESPN. “Our team does
horse racing as well as anyone in the industry. We are blessed with a crew that
is dedicated to putting together a terrific production of the races, but also
bringing viewers closer to the action as never before.”
The main focus of the 2010 Breeders’ Cup program was the attempt by the
six-year-old Zenyatta to retire a perfect 20 for 20 with a repeat victory in the
$5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic against her strongest competition to date,
coupled with the national attention she had garnered over the past three years.
“She had turned the Breeders’ Cup into a cultural event, not just a sporting
event,” said McQuade. “We tried to bring out the formidable task she faced that
day by preparing the viewer with stories and information on all 11 horses in the
Classic.”
In between the live telecast of 14 races over the two days of the
Championships, the program included poignant features on the closeness between
Zenyatta and her jockey Mike Smith and a segment on Classic contender Quality
Road who returned successfully to competition following his scratch at the gate
in the 2009 Classic.
The final 45 minutes of the Saturday telecast were commercial free. In the
last stages of Zenyatta’s walkover to be saddled for the Classic, the ESPN
announcer team went silent as she paraded up the paddock runway and entered her
stall to just the loud cheers of the crowd from all directions. “She was the
star of the show, not us,” said McQuade. “We felt letting the scene play for
itself was the best way the get the viewer to be as close to that moment as
possible.”
For the running of the Classic itself, McQuade credits his production team
for keeping the shots simple and reducing the number of cuts to a minimum. ESPN
also utilized a second extra slow motion camera facing the finish line that
defined Blame’s short victory over Zenyatta. That shot replayed over and over
during the next several days in the national spotlight.
The Breeders’ Cup World Championships telecast was produced by David Ceisler
and directed by Doug Holmes. Joe Tessitore hosted the program. He was joined by
analysts Randy Moss, Kenny Mayne and Jerry Bailey. Jeannine Edwards, Jay Privman,
Caton Bredar, Steve Cyphers and Jeremy Schaap were the reporters, and Hank
Goldberg was the handicapper.
Judges for the National Television — Live Racing category were: Chris
Svendsen of CBS Sports; Stan Isaacs, former Newsday sports television columnist,
and Howard Sudberry, former sports director for WBBM-TV in Chicago. Honorable
mention in the National Television Live Programming went to NBC Sports for it
live telecast of the Preakness Stakes from Baltimore, Maryland., which aired on
May 15. Sam Flood was executive producer.
The 40th Annual Eclipse Awards will be held on Monday, January 17 at the
Fontainebleau Miami Beach in Miami Beach, Fla. For hotel accommodations and
Eclipse Awards ceremony reservations, contact Michele Ravencraft at the NTRA’s
Lexington office, (800) 792-6872, or e-mail mravencraft@ntra.com.