Costas panel to dissect horse racing

FROM: USA Today

BY: Mike McCarthy

NBC received both praise and criticism for its conservative coverage of Eight Belles’ death at the Kentucky Derby. Fresh off his sports media roundtable on blogs for HBO, Bob Costas will kick off the network’s coverage of the Preakness Stakes (Saturday, 4:30-6:30 p.m. ET) with a panel discussion on the filly’s catastrophic breakdown and other controversies surrounding Thoroughbred horse racing, says producer Sam Flood.

Among the guests: Churchill Downs veterinarian Larry Bramlage; Eight Belles trainer Larry Jones; NBC analyst Gary Stevens; and New York Times columnist William Rhoden, who blasted the sport of kings as “only a couple of steps removed from animal fighting.”

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