FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, October 29th, 2019

THE RICHEST TWO DAYS IN HORSE RACING ARE HERE: NBC SPORTS PRESENTS LIVE COVERAGE OF THE 2019 BREEDERS’ CUP FROM SANTA ANITA THIS WEEKEND

Breeders’ Cup Classic to Be Run This Saturday, Nov. 2, on NBC at 8 p.m. ET

NBC Sports to Utilize Special ‘Gyro’ Camera Throughout Weekend

Actress Elizabeth Banks Featured in NBC Saturday Night Show Open for Breeders’ Cup Classic

Coverage Streamed Live on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app

STAMFORD, Conn. – Oct. 29, 2019 – NBC Sports this weekend presents 10.5 hours of live coverage of the 2019 Breeders’ Cup World Championships – the richest two days in horse racing – with $30 million in prize money at stake. Highlighting the coverage is the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic this Saturday, Nov. 2, live from Santa Anita at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.

On Friday and Saturday, NBC Sports presents live coverage of 13 races at the 36th Breeders’ Cup World Championships on NBC and NBCSN.

Trainer Bob Baffert’s colt McKinzie, who won the Grade 1 Whitney this summer at Saratoga, is expected to headline the field of the Classic on Saturday. McKinzie, named after the trainer’s late friend, has finished 1st or 2nd in all but one of his 13 career starts. Also expected to run are Preakness winner War of Will, and the 5-year-old female Elate; she will try to become just the 2nd female to win the Classic, after Zenyatta in 2009.

NBCSN’s coverage of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships begins this Thursday, Oct. 31, at 4 p.m. ET with handicapping special “Betting the Breeders’ Cup.” Live racing coverage begins Friday, Nov. 1, at 4 p.m. ET, followed by 4.5 live hours on Saturday, Nov. 2, beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN and continuing on NBC at 8 p.m. ET.

This week, NBCSN will also televise all four episodes from season two of “ALL IN: The Road to the Classic,” an original series documenting the world’s best trainers, jockeys, owners and thoroughbred horses as they prepare for the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Episode two will air tonight at 6 p.m. ET, followed by episode three at 11:30 p.m. ET tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct. 30, and episode four at 8:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, Oct. 31. Beginning at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday, the first three episodes will encore on NBCSN.

2019 BREEDERS’ CUP TELEVISION SCHEDULE:

Date Time (ET)   Program Network      
Thurs., Oct. 31 4 p.m. Betting the Breeders’ Cup NBCSN
Fri., Nov. 1 4 p.m. Breeders’ Cup World Championships NBCSN
Sat., Nov. 2 3:30 p.m. Breeders’ Cup World Championships NBCSN
Sat., Nov. 2 8 p.m. Breeders’ Cup Classic NBC


COMMENTATORS:
Ahmed Fareed hosts coverage, joined by analyst and Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey, who owns 15 Breeders’ Cup wins, including five victories in the Classic, analyst Randy Moss; host/reporters Laffit Pincay III and Nick Luck; analyst/handicapper Eddie Olczyk and reporters Kenny Rice, Donna Brothers, and Britney Eurton. NBC’s Triple Crown race caller Larry Collmus will call all of the Breeders’ Cup races. In addition, Daily Racing Form’s Matt Bernier will serve as a handicapper. Thursday night’s “Betting the Breeders’ Cup” special features Fareed, Pincay, Luck, Olczyk, Eurton, and Bernier.

Programming highlights include:

  • Actress, director and Breeders’ Cup Ambassador Elizabeth Banks will be featured in the Saturday night Classic show open on NBC from the set of Charlie’s Angels.
  • Eddie Olczyk interviews Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson, owner of multiple horses expected to run in the Breeders’ Cup.
  • A feature on McKinzie, named for trainer Bob Baffert’s longtime friend and Los Alamitos Race Course executive Brad McKinzie, who died of cancer in 2017.

Award-winning NBC Sports journalist Tim Layden presents several pieces throughout NBC Sports’ broadcasts this weekend. Highlights include:

  • Appreciation of Zenyatta: celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the filly who became the first female to ever win the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
  • A feature on Omaha Beach, the morning line favorite in this year’s Kentucky Derby before being scratched from the race due to illness; Omaha Beach is expected to run in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile this weekend.
  • An inside look at 2019 in horse racing.


SPECIAL GYRO CAMERA TO CAPTURE UNIQUE VIEWS OF RACING AND SCENERY THROUGHOUT WEEKEND

Coverage will feature a Gyro-stabilized camera on the back of a moving vehicle, providing picturesque scenic and low-angle views of the horses racing down the backstretch with the San Gabriel mountains in the background.

NBC Sports’ coverage will be produced by Billy Matthews and Lindsay Schanzer, and directed by Kaare Numme and Tim Nelson.

NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app – NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, tablets, and connected TVs – will stream coverage of the Breeders’ Cup Classic. The NBC Sports app will stream coverage via “TV Everywhere,” giving consumers additional value to their subscription service, and making high-quality content available to MVPD customers both in and out of the home and on multiple platforms. Powered by Playmaker Media, the NBC Sports app is available on Apple iOS, Android and select Samsung devices, as well as on Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Win10, and Xbox.

BREEDERS’ CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: The Breeders’ Cup, thoroughbred racing’s most prestigious global racing event, consists of 14 races (13 Grade 1 events) held over two days with $30 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.

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 FacebookTwitterInstagram 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, the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, Royal Ascot, and Pegasus World Cup Invitational Series. NBC has been the exclusive home of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes since 2001, and the Belmont Stakes since 2011, when NBC Sports Group reassembled the Triple Crown. The 2019 Kentucky Derby posted a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 16.5 million viewers across NBC and NBC Sports Digital platforms – up 10% from last year’s race (15.0 million) featuring eventual Triple Crown winner Justify and marking television’s largest Saturday audience since the NFL Divisional Playoffs (Jan. 12, 2019).

–NBC SPORTS–