Universal Sports to Air U.S. Steeplechase Championships LIVE at noon this Saturday
Universal Sports October 15, 2009
LOS ANGELES - October 15, 2009 - Universal Sports will televise five hours of live coverage of the U.S. Steeplechase Championships this Saturday, October 17, with coverage beginning at noon ET on Universal Sports' network and streamed live at UniversalSports.com. Twelve races will be contested with $700,000 in prize money at stake.
Two of the premier venues on the steeplechase schedule will be combined into one championship day. The Far Hills Race Meet in Far Hills, N.J., will conduct a six-race program, highlighted by the $250,000 Grand National. Integrated into their card will be six races from the International Gold Cup run at Great Meadows in The Plains, Virginia, where the 3 ½ mile Gold Cup will be the feature event of the afternoon. The 12 races will be run on an alternating basis at 20-25 minute intervals from meet to meet, with the first race at Far Hills kicking off the day with a 12:45 first post.
To add to the spectacle of the day, two of the sport's premier race callers known throughout North America and Europe will be on hand to call the races for Universal Sports. Mark Johnson, the renowned announcer from Europe, who now handles those duties at Churchill Downs, will be at Far Hills to call all the action. Dave Johnson (no relation), who has called all the big races in the U.S. and is famous for his "down the stretch they come" line, will handle the mike at the Gold Cup.
ABOUT NSA: The National Steeplechase Association is the official sanctioning body of American steeplechase horse racing. Its mission is to encourage, advance, and regulate the sport of steeplechasing in the United States. The NSA licenses participants, approves race courses, trains officials, coordinates race entries, enforces rules, compiles an official database and oversees the national marketing and public relations efforts of the sport. The NSA serves owners, trainers, jockeys, members, race meetings and race tracks. The NSA headquarters are located in Fair Hill, Md., home to a world-class steeplechase course, a thoroughbred training center, an international three-day event course, the Thoroughbred Racing Associations and Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau. Fair Hill, which also includes a 5,600-acre state-owned natural resources area, is about a one-hour drive from Baltimore in Northeastern Maryland.
ABOUT UNIVERSAL SPORTS: Universal Sports, a partnership between NBC Sports and InterMedia Partners, serves as the preeminent multiplatform destination for Olympic-related and lifestyle sports programming available on television and online. Universal Sports, available in 56 million homes, is in nine of the top 10 DMAs including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Houston, Seattle and Denver. Major world championship and Olympic qualifying events found on Universal Sports range from track and field, skiing, swimming, gymnastics, marathons and cycling, to volleyball, rowing, triathlon, fencing, speed skating and martial arts. UniversalSports.com delivers an immersive experience via live and on-demand competition coverage, as well as interaction with top athletes through blogs and in-depth access to Olympic sports news and information year round. For more information on the availability of the Universal Sports 24-hour television channel, please visit UniversalSports.tv.
