1. Television Ratings and Program Content Two days prior to the Kentucky Derby, CNBC’s Melissa Francis anchored a one-hour primetime television program titled “Run for the Roses:  The Kentucky Derby and the Business of Horse Racing.”    The show was supplemented with four online vignettes hosted by Francis called, respectively, “The $4 Billion Industry,” “Online Betting,” [...]

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Never in the history of the Kentucky Derby has the jockey on the winning horse deserted his mount for another entry in the Preakness. But there is an eerie precedent for a jockey choosing to ride a filly over a Kentucky Derby-winning colt when the jockey was the regular rider of both…and the precedent is a cause for concern–a red flag–for everyone who cares about animal welfare and racing’s image among the general public.

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Whenever the sport has experienced low points like the tragedies of Barbaro and Eight Belles, it has tended to react by heaping on more and often emotionally-charged publicity with negative connotations of its own.

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