BREEDERS' CUP CLASSIC to Air in Primetime on NBC for First Time

For the first time ever, the Breeders' Cup Classic will be broadcast live in primetime, culminating 9 1/2 hours of Breeders' Cup World Championships coverage over two days by the NBC Sports Group from Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. The Breeders' Cup returns to its original home at NBC for the first time since 2005, in the first year of a multi-year media rights agreement.

Live NBC Sports Group coverage of the Breeders' Cup World Championships begins on Friday, November 2, from 4-8 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network, continues on Saturday, November 3, from 3:30-8 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network, and culminates with the first-ever live primetime broadcast of the Breeders' Cup Classic, Saturday, November 3, 8-9 p.m. ET on NBC

2012 BREEDERS' CUP TELEVISION SCHEDULE:

Friday, November 2 4-8 p.m. NBC Sports Network

Saturday, November 3 3:30-8 p.m. NBC Sports Network

Saturday, November 3 8-9 p.m. NBC

All Times Live, ET

The NBC Sports Group coverage of the Breeders' Cup will feature host Tom Hammond, whose first-ever assignment for NBC was as a reporter on the network's inaugural Breeders' Cup broadcast in 1984. He is joined by Hall-of-Fame jockey Gary Stevens, who has won eight Breeders' Cup races; veteran horse racing analyst Randy Moss; Hall-of-Fame jockey Jerry Bailey, who has 15 Breeders' Cup wins, including five wins in the Breeders' Cup Classic; contributing analysts/handicappers Mike Battaglia and Bob Neumeier; host/reporter Laffit Pincay, III; reporters Kenny Rice, Donna Brothers, Jay Privman and Nick Luck, who is making his NBC Sports Group debut; race caller Larry Collmus, who will call the Breeders' Cup Classic and Ladies' Classic (NBC will take the call of track announcer Trevor Denman for the remaining races over the two days).

Additionally, NBC Sports' and Access Hollywood's Michelle Beadle will be on site to capture the spectacle and scene of the Breeders' Cup, as well as contributing features and handling celebrity interviews.

NBC Sports Group's Breeders' Cup coverage will be produced by Rob Hyland, producer of NBC's Triple Crown coverage, and a veteran of the network's horse racing coverage since 2001, and directed by Jeff Simon. The coverage on NBC Sports Network will be produced by Billy Matthews. The executive producer of NBC Sports and NBC Sports Network is Sam Flood, who has produced 11 Triple Crown races for the network.

 The Breeders' Cup, thoroughbred racing's most prestigious global racing event, consists of 15 races held over two-days with more than $25 million in purses at stake. The culminating event of the Breeders' Cup, the Breeders' Cup Classic, is contested at 1 1/4 miles on the main track, for 3-year-olds and older, and is often the determining race for the coveted Horse of the Year title. Over the years, 11 Classic winners have been voted Horse of the Year. In 2009 at Santa Anita Park, the great racemare Zenyatta became the first female to ever win the Classic.

The NBC Sports Group is the exclusive home to the most important and prestigious events in horse racing, including the Triple Crown and the Breeders' Cup, which was broadcast on NBC from 1984-2005. NBC has been the exclusive home of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes since 2001, and the Belmont Stakes since 2011, when the NBC Sports Group reassembled the Triple Crown. In 2012, the NBC Sports Group presented 27 1/2 hours of Triple Crown coverage across NBC and NBC Sports Network.

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