Blackout

One of racing's biggest mistakes was that, as a dominant sport in the 1950's, it did not take advantage of a new medium called television to help promote the sport and nurture a new crop of fans. 

Times have changed, of course, and now fans can get the all-racing channels TVG and HRTV through satellite systems, but major network programming of the sport still leaves a lot to be desired.

That's why it was always so terrific to be living in the suburban Philadelphia region, where Philadelphia Park has maintained a dedicated channel the last 20 years just for horse racing ("PhoneBet TV"), which features the live action from both Philadelphia Park and Penn National.

Since 2005, Philadelphia Park has had its PhoneBet channel on Comcast Philadelphia's lineup, but in the last two years changes began to be noticable.  From high atop the grandstand at Philadelphia Park, television hosts would be on-air for several hours each, reading the entries, scratches, payoffs, and whatever else tickled their fancies.  Some of the hosts were memorable - Hugh Gannon springs to mind.  Gannon, now deceased, was a well-known TV broadcaster in Philadelphia before taking the PhoneBet job, and he often added handicapping insights into each race.  As a quick aside, I remember being shocked when I saw Gannon in the pressbox one day - he was wearing a sportcoat, shirt and tie, but below the belt was wearing a pair of shorts!  I guess he figured no one could tell from his sitting position on camera that he wasn't wearing a full suit!

And then there was the hilarious Larry Ledermen, racecaller extraordinaire from Freehold Raceway and Atlantic City, who would make you laugh as you placed your bets.  Other notable hosts that manned the PhoneBet mike include Jenny Ornsteen, a very knowledgable horsewoman, Vince Reed, and Barbara Luna, who now heads Philadelphia Park's rescue organization "Turning For Home."

But perhaps a year or so ago, the PhoneBet host position was eliminated, and all that was shown when you tuned into Channel 716 was the live feed from the tracks, graphics, and music.  A few weeks ago, it was announced by Comcast that Channel 716 was going to be removed from its lineup as of March 31.

PhoneBet has been airing a statement the last few days basically stating that Greenwood Racing, Inc., owner of Philadelphia Park, had tried unsuccessfully to reach an agreement with Comcast to keep live racing on the air.  "We are very disappointed in this decision and will continue to explore other possibilities," the statement read in part. 

A Comcast spokesperson, however, was quoted in a Blood-Horse article that, “We’ve had ongoing, good-faith discussions with Philadelphia Park about channel carriage, yet haven’t reached an amenable agreement. Since the (track) elected to discontinue its business arrangement with Comcast, the channel must be removed from our lineup at the end of the month.”

Who do you believe?  Since Greenwood refuses to speak to the media, except for one local writer, it is impossible to tell what happened.  In the meantime, PhoneBet has been informing viewers that live video streams from different tracks will be available on its web site, http://www.phonebet.com/.  

It's too bad that the plug will be pulled on the PhoneBet channel, but I suppose watching racing on the computer is better than nothing.  It's hard to understand, however, why an agreement between Comcast and Greenwood couldn't be reached, considering that Greenwood is making money hand-over-fist from slots revenue at its new PARX Casino (I still would like to know who thought of that name!).