FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, October 25th, 2012

BREEDERS’ CUP CLASSIC TO AIR LIVE IN PRIMETIME ON NBC FOR FIRST TIME

NBC Sports Group to Present a Total of 9½ Hours of Breeders’ Cup World Championships Coverage Coverage From Santa Anita Park Begins Friday, November 2, From 4-8 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network and Culmintes with the Breeders' Cup Classic Saturday, November 3 at 8 p.m. ET Live on NBC Tom Hammond, Gary Stevens, Randy Moss Lead NBC Sports Group’s Breeders’ Cup Commentator Team, and Will be Available on a Conference Call on Wednesday, October 31 at 1:30 p.m. ET NBC Sports’ and Access Hollywood’s Michelle Beadle On Site to Capture the Spectacle and Scene of Breeders’ Cup Breeders’ Cup Returns to its Original Home on NBC, with First Year of a Multi-Year Media Rights Agreement Between NBC Sports Group and Breeders’ Cup

NEW YORK – October 25, 2012 – For the first time ever, the Breeders’ Cup Classic will be broadcast live in primetime, culminating 9½ hours of Breeders’ Cup World Championships coverage over two days by the NBC Sports Group from Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. The Breeders’ Cup returns to its original home at NBC for the first time since 2005, in the first year of a multi-year media rights agreement.

Live NBC Sports Group coverage of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships begins on Friday, November 2, from 4-8 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network, continues on Saturday, November 3, from 3:30-8 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network, and culminates with the first-ever live primetime broadcast of the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Saturday, November 3, 8-9 p.m. ET on NBC

2012 BREEDERS’ CUP TELEVISION SCHEDULE:

All Times Live, ET

Friday, November 2 4-8 p.m. NBC Sports Network
Saturday, November 3 3:30-8 p.m. NBC Sports Network
Saturday, November 3 8-9 p.m. NBC

COMENTATORS: The NBC Sports Group coverage of the Breeders’ Cup will feature host Tom Hammond, whose first-ever assignment for NBC was as a reporter on the network’s inaugural Breeders’ Cup broadcast in 1984. He is joined by Hall-of-Fame jockey Gary Stevens, who has won eight Breeders’ Cup races; veteran horse racing analyst Randy Moss; Hall-of-Fame jockey Jerry Bailey, who has 15 Breeders’ Cup wins, including five wins in the Breeders’ Cup Classic; contributing analysts/handicappers Mike Battaglia and Bob Neumeier; host/reporter Laffit Pincay, III; reporters Kenny Rice, Donna Brothers, Jay Privman and Nick Luck, who is making his NBC Sports Group debut; race caller Larry Collmus, who will call the Breeders’ Cup Classic and Ladies’ Classic (NBC will take the call of track announcer Trevor Denman for the remaining races over the two days).

Additionally, NBC Sports’ and Access Hollywood’s Michelle Beadle will be on site to capture the spectacle and scene of the Breeders’ Cup, as well as contributing features and handling celebrity interviews.

NBC Sports Group’s Breeders’ Cup coverage will be produced by Rob Hyland, producer of NBC’s Triple Crown coverage, and a veteran of the network’s horse racing coverage since 2001, and directed by Jeff Simon. The coverage on NBC Sports Network will be produced by Billy Matthews. The executive producer of NBC Sports and NBC Sports Network is Sam Flood, who has produced 11 Triple Crown races for the network.

BREEDERS’ CUP CONFERENCE CALL: NBC will conduct a media conference call on Wednesday, October 31 at 1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT with Hammond, Stevens, Moss and Hyland. Details of the call will be available on Monday.

BREEDERS’ CUP: The Breeders’ Cup, thoroughbred racing’s most prestigious global racing event, consists of 15 races held over two-days with more than $25 million in purses at stake. The culminating event of the Breeders’ Cup, the Breeders’ Cup Classic, is contested at 1 ¼ miles on the main track, for 3-year-olds and older, and is often the determining race for the coveted Horse of the Year title. Over the years, 11 Classic winners have been voted Horse of the Year. In 2009 at Santa Anita Park, the great racemare Zenyatta became the first female to ever win the Classic.

NBC SPORTS GROUP AND HORSE RACING: The NBC Sports Group is the exclusive home to the most important and prestigious events in horse racing, including the Triple Crown and the Breeders’ Cup, which was broadcast on NBC from 1984-2005. NBC has been the exclusive home of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes since 2001, and the Belmont Stakes since 2011, when the NBC Sports Group reassembled the Triple Crown. In 2012, the NBC Sports Group presented 27½ hours of Triple Crown coverage across NBC and NBC Sports Network.

NBC Sports Group is also the home to Summer at Saratoga, and, in collaboration with The Jockey Club, the Road to the Kentucky Derby series that provided live coverage of six major prep races for the 2012 Kentucky Derby.

BREEDERS’ CUP LIMITED: The Breeders’ Cup administers the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, thoroughbred racing’s year-end Championships. The Breeders’ Cup also administers the Breeders’ Cup Challenge qualifying series, which provides automatic starting positions into the Championships races. The 2012 Breeders’ Cup World Championships will be held Nov. 2-3 at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. Breeders’ Cup press releases appear on the Breeders’ Cup Web site, www.breederscup.com. You can also follow the Breeders’ Cup on social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.