Without doubt, live attendance at the races allows a view of paddock demeanor, warm ups, pull ups and gallop outs not available when viewing the races off track.

And since someone mentioned paddock, when is t-bred racing going to catch up to the "trotters" in terms of providing equipment information other than shoes, blinkers and bandages? It is unwise to underestimate the effect of more subtle equipment changes-- such as going from a noseband to a shadow roll, adding a tongue tie, adding a figure 8, adding a "sure win"(haven't seen many horses racing with the sure win, a piece of equipment worn most notably by Seattle Slew). These changes are especially important regarding young inexperienced runners and new claims.

In terms of the watching of the actual race, give me my binoculars and a good "crows nest". Watching a race on a monitor, no matter how large or highly defined, is a distant second. There is one chance to watch the race live; the same race can be watched unlimited times on the monitor. Apparently, this is a notion lost on Mr. Stronach.

Speaking of Frank Stro, it was nice of him to address the masses during NBC's DEPLORABLE truncated 70 or so minute broadcast of the Sunshine Millions. It was a display of ego not at all unexpected from this not so smooth talking snake oil salesman. Hey, Frank, its not about YOU. Its about the animals, who give it all to entertain, and about US, the horseplayers who are basically paying the freight.

Now to NBC. The original TV listings I saw early in the week said that NBC was to have 2 hours of coverage of Sunshine Millions, 4PM - 6PM. This 2 hour broadcast would have allowed all the Sunshine Races to be shown live. On Saturday morning, the TV listings said that NBC horse racing coverage would follow NHL coverage of the Ranger/ Penquin game at 4:30.

I switched to NBC at 4:30. The Rangers had already finished their rout of the Pens. I was ready for a heaping helping of hot Magna racing, but NBC switched to the conclusion of a Dallas Stars hockey game which was going into overtime and eventually a sellout, I mean shootout. Man am I rambling...

Let me get to my main criticism of the NBC coverage: Numerous times we were shown the point standings between the Florida and California runners, I do not think the mutuel payoffs for the individual races were ever shown.

Points deleted for the sake of brevity:

1)Query? How many participants in the Fla/ Cal rivalry were actually conceived in Kentucky, the way NY bred stalwart Funny Cide (please give him to Frankel or Dutrow) was?

2) NHL shootout is bogus. Ties are OK. Imagine if an NBA game was tied after 2 OTs and they started shooting free throws to determine a winner.

3)NHL PLAYOFF hockey is one of the great spectator sports. NHL REGULAR SEASON hockey comes nowhere close.

4) The State of the Union Address should be carried live, in its entirety, on Comedy Central tonight.