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Out of Left Field |
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 Funny Cide takes step #2 toward the first Triple Crown since 1978 |
AFTER THE JOCKEY FIASCO
NBC captures the hijinx
of a feel-good Preakness
of TheColumnists.com
A scorecard on NBC’s telecast of the exciting Preakness can be broken down into three components: the mixed treatment of the pre-race scene setting; the excellent race coverage; and the zeroing in with delight at the madcap post-race celebrating by the winners. Add to that the insertion of a comic bit to the usually Rotarian-dull post-race ceremonies by the irrepressible Bob Costas.
Before the race NBC did an excellent job covering the angle of the Everyman owners of Funny Cide. It did not do so well with what turned out to be the ridiculous controversy over Jose Santos in the Kentucky Derby that was the big story before the Preakness.
TV has the advantage over
newspapers in that it can show pictures, many pictures, pictures
of sequences of a race, pictures of any disputed actions in a
race. Here, NBC showed not much more than the disputed photo
run by the Miami Herald that led to charges that Santos was carrying
a battery which helped his horse win the Derby. That wasn’t
enough, nor was it enough to have the NBC announcers come down,
however the paper deserved it, on the Miami Herald, nor was it
enough to report that the other jockeys testified to the good
character of Santos.
In the clearing of Santos, there was talk about people looking
at frame-by-frame shots of Santos during and after the race which
showed that he couldn’t have held anything other than a
whip in his hand. NBC replayed aspects of the Derby in real time
and in slow motion, but it didn’t break it down in slow
motion, frame by frame, if necessary, because this would have
shown viewers why the Churchill Downs stewards had to admit a
mistake in buying even for a short time the Miami Herald angle.
It would have been a coup for producer David Michaels to have
had Santos commenting over a Derby replay about what he was doing
in the key stages to refute the questions raised by the Miami
Herald photo.
The telecast had a feel-good
celebratory feel to it because of the jollity spread by the frolicking
owners of the winner and the excitement over the smashing performance
by Funny Cide. Race caller Tom Durkin, ever on top of things,
set up the end-of-the-race crescendo when Funny Cide pulled even
with Peace Rules on the turn, shouting, “And the race is
on….”
Then, as Funny Cide pounded down the stretch pulling away, Durkin
got it with, “…turning the Preakness into a runaway,”
his voice pulsating to a higher pitch as he finished off with,
“a huge effort here. It is Funny Cide and he’s headed
home back to Belmont for a date with Triple Crown history.”
Yeah.
NBC showed the Funny Ciders’ high school graduation photos; of them arriving in high spirits at Pimlico in a school bus; of them enjoying themselves to the hilt; of them rooting for the horse and going slightly batty as he came charging down the stretch to victory. And they had the precious shots of the Santos family: the little kid, Jose, crying from the tension before the race, and whooping it up with his mother and sisters after the race. I’d enjoy seeing these before-and-after shots of Jose when NBC sets the scene for the Belmont Stakes on June 7.
Bob Costas, getting into
it more and more with each exposure to racing, was precisely
right when, during the interviewing of officials and politicos
in the winner’s circle, he shrewdly brought back the common
touch. He asked if the regular-folks owners would quit their
jobs now and he pulled out the most colorful of the owners, the
zany bloke wearing a black derby atop a brown-and-yellow jacket
and mustard-colored pants. Costas elicited his name--“Augustine
Williamsetti, Esquire” was the best I could make out--and
then asked him, “If you win any part of the $5 million [for
a Triple Crown victory] is there any chance a fashion consultant
would come aboard?” The rogue answered that he probably
could get $10,000 for his outfit now. The viewers enjoyed this
bonus because NBC, happily, stayed on for 15 minutes beyond its
scheduled signoff.
A word of appreciation for director John Gonzalez’ race
pictures: He discarded the network-nutty cut on the first turn
of a switch from a back-to-front angle; this allowed viewers
to get an uninterrupted look at any particular horse in the early
going. And he executed excellent synchronization, following Durkin
as the race caller was running down the entire field. Gonzalez
had eight camera switches during the race, none of which were
jarring, and, significantly, he bulls-eyed Funny Cide when the
gelding made his big move on the turn.
A huzzah to Bob Neumeier for a betting triumph. Liking the favored Funny Cide, he opted for a $12 bet of six two-dollar exactas linking Funny Cide and Peace Rules with longshots. The Funny Cide-Midway Road exacta came home for a $120.60 payoff. It might not be a bad idea for NBC to do a short seminar on exotic betting for one of these telecasts.
Overall a score of 85 for
the Preakness telecast--and the less said the better, perhaps,
about the dubious feature plugging the upcoming “Seabiscuit”
movie which popped up amidst a slew of actual commercials for
the movie.
©2003 by Stan Isaacs. The Stan Isaacs caricature is ©2001
by Jim Hummel. The photo is from the official Preakness
website.
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