Ratings for the final leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown slumped to the lowest levels since the mid-1990s.
The race segment of The 2010 Belmont Stakes drew a 3.0 final rating and 4.9 million viewers on ABC last Saturday afternoon, down 32% in ratings and 27% in viewership from last year (4.4, 6.6 mil), when Calvin Borel went for his own personal Triple Crown.
Compared to 2008, when Big Brown went for the traditional Triple Crown, Saturday’s race was down 67% in ratings and viewership from a 9.0 and 14.6 million viewers.
This marks the lowest rated edition of The Belmont Stakes since at least 1996. The 1996 and 2000 races each drew a 3.1 final rating.
Saturday’s race drew just a 0.5 rating among adults 18-34.
Since ABC reacquired the rights to The Belmont Stakes in ’06, three of the five races have drawn less than a 4.0 rating. To put that in perspective, the race never dipped below a 4.0 during its run on NBC (2001-05).
Ratings For The Belmont Stakes Since 1996
(New York Times, Thoroughbred Times; 1997-99 and 2002-04 ratings from Sports Business Daily, 2000-01 ratings from Sports Business Daily, 1996 ratings from bloodhorse.com)
