The end of NBC Sports Group’s horse racing series, “Summer at Saratoga” is today. Versus will air the Forego and Woodward Stakes from the fabled Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York. It’s a series that gave both NBC and Versus some summer programming over a span of six consecutive weeks. We’ll see if this is successful and gives The Group the impetus to bring this back for next summer. Here’s the preview for today’s season finale of “Summer at Saratoga.”
NBC SPORTS GROUP COVERAGE OF “SUMMER AT SARATOGA” SERIES CONCLUDES THIS WEEKEND ON VERSUS
Seven Straight Weekends of Coverage from Saratoga Concludes Saturday at 5 p.m. ET with The Woodward and Forego
NEW YORK – Sept. 1, 2011 – The NBC Sports Group’s seven straight weekends of “Summer at Saratoga” live horse racing from Saratoga Race Course concludes this Saturday, 5-6 p.m. ET with coverage of the Grade 1 Woodward featuring Horse of the Year candidate Havre de Grace, in addition to coverage of the Grade 1 Forego.
COMMENTATORS: Saturday’s coverage will be hosted by Laffit Pincay, III alongside analyst Randy Moss. They will be joined by reporters Donna Brothers and the Daily Racing Form’s Jay Privman. VERSUS will take the race call from the Saratoga track announcer, the legendary Tom Durkin.
NBCSports.com will feature highlights and features from every race, plus online-only features by NBC Sports and VERSUS’ on-air talent.
WOODWARD AND FOREGO: Eyeing Horse of the Year honors, 4-year-old filly Havre de Grace will face males for the first time in her career in the 58th edition of the 1 1/8-mile Woodward. Havre de Grace has rounded into top form this year, winning three races, including the Apple Blossom. She enters the race off a close second in the Delaware Handicap. Her assignment on Saturday will not be easy as she will face Suburban winner Flat Out and Donn victor Giant Oak, who were respectively second and third in the Whitney.
The telecast will also include the seven-furlong Forego, in which versatile colt Sidney’s Candy will try to win his first graded sprint stakes on dirt and Jackson Bend will attempt to duplicate his impressive triumph in the James Marvin.
In May, The New York Racing Association (NYRA) and the NBC Sports Group announced a partnership to broadcast “Summer at Saratoga,” the most extensive live national television coverage of racing from Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., over seven weekends this summer beginning this Saturday and including the famed $1 million Travers Stakes on August 27.
Saratoga Race Course was named one of the world’s top 10 venues of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated. From late July through Labor Day, many of the sport’s top owners, trainers, jockeys, and horses gather in Saratoga Springs for the premier thoroughbred racing meet in the country. First held in 1863, the Saratoga meet now draws more than 20,000 passionate racing fans to the track on a daily basis.
Another press release is on the way.
