Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Reality TV With Little People on Horses

It's been circulated around the thoroughbred blogs and so on, but I bet dollars to donuts many harness fans have not heard of it. Jockey's on Animal Planet. Here is the promo.



They only showed about eleven crashes.

10 comments:

G. Rarick said...

Yeah, the promos I saw look like they're not going to do anything to help the image of racing. I hope they release it online, because I'd like to see it.

Pull the Pocket said...

You are like me Ms. R - When you go to watch online video you get the big box "Not available for people outside the US"

I am thinking of ordering AP for this. Might be kind of interesting, as long as I dont have to watch any horses fall over.

Anonymous said...

from what I've seen horses falling over is sort of their thing, but they only appear to talk about the potential injury to the jocks.

sure, plenty of danger hounds will love it but I think it stands a really good chance of alienating a lot people who A) already think of horse racing as dog fighting for white people or B) love racing but are uneasy about animal safety to begin with. of course, the promos are one thing, who knows how they'll position it.

it really seems more like fodder for SpikeTV than Animal Planet... very odd.

Pull the Pocket said...

We see the angle taken, and I think it is interesting. Virtually everyone I know who sees a horse take a bad step or be pulled up gets sick to their stomach. I can not watch a steeplechase race because when a hedge comes up I cringe. But as a promo this seems to be commonplace to show.

I know we are too inside baseball to be unbiased, but there is a certain odd disconnect going on here. (imo)

Anonymous said...

ha! I feel the same way about steeplechase... it's far too stressful.

and I agree re: commonplace reality treatment & promo adding up to a weird dissociation. I still find it hideous when a horse goes down in the promo but not in the 'there's a little throw up in the back of my throat" way that I experience at the track or even on simulcast.

what do you make of Pricci's take? I think he's conveniently ignoring the breakdown factor.

Anonymous said...

The most eye-opening thing to me was learning about the relationship between Chantal Sutherland and Mike Smith. I don't know if they ever ride against each other, but that's a bit of a weird one to me.

Pull the Pocket said...

Certainly a bullish review by JP. Perhaps we are looking at this too 'inside' and he has it correct?

I am interested to read the reviews after the first airing. I hope it goes well.

Anonymous said...

I don't know, I think JP is too "inside" on this and that his sentiments are right on for those of us who are already involved. Maybe that's who's he's speaking about anyway, lord knows we all could use some "feel good"!

Plus, I think the context is being radically overlooked... I can't get past that's it's on Animal Planet. Compare this to a show like Dog Town where the dog rescuers literally cry every time they send a dog to it's new forever home. They even showed a funeral for a dog where there wasn't a dry eye on screen and someone explained the rainbow bridge and that "when the wind chime sounds it's the dog's spirit letting us all know that he's happy on the other side." (I'm paraphrasing, but you get the point... not a crowd that's gonna look beyond animal injury).

I'll be really interested to see the reviews too, particularly from non-racing fans. I also hope I'm wrong!!

Anonymous said...

Whoops, I made a mistake... the Dog Town show in on the National Geographic channel, not Animal Planet. So much for brand awareness, my bad!

Pull the Pocket said...

You are terrible. Man, get with the program huh? :)

I like that show. Between that and the Dog Whisperer I dont know I have time to bet and procrastinate.

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