Columnist Ron Kantowski: Preakness a made for TV event

Monday, May 20, 2002 | 9:47 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's insider notes column appears Tuesday and his Page One column appears Thursday. He can be reached at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

According to the columnists who watch horse racing three times a year, the sport/industry is in more trouble than Mr. Ed after Wilbur left the barn door open.

But I don't get it. After the second of the three horse races I plan on watching this (and every) year, it once again was apparent that horse racing might very well be the ideal sport for the ... well, we still haven't thought of a clever nickname to describe this decade, have we?

The reason the TV ratings are down for horse racing -- and every other sport with the exception of NASCAR -- is that people don't stay at home to watch them anymore. Or if they do, that coaxial cable running under the lawn or that satellite dish atop the roof gives us so many more viewing options.

With 300-some channels to choose from, many of them specializing in sports, everybody can be Roone Arledge. All you need is one of those 6-in-1 remote controls and an uncanny sense of timing, so when you click away to the second game you don't miss a key play from the first.

That's the beauty of horse racing. You can watch the entire event in two minutes, which is something the guys who set up the NBA playoff brackets can learn from. In the NBA, it takes longer than that to announce the starting lineups.

Take Saturday, for instance. I planned my entire day around the Preakness, which meant blocking out 3:12 p.m. to 3:13:56.36 on my Palm Pilot. The race was over in 1:56.

Anybody with kids would have had plenty of time to take them to their soccer game. And dance recital. And still had time for a game of Chutes and Ladders, or at least one of those video games that takes more hand-eye coordination than Marcus Welby.

But in that I don't have kids, I spent Saturday mowing the lawn, doing the laundry and cleaning the house. Unfortunately, my wife also knows that horse racing only takes two minutes.

Is it too late to become an NBA fan?

The last time I was on a horse was as a 6-year-old at Kiddieland, when my folks thought I would enjoy being placed on the back of a pony that was tethered to three other ponies. I think I started crying, and it wasn't just because it smelled bad.

Thankfully, that experience didn't prevent me from enjoying the Preakness. The second jewel of horse racing's Triple Crown is always compelling, if for no other reason that it begins with the possibility of that difficult/darn-near-impossible feat still being achieved.

Maybe it's blasphemy to mention War Emblem, who turned back a challenge from Proud Citizen and then held off a fast-closing 40-to-1 shot named Magic Weisner to add the Preakness to his Kentucky Derby romp, in the same sentence as Affirmed and ... well, I was going to say Secretariat, but then that would be blasphemy, wouldn't it? But the fact is that in less than three weeks, he can put his name alongside theirs by winning the Belmont Stakes and becoming just the 12th horse in history to capture the Triple Crown.

In that Belmont is the longest of the three races, I'll have to clear an additional 30 seconds from my busy day to watch War Emblem chase history.

But you won't find a better sports reward for the time invested.

Unless, perhaps, there's a drag race that day.