By FITSNews || Jockey Calvin Borel’s third Kentucky Derby win in four years was a big ratings victory for NBC.
Saturday’s “Run for the Roses” – in which Borel rode Super Saver to victory – scored a 10.3 overnight rating and a 23 share. That’s the best performance for a Kentucky Derby in nearly two decades. In 1992, Lil E Tee’s Derby win received a 10.9 overnight rating.
A show’s rating is based on what percentage of American households with televisions are tuned into the program, while “share” refers to a show’s viewership percentage among television sets that are in use at the time. NBC’s totals for the 2010 Derby represent a one percent increase from 2009, when 16.3 million people tuned in to watch Borel ride 50-to-1 long-shot Mine That Bird to victory.
Borel also won the Derby in 2007 on Street Sense.
The Kentucky Derby is the first and most famous leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown. The 135th running of the Preakness Stakes (the second leg) will be held on May 15 at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, while the 142nd running of the Belmont Stakes (the third leg) will be held on June 5 at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York
And yes, Beavis, we said “third leg.”
Heh-heh. Heh-heh.
Anyway, in the modern era of horse racing, there have been only 11 Triple Crown winners – and no horse has accomplished the feat in 32 years, when Affirmed beat Alydar by a nose at the wire in the 1978 Belmont.
By SubZeroIQ May 2, 2010 at 8:44 pm
FITS: I didn’t even read the story above; but I wanted to post this on your most recent entry because it is urgent. Will you please let me write a guest column against that proposed law to terrorize foreign-looking people?
By Better B Glad May 3, 2010 at 9:19 pm
What a great story in the jockey Calvin Borel. This man quit school in the 8th grade and has been in the stables every day, all day ever since. To be a jockey is truly a test of the body and mind. He should be really commended for sticking with his love and dreams, even though abandoning education is not a good idea…finally a story when the underdog deserves everything he has worked for!!!