ESPN To Racing: Drop Dead

Another milestone on the path to becoming the Rodney Dangerfield of sports:

Turfway Park's Rushaway Stakes and the Lane's End were to be featured on an ESPN2 broadcast last Saturday at 5 PM. Unfortunately for racing fans, a tennis game ran a little late...42 minutes late, to be exact...and our broadcast was pre-empted. At approximately 5:43, as the horses were approaching the gate for the Lane's End, our horse racing broadcast finally began. The Rushaway couldn't be shown, even on tape, because women's basketball was scheduled to start at 6, and it did. This is probably the most insulting thing I've seen on ESPN since bigmouth Jim Rome's statement that horse racing is not a sport.

For fun, check out this article from the archives of the Louisville Courier-Journal. It contains all the blather from Breeders' Cup officials and ESPN execs about the good reasons for terminating NBC's 21 year relationship with the Breeders' Cup. Memorable quote from an ESPN poobah: "...ESPN is going to make it a high priority to see that it is restored to its gloried past." Does he mean tennis or women's basketball?