FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, October 27th, 2014

CALIFORNIA CHROME, WINNER OF KENTUCKY DERBY & PREAKNESS STAKES, HEADLINES STAR-STUDDED FIELD IN BREEDERS’ CUP CLASSIC LIVE THIS SAT. AT 8 PM ET ON NBC

“Horse of the Year” Likely To Be Determined in Primetime Breeders’ Cup Classic As Belmont Stakes Winner Tonalist & Unbeaten Shared Belief Challenge California Chrome

NBC Sports Group to Televise 12 Races Live in 8½ Hours of Coverage of Breeders’ Cup World Championships from Santa Anita Park, Beginning Friday, October 31, at 5 p.m. ET on NBCSN

Breeders’ Cup Commentators Tom Hammond, Jerry Bailey, Randy Moss & Eddie Olczyk will be Available on a Conference Call on Wednesday, October 29 at 3:30 PM ET

NBC Sports Group’s Josh Elliott Hosts Pre-Race Coverage During NBC’s Primetime Show

STAMFORD, Conn. – October 27, 2014 – 2014 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner California Chrome leads a star-studded field in the running of the 31st Breeders’ Cup Classic, broadcast live in primetime this Saturday, November 1 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. California Chrome faces competition from 2014 Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist, and the undefeated Shared Belief, winner of the 2014 Los Alamitos Derby, Pacific Classic and Awesome Again Stakes.  All three horses could claim “Horse of the Year” honors with a win in the Classic.

The running of the 31st Breeders’ Cup Classic culminates 8½ hours of Breeders’ Cup World Championships coverage over two days on NBC and NBCSN from Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. Twelve Breeders’ Cup races will be televised live by NBC Sports Group.

NBCSN’s live coverage of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships begins on Friday, October 31, at 5 p.m. ET, and continues Saturday, November 1, at 3:30 p.m. ET.

2014 BREEDERS’ CUP TELEVISION SCHEDULE:

Date Time (ET) Network
Fri., Oct. 31 5 – 8 p.m. NBCSN
Sat., Nov. 1 3:30 – 8 p.m. NBCSN
Sat., Nov. 1 8  – 9 p.m. NBC

COMMENTATORS: The NBC Sports Group coverage of the Breeders’ Cup will feature Tom Hammond, whose first-ever assignment for NBC was as a reporter 30 years ago on the network’s inaugural Breeders’ Cup broadcast in 1984. He is joined by Hall-of-Fame jockey Jerry Bailey, who had 15 Breeders’ Cup wins, including five victories in the Breeders’ Cup Classic; veteran horse racing analyst Randy Moss; contributing analysts/handicappers Bob Neumeier and Eddie Olczyk, who makes his Breeders’ Cup debut; host/reporter Laffit Pincay, III; reporters Kenny Rice, Donna Brothers, Jay Privman, Nick Luck, and Carolyn Manno; and NBC Sports Group’s Josh Elliott. NBC’s Triple Crown race caller Larry Collmus will call all of the Breeders’ Cup races.

Additionally, Elliott will host the first half hour of the primetime show, which will focus on the spectacle and scene of the Breeders’ Cup, contribute features, and interview celebrities.  Manno will conduct celebrity interviews and host reports from the Breeders’ Cup “purple carpet.”

Emmy and Tony Award-winning star of stage and screen Kristin Chenoweth will perform the Breeders’ Cup anthem “The Best is Yet to Come” as the horses come out on the track for the running of the $5,000,000 Breeders’ Cup Classic. Rock legend Richie Sambora will sing the national anthem on NBCSN on Saturday.

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 Pierre Moossa. The coverage on NBCSN will be produced by Billy Matthews. The executive producer of NBC Sports and NBCSN is Sam Flood, who has produced 12 Triple Crown races for the network.

NBC SPORTS LIVE EXTRA: NBC Sports Live Extra — the NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, and tablets — will stream Breeders’ Cup coverage on NBC and NBCSN. For desktops, NBC Sports Live Extra can be accessed at NBCSports.com/liveextra. The NBC Sports Live Extra app for mobile devices and tablets is available at the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and on select Android handset and tablet devices within Google Play.

NBC Sports Live Extra will offer full replays of all streamed races.

BREEDERS’ CUP “ALL ACCESS”: Horseracing fans and fans of the celebrities and fashion at the Breeders’ Cup can access content leading up to, and through the event at NBCSports.com/BreedersCup. Fans can access and sort social media content from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram through various streams spanning horses, fashion, celebrities and more.  The “All Access” page aggregates what’s trending, Breeders’ Cup video and photo content.

TWITTER MIRROR: NBC Sports and Twitter are partnering to have the “Twitter Mirror” present on the “Purple Carpet” at Breeders’ Cup capturing celebrities, their style and picks for the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Photos will be pushed out through the @NBCSN Twitter feed and collected and housed within the Breeders’ Cup All Access page at NBCSports.com/BreedersCup.  Content from the “Twitter Mirror” will be featured on-air during the Breeders’ Cup.

BREEDERS’ CUP CONFERENCE CALL: NBC will conduct a media conference call this Wednesday, October 29 at 3:30 PM ET with Hammond, Bailey, Moss, and Olczyk.

Dial 480-293-0668 to participate

Conference ID: 5391367

BREEDERS’ CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: The Breeders’ Cup, thoroughbred racing’s most prestigious global racing event, consists of 13 races held over two-days with $26 million in purses and awards 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.

Breeders’ Cup Limited 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. 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 FacebookTwitter and YouTube.

NBC SPORTS GROUP AND HORSE RACING: 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. 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.

The 2014 Belmont Stakes on NBC, featuring California Chrome’s Triple Crown attempt, averaged 20.4 million viewers – the second-highest Belmont Stakes viewership on record, trailing only the 21.9 million viewers for NBC’s telecast of Smarty Jones’ Triple Crown attempt in 2004 (People Meter viewership dates to 1988). In addition, the 2014 Kentucky Derby marked the fourth time in six years (2009, 2010, 2013, 2014) that NBC’s Kentucky Derby coverage averaged more than 15 million viewers, and the 2014 Preakness Stakes registered a 6.0 household rating, ranking as the highest-rated Preakness Stakes since 2009 (6.8 for Rachel Alexandra’s victory).

–NBC SPORTS GROUP–