They’ll make production out of it

At last year’s Belmont Stakes, NBC producer David Michaels noticed that the strains of the song “New York, New York” spilled over to the beginning of the post parade, and mingled with the thunderous roar from the 101,000 fans when blue-collar favorite Funny Cide came into view.

“That deep, throaty roar … there’s no greater roar in sports than for a Triple Crown,” Michaels said earlier this week at the Elmont racetrack. “I first heard it for Charismatic in 1999 and I thought, ‘You should build around this moment. … How can we maximize this?’ “

So, after a meeting with Belmont officials Thursday, the song will be played after the post parade is underway. “We’ll get a clean trumpet call to the post,” Michaels said.

Maximizing the story of Smarty Jones, the chestnut colt bidding to become the 12th Triple Crown champion in history, is clearly the mission of NBC Sports today.

The Smarty saga will dominate the telecast, starting at 2:30 p.m. (PDT), when NBC begins with a 3-minute opening – unusually long, said Michaels – chronicling the Pennsylvania-bred horse’s road to the Belmont. And the major pre-race feature will center on trainer John Servis, also a Triple Crown rookie, and his relationship with his family and Smarty, who suffered multiple skull fractures in a training accident last July.

NBC will have four cameras isolated on Smarty and three other horses in the nine-horse field during the race, but plans for a total access, behind-the-scenes chronicle of the unbeaten Smarty as he prepares for today’s challenge was nixed by Servis. “Smarty-cam has bitten the dust,” Michaels said. “We thought we would be able to, but he didn’t want 24-hour surveillance.”

Expect plenty of Smarty shots, though. NBC has 32 cameras, including one on the Goodyear blimp, and a staff of 160 to focus on the scene at Belmont Park. “The coverage won’t be substantially different than last year,” Michaels said. “Funny Cide was a surprise, a gawky champion, Smarty’s a real solid horse. But some people think he’ll win by 20 lengths,” Michaels said. Smarty will prevail, Michaels believes, but 20 lengths? “I’m skeptical,” he said with a laugh.

While much of America appears to be rooting for a coronation, NBC commentator Bob Neumeier was cautious.

“Smarty Jones could take a step backward in this race,” Neumeier said. “If there’s ever a sport where there’s no such thing as a cinch, it’s horse racing. There are two horses that have a chance to beat him: Rock Hard Ten and Purge. I think there are more variables here from a racing point of view than meet the eye and I would not be shocked if there’s an upset.”

Whatever the outcome, as with the Funny Cide frenzy, Smarty is making NBC look smart for its five-year, $51 million rights deal for the Triple Crown series, which began in 2001. Funny Cide’s failed bid at last year’s Belmont produced a 9.5 rating, the best for any horse race since Unbridled’s Kentucky Derby win in 1990. About 24 million viewers tuned in, according to NBC Sports Research, and with the publicity in newspapers, magazines and on television that Smarty Jones and jockey Stewart Elliott has garnered, that figure should increase in today’s telecast.

Visa USA, the Triple Crown title sponsor, will also benefit from the greater TV exposure. During NBC’s telecast of last month’s Preakness Stakes, for example, Visa received 10 minutes and 30 seconds worth of on-air exposure, up 24 percent from last year, according to Sponsorship Research International. The company had six 30-second ads, logos on on-screen graphics, outriders shirts and the finish line and 20 mentions by announcers. Look for even more Visa visibility coverage.

Visa also has “Good Luck, Smarty” television spots that are running before the race and, as it has done for previous Triple Crown hopefuls, prepared a congratulatory commercial that will air on NBC’s first post-race break if the Pennsylvania-bred colt wins the $1 million-plus purse and the $5 million Visa Triple Crown bonus.

What if Smarty and another horse finish in a dead heat for first place?

“He still gets the bonus,” said Ed Seigenfeld, executive vice president of Triple Crown Productions. “It’s written in the rules.”