I was watching the Yankees game last night. [Yes, I know. They suck. Don’t laugh.]

In the seventh inning, Washington Nationals right fielder Stone Garrett tried to make a spectacular leaping catch to deny a home run, but his spikes somehow caught on the right field wall and he fell down in scary pain. Cameras stayed with him laying horizontally on the ground with limited motion. The television audience was then shown multiple replays from multiple angles of what happened. Health aides arrived. Garrett’s teammates gathered around him. And in the middle of all this, the television audience was shown a medium shot (not too close) of Garrett putting his hands to his face and, apparently... weeping. Weeping because of the pain he was experiencing? Weeping because of the sad realization his years of hard work to make the big leagues might be gone in an instant? Eventually, Garrett was ushered off the field to applause from the crowd. The entire unfortunate sequence must’ve lasted 15 minutes or so, commercial free. And all the while, Yankee broadcasters Michael Kay and Paul O’Neill talked the audience calmly through it in just the right tone. Well done.

The reason I bring this up is to contrast that television coverage with how the NYRA daily racing television show covered the unfortunate collapse, a few inches before the wire, of Bill Parcell’s MAPLE LEAF MEL a few weeks ago at Saratoga. That coverage was pretty much non-existent. Right after it happened, the television host, stunned by the breakdown, quickly bailed live coverage by cutting to a commercial break. When coverage came back to him, he did it again. And, I think, again! Eventually, there were expressions of heartbreak and life proceeded on. Was there a van rushing to the scene? What was happening around the actual incident? I don’t think they showed it. Unfortunately, racing’s posture seems to be: “Let’s all look away!” Now, I’m not suggesting racing should cut to the red meat and show close-ups of a terrible situation. How horse racing should properly cover incidents like this is another conversation. But I am suggesting they shouldn’t just slam-dunk look away! Racing’s unspoken directive seems to be to look away at any ugliness - sweep it under the rug. If a horse doesn’t want to go into the gate and is acting a little unruly, DO NOT SHOW IT! “Hey cameraman #3, pan away from that horse!” Let’s snip all the badness from replays. Edit it out. What indeed happened really didn’t happen. Looking away all the time is a bad strategy.