Bad Day at the Office for ESPN, Keeneland

- Teuflesberg suffered fractures to both front feet during the Phoenix Handicap at Keeneland on Saturday, but has survived thus far and is scheduled, hopefully, for surgery next week. The other two horses who suffered injuries on the day were not as lucky.

Jeannine Edwards, reporting during ESPN's coverage of the Breeders' Cup Challenge races, said of the colt's last workout, an uncharacteristically lethargic half in 51 4/5 on September 27, that she was told by people at Keeneland that the horse "did not look 100% fit or sound or ready to run." Then she added that she wasn't insinuating anything. However, she already had. Perhaps she misspoke and simply meant that it wasn't a great workout. But to say that the horse didn't look 100% sound can be taken as an assertion that the horse shouldn't have run.

Man, it was a tough day for the boys on ESPN. They're trying to promote the sport to an audience which presumably included some casual or prospective new fans. But within the first few minutes of the broadcast, Randy Moss, to his and the network's credit, immediately tackled the Biancone suspension; and then had to report on the tragic paddock accident that took the life of Dream of Angels. Moss made sure to highlight the new rules in Kentucky that would prevent Biancone from transferring his horses to assistants, and specifically mentioned how Pletcher and Asmussen had done just that during their bans. Good job there.

The network had a vet on call to report on the three accidents, and did not shy away at all from the bad news, even cutting to a shot of the stricken Teuflesberg during the live coverage of the race, and providing constant updates throughout the day. There was also a grim shot of Teuflesberg having somehow gotten loose; how that could have happened, I really can't say. So let's say it was a very honest telecast - perhaps more so than some people in the industry would like to have seen.

The telecast on the whole was a mixed bag which included some serious audio and visual mishaps which I'll get to at a later time. It's now Sunday morning, and I have a wedding this afternoon, which means that I'll be missing the Jets-Giants game (which could be a good thing), as well as all of the racing today. I'm NOT happy!! I'm now gonna try and put together some Breeders' Cup Pick Fours for the races that will be televised on ESPN2 starting at 5PM in the east.

I'm also not particularly happy that there's apparently no coverage on TVG of the Arc and other races from Longchamps this morning. I see from HRTV's website that the races are on there, so I suppose we have our good friends at Churchill and Magna to thank for this. Merci beaucoup.