NEWS
TVG to provide live coverage of Blue Grass Stakes
Posted: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 5:40 PM
The $750,000 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G1), a 1 1/8-mile race for three-year-old Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) hopefuls, on April 12 at Keeneland Race Course will be shown by Television Games Network (TVG) and ESPN.
TVG will partner with Keeneland and produce a one-hour live broadcast of the race that begins at 4:30 p.m. EST. TVG’s coverage of the race will be shown on regional sports networks across the United States and internationally in the United Kingdom and Middle East.
The race, a key prep for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1), also will be shown on a tape-delayed basis on April 12 on ESPN’s “NTRA Racing to the Kentucky Derby” from 5:30-to-7 p.m.
“We are very pleased to have TVG as a broadcast partner for the Toyota Blue Grass,” said G.D. Hieronymus, Keeneland’s director of broadcast services. “With this pairing of talents of our broadcast department and TVG we plan to produce the most dynamic Keeneland racing telecast ever.”
The Blue Grass Stakes will be broadcast to approximately 30-million homes via TVG network and an additional 40-million homes through regional sports networks across the United States. TVG’s coverage also will be shown internationally on At the Races in the United Kingdom and the Dubai Sports Channel in the Middle East.
TVG will provide live broadcasts from Keeneland throughout Blue Grass Stakes week. In addition to daily race coverage, the network will provide coverage of the Blue Grass Stakes post-position draw beginning at 11:30 a.m. on April 9, and a one-hour edition of “The Works” that will discuss race participants at 8 p.m. on April 11.
Weekend programs such as TVG’s “Morning Line,” “Horseracing Today,” “:58 Flat,” and “Racing Coast to Coast” will originate live from Keeneland throughout the spring meeting, which runs from April 4-25.
