I've been a few days late getting this post up but, you know, Super Bowl hangover and all. We've had some issues with the main network here at SB Nation over the past few days, which has resulted in a lot of the errors and site slowness that you probably have experienced (and FanPosts aren't showing up on the right hand sidebar...they weren't deleted and will be back when things are ironed out). Our tech guys are hard at work trying to take care of the issues and, hopefully, they'll be able to get things running smoothly from here on out. I know nothing about any IT-type issues so I just wait for somebody to tell me things are fixed. Anyway, on to horse racing...

It was a pretty interesting weekend of stakes action last Saturday and Sunday, capped off by a fantastic performance by Game On Dude in the G2-San Antonio at Santa Anita. Despite breaking slowly from the gate, Game On Dude was content to sit back as they field went into the first turn, took command of the race midway down the backstretch, and then put away all his rivals coming off the far turn.

For me, this was the most impressive performance from Game On Dude to date and he appears to be a horse that has improved from the last time we saw him at the Breeders' Cup. Kudos to trainer Bob Baffert for the job he's done with this colt.

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The first week of February provides a double dose of American sporting traditions. The first, obviously, is the lead-up to this Sunday's Super Bowl, the crown jewel of televised sports events in the country. The Super Bowl isn't just a hugely popular TV event; it's the highest rated program on American TV every single year, and by a wide margin. The week leading up to the Super Bowl is filled with press conferences, interviews, media days, and a wide assortment of talking heads providing their opinion on the "big game".

The second tradition that occurs this week is the annual college football signing day, a day where grown men (and women, but mainly men) religiously follow where legions of 17 and 18-year-old kids will decide to play football over the next four years. During this period, the kids stage press conference and assemblies at their high schools and pick a hat off of a table representing the university of their choice, all to the roar (or groans) of the fans following along at home. The scene plays out relatively the same every year and has only become more popular as time goes on.

I consider myself a pretty big all-around sports fan; I follow baseball, the NFL, college football and basketball, and many other sports on a regular basis. However, over the last ten years, I've found myself tuning out much of the noise surrounding the traditional sports. I suppose it's a sign of age when you become something of a curmudgeon, but regardless, while I still enjoy watching live sporting events, I've grown tired of the pomp and circumstance surrounding many of them. While ten years ago I would watch ESPN's SportsCenter on a daily basis, I now avoid it like the plague. Pre-game shows, post-game shows, athlete interviews... lather, rinse, repeat. How many times can you listen to a sports figure spout the same tired clichés?

The two national events taking center stage this week provided a moment for me to reflect on many of the things that I find appealing about the sport of horse racing. In many ways, horse racing provides an escape from the media crush and the self-promotion that dominates the stars in other sports.

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It's not a huge surprise that the Breeders' Cup is going back to NBC Sports after several years at ESPN, but I don't think any us realized how imminent that move was. Now that I've had a few minutes to let the news of the broadcast deal between the Breeders' Cup and NBC Sports to sink in I've got some thoughts on the changes. In short, this move makes sense on so many levels and is really a win-win for both parties. In long... well, read below:

• For the new NBC Sports Network ("NBCSN"), they get a fantastic live sporting event to build around and it fits in with their current content. They began providing Saratoga and Keeneland coverage last summer/fall, which is a perfect lead towards the Breeders' Cup in November. (The network will also broadcast several Kentucky Derby prep races.)
  
• Ratings on the Versus/NBCSN are generally lower (overall) than on ESPN which, in some ways, is good for the Breeders' Cup. Instead of being viewed as a drag on the programming, as it seemed it was on ESPN, televising of the Breeders' Cup on NBCSN can be viewed as an opportunity to grow both the network and the event.
  
  The year that the Breeders' Cup transitioned from NBC to ESPN ratings took a huge hit. Much of that is due to the disparity between broadcast and cable TV. But even when you compare broadcast-to-broadcast numbers from the ABC portion to the old NBC telecasts, the ESPN/ABC events just didn't measure up in terms of viewership.
  
• The Breeders' Cup gets to be on a network where they aren't being "fit in" around the college football schedule. Sure, NBC has Notre Dame, and NBC Sports Network will televise college football, but ESPN was wall-to-wall college football on fall Saturdays, so much so that the network split up its Breeders' Cup coverage between ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. That, to me, was a really bad deal for the Breeders' Cup and something that could only hurt viewership.
  
  The Breeders' Cup will now be a centerpiece of NBC Sports Network's coverage. That's good for the Breeders' Cup in terms of marketing and promotion.
  

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The Breeders' Cup and NBC announced a new television agreement beginning in 2012 that will return North America's premiere event to the first network to broadcast it back in 1984. Additionally, for the first time ever, the Breeders' Cup Classic will be broadcast in primetime on network television, while the majority of Breeders' Cup Friday and Saturday will be shown on the re-branded NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus).

ESPN/ABC broadcast the Breeders' Cup from 2005 to 2011.

The full press release from the Breeders' Cup and NBC:

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Havre de Grace, winner of the the Azeri, Apple Blossom, Obeah, Woodward and Beldame during a fantastic 2011 racing season, became the third consecutive filly to be named Horse of the Year at the Eclipse Awards. Rachel Alexandra was named Horse of the Year in 2009, followed by Zenyatta in 2010. Havre de Grace was also named Champion Older Filly at this year's Eclipse Awards.

Havre de Grace, a daughter of Saint Liam out of a Carson City mare (Easter Bunnette), is owned by Fox Hill Farms and trained by Larry Jones.

Below are all the winners of the 2011 Eclipse Awards, as voted on by the Daily Racing Form, NTRA and National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Association.

Horse of the Year: Havre de Grace
Older Male: Acclamation
Older Female: Havre de Grace
3YO Male: Animal Kingdom
3YO Female: Royal Delta
Male Turf: Cape Blanco (IRE)
Female Turf: Stacelita (FR)
Male Sprinter: Amazombie
Female Sprinter: Musical Romance
2YO Male: Hansen
2YO Female: My Miss Aurelia
Steeplechase: Black Jack Blues
Trainer: Bill Mott
Breeder: Adena Springs
Owner: Ken and Sarah Ramsey
Jockey: Ramon Dominguez
Apprentice Jockey: Kyle Frey

Award of Merit: Cot Campbell
Special Eclipse Award: Rapid Redux

Photography: Bob Mayberger, Sports Illustrated Snapshot
Writing - Feature: Claire Novak, ESPN.com
Writing - News: Jennie Reese, Louisville Courier-Journal
Television - Live Racing: ESPN, The Breeders' Cup Classic
Television - Feature: HRTV, Inside Information/Randy Romero
Audio and Multi-Media Internet: Thoroughbred Times

Some thoughts on tonight's winners below the jump.

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Matt: I'm pleased to introduce a new contributor to the site, Jared L. Christopher. In the past six months the site added TF Tribe and JP Fanshawe as authors. TF Tribe provides a great look at the pedigree and ownership side of the sport, while JP Fanshawe is our handicapping contest and wagering strategy guru. Jared Christopher will primarily provide in-depth profiles on a variety of subjects. Below is his first contribution to the site, a fantastic profile of three-year-old Creative Cause, and his trainer Mike Harrington. You can also follow Jared on Twitter @thederbytrail.

Mike Harrington has been around racehorses for over half a century, longer than most of his peers have been alive.

The self-effacing, blue-collar cowboy from Southern California by way of Bend, Oregon was born in 1941. Like his father and grandfather before him, Harrington quickly found himself more at home around horses than people. Racing and training Quarter Horses at fair grounds and bush tracks would eventually lead to a career as a licensed veterinarian, practicing at various racetracks while still maintaining a small barn of runners.

In 1993 Harrington made a leap of faith and left his veterinarian practice to train full time. His most successful horse was Swiss Yodeler out of the Damascus line and owned by Harrington’s primary employer, Heinz Steinmann. "The Yodeler" won five Graded Stakes races as a two-year-old in 1996. Eventually retiring with lifetime earnings of $761,442, he would go on to establish himself as one of California’s preeminent sires. Another two-year-old star for Harrington was Buck Trout who became the first maiden winner of the Grade 1 Norfolk Stakes.

Although the horses have been good to Harrington over the years (his horses have earned just north of $14 million over his career), he’s yet to have a truly great horse walk into his barn. One that has the talent to change his life; his "big horse". So when a gray two-year-old colt by Giant’s Causeway stepped off the plane last March, Harrington whose 70th birthday was one month away, went about his business as usual having no idea his greatest birthday present had just arrived.

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This is the third in a five-part series examining the role and implementation of technology within the horse racing industry. Part I featured a review of horse racing websites. Part II examined mobile applications.

Handicapping horse races, for many, is an exercise in data analysis. Raw data -- final times, splits, distance, class conditions, or odds -- is an essential part of the handicapping process. Whether you calculate your own speed or pace figures, pedigree data, keep charts of track times and variants, it's essential to possess good, accurate data. Additionally, good data is critical in order to evaluate the history of the sport - the horses, jockeys and trainers that have come before. Without objective data we are simply left subjective impressions and memories. Those are certainly important because our subjective conclusions help to contextualize the raw data, but that's only part of the big picture.

Horse racing, perhaps more any other sport, is an industry built on numbers and data. Odds, time, distance, weight, pace fractions, parimutuel payouts, pool handles; every year huge amounts of data is generated within the industry. But while tons of data exists in the horse racing industry much of it, sadly, is locked away from most players and fans.

Compare horse racing, a sport that is heavily dependent on gambling dollars from handicappers, to baseball, a sport that is heavily dependent on tv revenue (which is a product of fan interest). Anybody could go to one of several websites and obtain, free of charge, statistics for every single man to ever play the game of professional baseball. Every single one. One of my favorite sites, run by database journalist Sean Lahman, provides zipped files of complete batting and pitching statistics back to 1871, along with "fielding statistics, standings, team stats, managerial records, post-season data, and more." His site isn't the only one where you can gather this kind of data, but it's one of the best. And it's all available for free (although he asks for donations to help maintain and update the data).

Fantasy sports are estimated to have a $3 to $4 billion annual impact across the sports industry as a whole, according to a University of Mississippi study in 2005. Baseball is a huge part of that share. Would that be the case if baseball's statistics and historical records were kept under lock and key, only available to those willing to pay a fee?

While we can speculate the direct impact to baseball of fantasy sports and the ability of baseball fans to access detailed statistical records, it seems foolish to think that viewership and interest would be as high if the system was closed. What does this have to do with horse racing? If you are a player that likes to use data as part of your handicapping process, it means everything.

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Over the last few weeks I have been thinking a lot about what transpired in the world of horse racing during 2011 with an eye on my favorite races and moments. Typically, my favorite race will be one that resulted in me winning a lot of money, or one in which a favorite horse performs well. But sometimes, you end up on the wrong end of the equation and still have an appreciation for the quality of the race you witnessed. (As long as the parimutuel loses aren't too large.) And while the high-level stakes races tend to attract the most attention, if cashing a big bet on a $7,500 Claimer puts you into a signer, then class and condition might be completely irrelevant.

It can be a difficult task to pick a favorite race over the course of a year or several years. Most of us watch countless races during a season, many of which leave no lasting impression whatsoever. That's just the nature of the game. If you're a fan of a particular baseball team and you watch every single regular season game during the season, it's probably not hard to pick out the couple out of the 162 that leave a lasting impression. If you go to the track every day or follow the simulcast every weekend... well, you're looking at potentially thousands of races to pass in front of your eyes over the course of a year.

For a race that I didn't win any money on to be one of my favorites usually requires some kind of extra story or event. Something in the background needs to elevate the importance or the appeal of the race. Maybe the horse puts in an incredibly breathtaking performance or there's an interesting human interest story. Perhaps a favorite jockey or trainer comes up big or a a local no-name that triumphs on the big stage. Whatever the case may be, a race takes a position at the forefront of our mind due to the excitement it generates. That happens when you cash a ticket or have a particular interest in the outcome.

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