HBO renews “Luck” for 10-episode second season for 2013

HBO found an immediate victory at the horse track with it’s new series Luck, which debuted this past Sunday logging a gross audience of 3.3 million viewers to date. The network renewed the series for a 10-episode second season slated to debut in January 2013.

From director Michael Mann and Deadwood creator David Milch [pictured], the series is a behind-the-track look at the world of horse racing and gambling’s denizens — owners, trainers, jockeys and gamblers. The cast is led by Dustin Hoffman who plays the complex lead character Chester “Ace” Bernstein, and Nick Nolte, as weathered Kentucky horse-trainer-turned-owner Walt Smith, who’s got a dark history and a shadow of scandal behind his horse. The series also stars Dennis Farina, John Ortiz, Richard Kind, Kevin Dunn, Ian Hart, Ritchie Coster, Jason Gedrick, Kerry Condon, Gary Stevens, Tom Payne and Jill Hennessy.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled with the critical response to this beautiful piece of work,” said Michael Lombardo, president, HBO Programming.  “We are very excited about where David and Michael plan to take these incredible characters.”

“Viewers who come with an open mind will be so taken up by the experience that what initially might seem forbidding quickly transforms itself into universal emotion,” Milch says of the series’ appeal. “The racetrack’s an awful lot like the circus. It’s tremendous fun to see all these different kinds of creatures rubbing up against each other.”

For more on HBO’s new series “Luck”