What fascinates me most, are some of the comments at the above link about this merger. It's a snapshot of just how difficult it is for this sport to deal with itself.
"I really hope that HRTV doesn't lose the excellent coverage of other "horse sports" that it currently features. As someone involved in many aspects of the horse world, I love the show jumping, dressage, and training coverage"
"All this means is more "stretch" calls and more on air talent picks and I couldn't give a flying crap what Todd, or Simon, or Paul like."
"Showing of races and parades should be "real time" as their primary priority."
"For one, I hope HRTV continues it's type coverage. Less talk more races..TVG talks to much and ignores many races so they can all TALK"
"Less talk more races" is the biggest complaint, just like it was up here with HPITV. People are betting - it's a betting sport that is fueled by gambler dollars - and want to see their races. People who like the sport, or horses, want to hear commentary, see other shows, etc.
It's not like that with a fishing network. If I liked fishing, I am sure I would like to see fishing shows, with instruction, with other people catching fish, beautiful rivers and lakes from around the world. I'd be a big Fishing Network fan and so would you. In horse racing TV land, I could not care less about what someone else picks, or thinks, because I am too busy trying to figure out who I want to bet.I, like a lot of you, love horses and the majesty of the sport, but we don't want to hear about it when we're constructing a pick 5 ticket.
TVG has to cater to several different groups, all the while trying to drive handle, because that's their bottom line. It's not the easiest mix, and they'll probably end up making (and have ended up making) few happy. One channel or two, it is what it is.
Best in Show
"Tail Wagging Beagle Wins Best in Show" was the AP headline, and that's the first thing I noticed when I watched the video of Miss P winning. Her tail never stops moving. Wag, wag, wag. Almost every beagle I have taken care of, or the two I owned, wanted to wag (Ted could not because I think his tail was broken, but it would move constantly at the base); they are just a fun, wonderful, loyal, loving dog.
I really marvel at the winner, because she didn't follow her nose when she easily could've. There was an experiment done long ago to test smell senses of various breeds. A dead mouse was dropped somewhere on a one acre plot and dogs were asked to find the mouse.Some breeds took 30 minutes to find it, beagles averaged 15 seconds. She's a darn good dog considering all those smells on the playing field at MSG.
Best in Show is the second best honor a dog can get, and I congratulate her. My old dog Ted received a World's Best Dog edible birthday card for his second birthday with us (maybe his 11th or 12th in real life). World's Best Dog is the highest honor ever bestowed on any canine; at the Pocket household anyway.
Miss P has a ways to go yet, but she's alright. Congratulations to all the beagles out there. You did good.
3 comments:
I definitely prefer HRTV over TVG. I watch the channel that carries the track that I want to see, but there are few folks on TVG that I do not mute, the ratio is the other way on HRTV. The difference between the channels is simple, TVG is about the personalities, HRTV is about the horses. That doesn't meant that the HRTV folks don't make picks, they do. Actually, it would be an interesting experiment to see which of the on-air talent of both channels have the best ROI. Unscientifically, I find that HRTV does a better job of explaining why they like a horse, rather than just listing numbers, ala TVG. Maybe, it's their kids' birthdays, I know plenty of people who bet like that.
I prefer tvg to hrtv. Other than s.a. the picture on hrtv looks straight out of the 70s. I couldn't care less who so and so picks to win. I just hope that we keep 2 racing channels instead of 1.
More importantly, was the beagle winning at the Westminster Dog Show. First of all beagles are cool dogs, and secondly, it is nice to see the judge actually pick a non--foo foo dog; a dog a lot of people would have.
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