For one night only Brett Beckwith is back at The Big M
While recovering from injuries sustained in an accident, The Meadowlands’ leading driver will join the track’s broadcast crew tonight.
by Debbie Little
Brett Beckwith returns to action at The Meadowlands tonight (May 22), but his seat with wheels won’t have a horse attached.
Beckwith, 23, will venture outside of his comfort zone and trade in his whip for a mic as he imparts informed insights alongside Big M TV host Dave Little and co-host John Rallis on the Sam McKee Memorial Broadcast Set. The show begins at 6 p.m.
“We figured that Brett’s been sitting on the sidelines long enough, let’s get him back to work,” said Little with a laugh.
The idea for Beckwith joining the broadcast team was first discussed on Friday (April 10), prior to his mishap behind the gate at Saratoga on Sunday (April 12) where he suffered a broken wrist, broken jaw, and brain bleed.
“Brett and I were talking in the paddock one night, and, you know, Brett’s got a great personality, he’s always smiling, and he wanted to do some interviews with some of the trainers back there,” said The Meadowlands’ chief operating officer/general manager Jason Settlemoir. “And I said, ‘Yeah, we can do that one night when you don’t have one in a race, you can do a couple of interviews.’
“So, we kind of settled on that, and I was going to talk to Dave [Little] about it and then Brett got hurt that Sunday.”
Within the last couple of weeks, Beckwith did a couple of paddock interviews with trainers at Saratoga that can be seen on track photographer Jessica Hallett’s Facebook page.
“We like to have fun at Saratoga and Jess [Hallett] does a good job with [the videos she makes],” Beckwith said. “Anytime Jess asks me to do something, I’m always game because her Facebook posts are really well liked and it’s good for the business.”
Beckwith’s experience tonight at The Meadowlands will be different from Saratoga, because he won’t set foot in the paddock and he’ll be answering questions rather than asking them.
“We want to get Brett’s face on camera as much as possible, so we’ll kick off the simulcast show with an interview with him, so he can provide an update on how he’s doing,” Little said.
In addition to giving out selections in both Pick-4 segments, Beckwith will jump into the co-host seat next to either Little or Rallis throughout the night to provide pre-race analysis.
Even though he’s never had any formal training per se, Beckwith said he thinks he’ll do fine as a co-host.
“Everyone fell in love with the business for their own reasons,” he said. “I was a young kid when I started looking at the program and I was handicapping a program since I was 12. I enjoy that aspect of it.
“Dave might ask me ‘What’s your take on this as a driver?’ and I’ll enjoy that.”
Beckwith said that he thinks there will be good chemistry with him, Little and Rallis and will have no problem giving Little a hard time if he gives out chalk during the “Little’s Late Double” segment, even if it might be good for the bettors.
“I’ve got the greatest saying that someone told me when I was younger, a short ticket is better than a long face,” he said with a laugh.
When it comes to handicapping, Beckwith said it’s good to study more than just the program.
“I always look at the program and I like to have a good gauge of the race,” he said. “But I find knowing the horses and their tendencies is kind of more important than what the program line shows, and I think one of the best at that is Rallis. He can look at a horse’s line that doesn’t really look all that great, but it was actually really sneaky good, and he knows because he watched the replay.
“At The Meadowlands, you’ve got the ability to pull up the qualifiers, and I think that’s one of the biggest edges, knowing how a horse qualified, because we’re in a business where horses are going so fast now that a line can be deceiving. It might show that he came home in :27, but it might not have been a good :27 on the end. It might have been an urged :27 versus a :27 on the end that was finished up really strong and they never asked him.”
Beckwith also said he’s not worried about sharing his honest opinion of a horse’s performance.
“At the end of the day, I think the really good trainers know when a horse didn’t show up and they’re not afraid to admit when a horse didn’t show up,” he said. “I’m already pretty smart with my word choices. I tend not to say anything that could cause me an issue in the long run.”
Settlemoir said he thinks Beckwith will do a fine job in his TV debut, but also knows the bar has been set pretty high.
“The last time we did something like this was with Scott Zeron [on Hambletonian Day in 2022],” Settlemoir said. “Scott did a phenomenal job, so Brett’s got big shoes to fill to see if he can be as good as Scott.”
In 2022, Zeron analyzed a few races, including the Hambletonian and Oaks, as a featured co-host of The Meadowlands’ Hambletonian Day simulcast show since he was unable to drive due to injuries sustained in a bad accident a little over a week prior.
Even if Beckwith proves he can punch in the same weight-class as Zeron when it comes to sitting in the co-host seat, don’t expect to see him there again any time soon, because he’d prefer to be driving.
“It’s more of just a one-time thing honestly,” Beckwith said. “I want to do it just because I’ve always kind of wanted to do it and I figure what’s a better time to go than when you’re hurt.”
Beckwith has not competed at The Big M since April 11, but he is still on top in the track’s driver standings. As for when he expects to be back on the track, he’s keeping his cards close to his vest.
“I have an idea of when I want to come back,” he said. “I mean, I don’t want a date set because I think, sometimes you’ll push yourself a little too much. I’ve really taken it week to week since my hard cast has come off, and I’m just getting to using my wrist more. Obviously, the human body is amazing. As fast as you lose everything, you really gain it back just as fast.
“But, I’m really, really focused on just getting it back to healthy because I like my hand holds in a certain spot and I like sitting in the bike a certain way and I don’t want to be hindered at all, so I want to make sure that when I am ready, I’m 110 per cent ready.
“It’s tough, but when I was 19 and got hurt, it was much different than when I got hurt this time around because I feel like I’ve been fortunate enough to have the success I’ve had over the last few years, and I’ve kind of made a decent enough name for myself that when I return and I’m 110 per cent, I feel like it shouldn’t be too much of a worry.”
