California’s Chrome pursuit of the elusive Triple Crown at the Belmont States on Saturday drew an average of 20.6 million viewers, which is the second-highest viewership of the race on record, trailing just Smarty Jones’ 2004 attempt at the Triple Crown.
California Chrome finished fourth, losing to a fresher Tonalist. That made co-owner Steve Coburn go off after the race, saying Tonalist’s owners took the “coward’s way out” and were “goddamn cheaters” because the horse did not race in the previous two legs of the Triple Crown.
- NBC said the 2014 Belmont Stakes was also the “most-watched weekend sporting event since NBC’s primetime telecast of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics on Sunday, February 16 (21.3 million).”