NBC Sports' coverage of the 152nd Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs will try something for the first time—a primetime Kentucky Oaks (G1)—and will mark the last broadcast Derby for Donna Brothers.
The 12 1/2 hours of coverage May 1 and May 2 give the Oaks its highest-profile placing ever with an 8 p.m. ET slot.
NBC analyst and retired Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey joked that the time is "kind of encroaching on my bedtime, but it should be fun."
The change is intended to help the sport of horse racing and the Derby, NBC and Churchill officials have said.
"I think it will get people talking about the Derby even beyond the Oaks, maybe a little bit earlier than they might otherwise have because it'll put the twin spires in front of people," producer Lindsay Schanzer said during a conference call with reporters April 28. "It'll put all the pageantry and tradition on display at Churchill Downs on Friday to kick it all off, and I think get people excited for Derby weekend."
The change has meant the Oaks was promoted during this week's broadcasts of NBA playoff games, said the network's signature voice Mike Tirico, who will host the Derby broadcast.
"And that has not happened in the past," Tirico said. "And the NBA playoff audiences are obviously better audiences than most of the other primetime offerings of the month of April. So, as you lean into the day before the first Saturday in May, people have a different awareness of the Oaks. ... It's a great idea to experiment with, see how it works, and see what the future might hold with it."
For years, particularly when Churchill announced the installation of permanent lighting in 2009, the Derby possibly being run at night has been the source of speculation. Although the possibility wasn't directly addressed in the Tuesday conference call, officials with both the network and racetrack have said through the years that they're happy with the Derby's current timing.
For example, in 2015, John Asher, the Churchill spokesman who died in 2018, told Louisville, Ky., television station WHAS-11, "We never put the lights in with the intention of running the Derby at night."
Saturday's broadcast will be the final Derby for the last original member of the NBC Sports team that began televising the race in 2001—former jockey Donna Barton Brothers.
Brothers was just a few years removed from her riding career when she joined the peacock network.
"When I started covering racing for NBC Sports, I had ridden with all the guys and gals I was talking with, and then slowly this other wave has come along. Thank God we still have Mike Smith and Johnny V (Velazquez). They remember me. But I just don't want to be at a point when those young jocks are like, 'Really? She was a jockey? Like, well, was she one of the first females ever?' And I think it's just time."
Brothers said she told her producer two years ago that she wanted to cover the 2025 race because it would be her 25th and then this year's because she turned 60 in April.
"And then that'll mean I made it to 60, but after that I'm done," she said. "It's just time."
Brothers was praised by her broadcast partners during a call with reporters.
"Very rarely do you get to work on TV with people who define a role in sports television, and Donna has done that," Tirico said. "It has been a privilege to work with her for the last decade."
On the call with reporters to promote the broadcast, Brothers thanked retired broadcaster Charlsie Cantey, who pioneered the horseback interviewer role for which Brothers now is best known.
She said the role has been a gift.
"I grew up in horse racing," Brothers said. "My mother was a jockey. I didn't really plan on being a jockey because it felt pretty mundane when you grow up in it. And then I rode my first race, and I thought that is not mundane. It not only is the most challenging thing I've ever done, but it's the most exciting thing I've ever done. So I was fortunate to have a successful career in that and then, when I decided to transition out, I wasn't sure what I would do. I knew I would marry (then-trainer) Frank Brothers and that was enough. And then the TV stuff opened up and what a gift it's been."
She's covered equine events in Germany, Switzerland, and in the United States. "So it's not just been horse racing," Brothers said. "It's been a great ride for 26 years."
In retirement, Brothers said her days of up to six hours in front of a computer researching will be reduced to "no more than an hour" and she plans to be outdoors doing more hiking, biking, stand-up paddleboarding, and walking.
Byron King contributed to this report.
