Kentucky Derby 2011

[evntr5218]

[QUOTE=Texarkana;5595198]
Albarado has had bad karma all around him this year. Can you imagine if Animal Kingdom had won with this still fresh in everyone’s mind?
[URL=“http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20110420/NEWS01/304200117/1037/SPORTS08/Albarado-pleads-guilty-reduced-charge-domestic-case”]
Albarado pleads guilty to reduced charge in domestic case

Instead of a PR nightmare we have a feel good story going into the Preakness.

(Although I suppose the PR nightmare may have boosted ratings… guess we’ll never know…)[/QUOTE]

I think that Karma had a hand in this. That and what owner/trainer wouldnt jump at the chance to have John Velazquez when he became available.

[Texarkana]

I just hope American breeders embrace his bloodlines when it comes time for him to retire. Even Kentucky Derby winners get snubbed if their bloodlines are commercially unpopular.

[WhiteCamry]

@asha40513;5597140

I think that Karma had a hand in this.

Or a hoof?

[evntr5218]

[QUOTE=WhiteCamry;5598462]
Or a hoof?[/QUOTE]

very true

[Glimmerglass]

So 2011 was the highest attended-in-person Kentucky Derby ever and on television it was the 4th highest watched in 21 years.

Final numbers 05-10-11 on viewership

NBC Sports’ coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky Derby drew 14.54 million viewers, the fourth most-watched Kentucky Derby in 21 years according to data provided by The Nielsen Company.

NBC Sports coverage of the Kentucky Derby over the last 11 years averages more than 2½ million more viewers than the previous 11 Kentucky Derby broadcasts on ABC (14.1 million vs.11.5 million, up 23 percent).

Saturday’s race (6:06-6:54 p.m. ET) was off 12 percent from last year’s 16.5 million, and 10 percent off from 2009’s 16.3 million, the two most-watched Derby’s since 1989 when Sunday Silence won the Derby (18.5 million).

The only other Derby viewership to surpass Saturday’s since 1990 was in 2004 when superhorse Smarty Jones won the Derby (14.6 million).

The Kentucky Derby once again proved to be very popular with female viewers. In fact, 51 percent of Derby viewers 18+ were women, making it the only annual sporting event that draws more female than male viewers.

How about the Verses coverage and NBC/Comcast strategy to use that sporting channel? It paid out quite well.

Friday’s 90-minute live coverage of the Kentucky Oaks on VERSUS drew 235,000 viewers, an increase of four percent from last year’s Oaks that aired on Bravo and an increase of 180 percent over VERSUS’ prior four-week time period average.

Overall, live Kentucky Derby coverage from Churchill Downs on VERSUS drew an average of 280,000 viewers, an increase of 143 percent over the network’s prior four-week time period average.

Where are viewers for the Derby located in the US?

TOP 20 METERED MARKETS FOR 2011 KENTUCKY DERBY

1. Louisville, 34.4/62
2. Cincinnati, 21.2/37
3. West Palm Beach, 18.4/32
4. Dayton, 16.2/28
5. Ft. Myers, 16.1/31
6. Indianapolis, 15.5/32
   T7. Nashville, 14.9/28
   T7. Columbus, 14.9/31
7. Hartford, 14.1/28
8. Knoxville, 13.1/22
9. Buffalo, 13.0/28
10. Cleveland, 12.9/30
    T13. Tampa, 12.6/28
    T13. Pittsburgh, 12.6/25
11. Boston, 12.5/27
    T16. Orlando, 11.8/25
    T16. New Orleans, 11.8/22
12. Philadelphia, 11.7/24
    T19. Baltimore, 11.5/25
    T19. Greensboro, 11.5/23

See even one West Coast market on there? Nope.

[sporthorsefilly]

[QUOTE=Texarkana;5597572]
I just hope American breeders embrace his bloodlines when it comes time for him to retire. Even Kentucky Derby winners get snubbed if their bloodlines are commercially unpopular.[/QUOTE]

God, I do hope that they embrace him. Isn’t it time that racing bred horses for racing and not for the sales ring?

[MHM]

I wonder why so many people came out to the track in person?

It didn’t seem like there was one super-horse to draw interest, and the forecast included some rain.

[Madeline]

@Glimmerglass;5598650

So 2011 was the highest attended-in-person Kentucky Derby ever and on television it was the 4th highest watched in 21 years.

Horrifying to think that nearly 15 million people saw Jenna Wolfe’s incredibly awful piece on Rachel Alexandra and Curlin…

[Beverley]

@Glimmerglass;5598650

See even one West Coast market on there? Nope.

Hah. The Derby barely gets a mention in our local paper unless there is a local connection (e.g., Brother Derek). And the first or second year we lived here the race coverage on the network got preempted by um, the local church’s ‘general convention!’

[Flashy_Gray_VA]

And the first or second year we lived here the race coverage on the network got preempted by um, the local church’s ‘general convention!’

PRE-EMPTING the Derby?!

If that’s not heresy, I don’t know what is.

[Rockfish]

[QUOTE=MHM;5598923]
I wonder why so many people came out to the track in person?

It didn’t seem like there was one super-horse to draw interest, and the forecast included some rain.[/QUOTE]

IHSA had their Nationals in Lexington this year. I know a few riders who trekked over to watch the Derby during the long weekend for them.

[Glimmerglass]

[QUOTE=Third Glance;5517088]
Unfortunately, Gourmet Dinner, a gutsy, gutsy colt I really like, is now officially out of the Derby and off the TC trail. His trainer says he has shin issues that developed shortly after the FOY (in which he finished 2nd).

Not sure why they kept so quiet about something like that. At any rate, he won’t resume jogging until mid-April.[/QUOTE]

Finally news since he dropped off the Derby/TC trail - he’s shipping to Saratoga for the summer with a new trainer.

… he will now be trained by Bruce Brown and prepared for a late summer/fall campaign. Brown is the son-in-law of Bill Terrill, the managing partner of Our Sugar Bear Stable, which owns Gourmet Dinner.

He was a gutsy horse and if he can retain that drive and talent will be a potential threat in say the Travers.

[Glimmerglass]

And Gourmet Dinner reappears - still owned by Our Sugar Bear Stable and trained by Bruce Brown - he just won (JUL 29, 2012) on the Haskell Day undercard at Monmouth in a gutsy duel to take the $100,000 Majestic Light Stakes.

[Beverley]

@Glimmerglass;6464529

And Gourmet Dinner reappears - still owned by Our Sugar Bear Stable and trained by Bruce Brown - he just won (JUL 29, 2012) on the Haskell Day undercard at Monmouth in a gutsy duel to take the $100,000 Majestic Light Stakes.

I trust I can find the replay on You Tube?

I do laugh at the name, though. Would particularly not want to be a slow horse with that moniker in, say, France.