The prerace programming for the Belmont Stakes on Saturday on NBC had gone on for nearly two and a half hours. It felt too long, but it was perhaps appropriate given the 37-year wait for a Triple Crown winner. It went on too long despite the quality of the broadcast to that point.
The coverage was balanced enough so that if American Pharoah did not win, the Triple Crown spoiler would not have been a near-stranger as it has been on previous broadcasts when networks presumed viewers cared only about the Triple Crown hopeful.