Greg Wolf, Richard Migliore, Andy Serling, Simon Bray, and Alyssa Ali have been tabbed to handle the on-air duties for The Jockey Club Tour on FOX racing series, which makes its debut Sunday, Feb. 9, with the Donn Handicap (gr. I) at Gulfstream Park.
Wolf will serve as the host while Bray and Serling will handle analyst/handicapper duties. Ali will serve as the team's reporter and Migliore will be an analyst.
The Jockey Club Tour on FOX is a joint production led by Brad Zager, vice president of productions at FOX Sports, and Ken Adelson, executive producer of TJC Media Ventures, who will produce all nine broadcasts.
The nine-race series will air on FOX Sports 1 and will feature several of North America's most prestigious races for older horses as well as the $10 million Dubai World Cup (UAE-I), the world's richest Thoroughbred race.
Each telecast will include at least two top stakes races featuring the leading horses in North America. The partnership between the FOX Sports Media Group and The Jockey Club is a multi-year agreement that was announced in August.
"These nine shows will all be a fast-paced mix of behind-the-scenes features, gambling insights, and pageantry surrounding the event, and they should appeal to both newcomers and longtime fans of Thoroughbred racing," said Jason Wilson, vice president of business development for The Jockey Club, which is underwriting the series. "After a series of auditions and conversations with many individuals, we felt that each of these five individuals would bring both a passion for the sport and a unique perspective to the telecast."
"We can't wait to get started on FOX Sports 1 this Sunday with The Jockey Club, and this is going to be a great, well-informed group to carry us through the series," said John Entz, executive vice president, production, FOX Sports 1.
As a boy growing up in Marin County, Calif., Greg Wolf was an avid follower of UCLA men's basketball and played the sport as much as he could. At UCLA he became an on-air sports personality with the campus radio and television stations. He scored particular success as host and producer of the popular UCLA Bruin Talk TV show, which lead him to a career in sports. After graduating from UCLA, Wolf worked at the CBS affiliate in Fresno for two years before moving on to FOX Sports as a writer for the network's national prime-time sports show. After a couple of years at Fox, he sent a demo tape to the office of TVG. The tape, backed up by his solid experience, landed him a job when TVG launched in the summer of 1999.
With 4,450 career winners, retired jockey Richard Migliore is well equipped for his role as a broadcast analyst. Born and raised on Long Island, Migliore went to work on a horse farm near his home and decided upon a career as a jockey at age 12. He began riding in 1980 and in 1981 won the Eclipse Award as the nation's top apprentice with 298 victories. He won eight riding titles at NYRA and tied for two others. He retired from riding in June 2010 and joined the NYRA broadcast team in February 2011. In addition to his television work at NYRA, he has covered four editions of the Breeders' Cup and three runnings of the Triple Crown races for HRTV.
Andy Serling has been offering handicapping insights on Talking Horses, NYRA Live, Trips & Traps, and the National Racing Report since 2008, when he joined the New York Racing Association's broadcast team. He became a racing fan in 1973, when his family moved from Princeton, N.J., to Saratoga Springs, N.Y. When he wasn't playing the horses or working in the racing industry, Serling traded options on the floor of the American Stock Exchange.
Born in Hertford, England, analyst Simon Bray has been a racing insider since boyhood. His father owned several successful racehorses in the 1980s in England, and Bray became fascinated by the racing scene spending most vacations at the track or working for his father's trainer, Robert Armstrong. After leaving high school, Bray went to work for trainer Henry Cecil, starting as a groom and eventually becoming assistant trainer. He moved to the U.S. in 1992 and found a job with Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, again working his way up from hot-walker to assistant trainer. In 2004, Bray retired from training and joined TVG as an analyst.
Arlington Park racing reporter and marketing manager Alyssa Ali grew up at the racetrack. The daughter of Chicago-based trainer Alnaz Ali, she started working in Arlington's television department while still in high school, learning from longtime handicapper Christine Gabriel. Ali attended Augustana College, where she honed her broadcasting skills. Ali now works as an on-air commentator at Arlington Park.
