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She didn’t grow up riding horses, no. It might have been the family business, but as a kid, she danced. Played some soccer. Went to USC and studied business while working toward an acting career. Did some commercials. Some theater. Eventually got burned out.
Only then did Britney Eurton’s career get on track – at the racetrack, naturally.
Surprise, surprise. Sort of.
Britney Eurton will be the host on NBC’s broadcast that brings the 42nd Breeders’ Cup to you at home this weekend, part of a the team providing 10 hours of coverage of the event — including, of course, the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, known as North America’s richest horse race — from Del Mar.
It is not what the daughter of Peter Eurton, a former jockey and accomplished thoroughbred racehorse trainer, expected to be doing for a living.
But Britney is so good at it, so natural, so cool, so enthusiastic and insightful — it sure feels like it’s what she’s supposed to be doing.
“The Breeders’ Cup is two of the best days of racing in the world,” she said by phone recently. “It’s like the Olympics of horse racing, but most people haven’t heard of it or don’t realize what an exceptional day of racing it is. And it’s not just the ponies on display, it’s the fashion, great food, a lot of celebrities will show up. And you can’t beat the setting.”
That’s the energy Britney has for the sport she grew up around. But it’s really the energy she’s bringing to any sport she’s assigned. These days you can also catch her covering the National Women’s Soccer League. She was part of NBC’s Emmy-winning Olympics coverage. She’s covered gymnastics and tennis and a bit of baseball.
That’s a lot of work, a lot of study — and a ton of fun. “It’s a true joy,” she said, to be able to learn people’s stories, across disciplines, and to share them with us, her viewing audience.
Like her father’s horse racing story. It started when Peter Eurton was introduced to the sport by his father at age 10. He attended a jockey school in Chino and would wind up riding for 2 1/2 years in Tijuana, Edmonton, Calgary and Northern California.
When he outgrew that, he started exercising horses for his stepfather, trainer Steve Ippolito, who urged him to take up training in 1985, when Peter would saddle his first winner. He’s since trained the winners of nearly 500 races and $20 million.
At this week’s Breeders’ Cup, he has a horse on the “also-eligible” list Saturday (some horses would have to be scratched for him to get into the 12-horse field) in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
That’s a 3-year-old gelding named Incanto, who’d be ridden by Hector Berrios and who’s listed as a 30-1 long shot on the morning line — tall odds, but not as steep as Eurton’s previous two Breeders’ Cup winners who went off at 33-1 (Champagne Room in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies) and 45-1 (Storm the Court in the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile).
And, yes, Peter has a daughter who’s had a front-row seat much of his successful horse racing career, including the many dinners with horse owners. Those meals — as the only kid at a table with adults — are actually a big part of Britney’s story.
“I grew up with a lot of older people,” said Britney, an only child. “My dad and my mom would take me out to dinner with owners who were obviously much older, and I was taught to behave well and also to be a part of those conversations. And so you have to ask questions to know what you’re talking about.”
Those experiences fed her curious nature and that sharpened her instincts as a storyteller — a storyteller whose background in dance and acting made her immediately comfortable in front of a camera when she began broadcasting in 2014 with the TVG Network.
“Life is funny,” Britney, 38, said. “I didn’t love acting as much as I thought I did, I realized I enjoy being myself a little better. And I was always an inquisitive kid, and that all carried over to what I do now. I love sharing people’s stories …
“The jockeys are some of the most incredible athletes in the world. And there are so many men and women behind the scenes that put their hands on these horses … to get them to the starting gate. There are a lot of people whose stories you can continue to tell.”
It helps that she’s so comfortable with everyone at her dad’s workplace, which makes those in the horse racing community especially comfortable sharing their stories with her, too.
They know she gets it, no one more than her dad.
Those interviews — Britney asking her father questions on air — have produced some lovely moments, none more than after Peter’s long-shot Storm the Court’s upset win in the 2019 $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita.
Unbeknownst to her, cameras captured her emotional reaction to his victory live as she experienced it, thinking then about how “there was a point in time we never envisioned having a Breeders’ Cup runner, let alone a winner!”
After that, she recalls yelling into her microphone: “I can do this, I can get him, I can interview him!” and running to get to him, to catch him as he made his way from the stands to the track.
“What’s going through your mind right now?” she asked, still a little out of breath.
“Ah,” he replied, “just how much heart this horse has.”
She asked another four questions and had time for one more when her producer, Billy Matthews, told Britney in her earpiece: “You can be his daughter.”
So, beaming, Britney said: “I’m completely biased, but I could not be more proud of you right now.”
“Thank you, baby,” the winning trainer replied, and gave his daughter a hug.
So, yes, Britney has come to consider it something of a responsibility to share the family business with a wider audience, to change people’s oft-ill-informed perceptions of it.
“I truly believe it’s just getting them there,” she said. “It’s a blast once you enter those gates. But a lot of people they don’t know there is a track 20 minutes away that they can go to. They don’t know they can learn to gamble and just make a $2 wager on their favorite horse’s name … and if they win, they’ll be hooked. And if I take them to backside to meet some of the horses? They’ll love it for life.”
