The Kentucky Derby will kick off horse racing’s Triple Crown this weekend. The 149th running of the annual event at Churchill Downs will typically bring a festive atmosphere to Louisville. An uncomfortable story is brewing at the track underneath the surface right now.
There have been mysterious horse deaths at the Churchill Downs raceway since last week. According to CBS Sports, “Four horses have died at Churchill Downs since April 27, and two of the deaths are still a mystery.”
Two horses – Chasing Artie and Parents Pride – died on Thursday and Saturday, the CBS Sports report wrote. Two other horses – Take Charge Briana and Wild on Ice – were each hurt and then later euthanized “for human reasons,” a release from Churchill Downs indicated.
The circumstances around the deaths of the horses are still yet to be fully explained and understood. But it is understood that NBC has to bear the brunt of this ugly situation rising to the surface.
NBC will have wall-to-wall coverage of the Kentucky Derby, as always. That will allow for a lot of airtime, which should, in turn, tee the network up to discuss this uncomfortable situation. So how do you approach this?
China, which hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics. The network showed a willingness to let their talents speak out before. Mike Tirico went right for it during NBC’s Olympics coverage last winter when he discussed the alleged genocide in China.
No disrespect, of course, to the Derby. But on a global scale, the Olympics are much more significant, with much higher geopolitical stakes. So if NBC is willing to let their commentators get honest, bringing this unfortunate tragedy up shouldn’t be difficult.
It may feel out of place at such a festive and extravagant event like the Kentucky Derby, but that doesn’t make it any less critical.
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022