On Saturday, the NTRA was all set to launch NTRA Live!, the first webcast in a series hosted by Randy Moss and devoted to top-class racing. Heavily promoted, Saturday’s live video was to feature the 2010 debuts of champions Rachel Alexandra in the New Orleans Ladies Stakes at the Fair Grounds and Zenyatta in the Santa Margarita Handicap at Santa Anita. The stream was to start at 6:00 PM ET/3:00 PM PT, and as that time neared and passed, thousands — tens of thousands? — attempted to access ntra.com, only to be met with blank or slowly loading pages. Minutes went by and mocking tweets appeared, but the NTRA site — apparently crushed by the traffic jam — did not.
So, how many people tried to visit ntra.com on March 13? Google Trends hints that the number may have been unprecedented for the site. Queries for “NTRA” reached #8 on Saturday’s overall hot search terms list, spiking near the webcast’s start time — a pattern termed “Volcanic” by the search engine:
One thing was proved by the debacle (for which NTRA president Alex Waldrop apologized last night): There’s interest in watching racing’s stars online.
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