Del Mar w/ Scott Kaplan & Great Friends Stables
Yesterday the VeloCenter crew was invited to the del mar races with Scott Kaplan, part owner of the Great Friends Stables. We never knew what we were in for but it was an amazing one of a kind experience at the races. Let me explain…
Scott hooked us up with restaurant seats at the Club Terrace Restaurant in the clubhouse. Great seats. So Scott and the Great Friends Stables (GFS) has a horse names Position A in the 5th race. According to Scott, they just cut off his testicles so he could focus on races and not other things… think Tiger Woods. So after the 4th race we headed to the pre-viewing area for bidders to see the horses prior to each race. We walked into the inner grass area and stood with the GFS. In came each horse and the Jockey’s. The GFS jockey, Joel, has a brief talk with the horse trainer and the owners. This was my first time seeing a jocky in person. Joel was small. really small. His uni was sick though! Old school powder blue Charger colors, with the Scott & BR logo in front, the GFS logo in the back, lightning bolts on the sleeves and a yellow helmet.
I was betting on this horse no matter what but one this that struck us was that Position A was a feisty big horse. He wasn’t just strutting around at a dog show, he was tugging the jockey around. Once they entered the track we all made our bets.
When the race started, the “8″ horse stuck in about 5th place until the final turn and around the turn he picked up and took the outside lane around the 4th, and 3rd place horses. On the final stretch Position A came up big, caught up to the 1st place horse and nearly one by a foot! It was definitely a great feeling!
We all jumped and yelled and cheered like we won the super bowl! Then Scott says “Lets go to the winner’s circle!” So we all head to the winner’s circle with all the owners and their friends and families and cheered and high five’d. We then went to the betting area and cashed out.
It was a good day! From there on, the last 3 races, the horses I picked all placed within show but I didnt pick the win, place or show correctly. But hell, Position A won and that’s all that mattered.
On Set With VeloCenter
So for the whole month of July, our in-studio production of VeloCenter is covering the Tour de France. We’ve upped the quality of production by revamping our set, new jibs, new lighting, new sound proof blocks and with new hosts. We’ve hired Scott Kaplan of the Scott & BR Show! It’s pretty cool hearing Scott on the radio in the morning and then at 930am have him in our studio.
Our CEO of Competitor is the #4 guy of the original production of ESPN so there’s a lot of professional production to be made. From all the sets and shows we’ve done, I must say this is the most intense, rapid speed, smooth flowing, news room like production we’ve had. Video footage and content is constantly being sent to us directly from France. Its really cool to work behind a camera on a well built show.
From start to end I shot photos from yesterdays show to see what it’s like. Yesterday we shot the show in 3 segments and in between them everyone would huddle up and study the highlights and interviews. For 21 days straight we run the same routine.
Check out one of the final pieces up on the web now at competitortv.com
