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I have enjoyed Alastair’s broadcasting and journalistic contributions to the sport over a fair few years. On recent evidence though, it seems he has very little to offer. A virtual makeweight on The Sunday Forum and scruffy to boot, his Q&A session in the RP was really trite and very poorly written (blarsay anyone ? More Joe Maplin than racing`s finest wordsmith IMHO
Fat Al Down is a pretentious dullard who never uses one word where a whole essay (and one where banging on about Arkle is obligatory) would do. The man is incredibly boring, but sadly the Fryite-Pollingiste tendency get tumescent over every word the old **** says.
BlueSky @pghenn.bsky.social
So don't run, just like the others always do
I often criticise Down and think his status as the all-knowing historian and wordsmith of racing is rather overblown.
Still, he does have his moments. His piece on JT McNamara was superb and adopted exactly the right tone, keeping that distinctive written ‘voice’ locked away so the reader could focus on the quotes from JT and his family.
I spent a few weeks in Stow-on-the-Wold last year, quite close to Alastair Down’s home. His drinking is legendary in the local pub, where they say he turns up twice a week, buys two bottles of wine, sits at Al’s Table, reads and drinks himself into a stupor.
Who knows if that is true, but one could understand if Down isn’t at his best every week.
Who knows if that is true, but one could understand if Down isn’t at his best every week.
True TYF, I met AD at last year’s Oaksey House Quiz, he was in great form then and wrote a wonderful piece about it in the Racing Post afterwards. Brilliant writer
and orator of reviews at his best. However, seems has a demon which makes him top class but inconsistent.Value Is EverythingInteresting comments but I still rate Alastairs journalistic skills and thought he was excellent on the RP chat the other night.Nobody uses War analogies to describe Horses racing round a field quite like Mr Down himself.
This thread reminds me of the time I posted on the Betfair forum a spoof report a week before the 2010 Supreme. Alastair had just been announced as being unwell, so I thought I’d take over…
As Alastair is unwell, I have pre-written his race report for the Supreme
Dunguib became Dungubbed in just over four minutes on turf described as ‘virgin’ by Mr Simon Claisse though few of the jockeys, unsurprisingly perhaps, recognised the chaste element underfoot. I will leave you to speculate on how the past encounters of either party determine their interpretation of the word virgin; suffice to say the riders found it ‘dead’ and ‘sticky’.
How much that contributed to the D-Day demise of Dunguib on this singular afternoon in God’s own county is debatable. In my considered opinion, cynically carbuncled as it has become by many heavy blows over the years, the bloody horse just can’t jump.
From the get-go, as our cousins across the pond say, the odds on bay gelding set out seemingly determined, like some recalcitrant child thundering across a beach intent on demolishing every sandcastle in sight, to blast his way through each hurdle rather than follow the conventional approach of rising on the take off side and landing on the other. The resulting hurricane of willow shards and twigs were matched only by the dense cloud of torn up betting slips that darkened the watery post-race sun.
Disappointingly, especially for those awaiting the second coming, into the Festival’s ever expanding file marked ‘beaten at odds-on’, we drop the horse with the high hopes, the big engine and the grace of a drunken two-day-old fawn.
So where now for the disgraced Dunguib? Given the success of the Weetabix jockey in the TV ads, perhaps a sparkling media career awaits this horse? Sponsored, of course, by Specsavers.
A Timeform squiggle warranted perhaps GT?
You might think that Corm, I couldn’t possibly comment.
Value Is EverythingFat Al Down is a pretentious dullard who never uses one word where a whole essay (and one where banging on about Arkle is obligatory) would do. The man is incredibly boring, but sadly the Fryite-Pollingiste tendency get tumescent over every word the old **** says.
As has been said the recent article on J T McNamara was excellent. His writing may not be as consistent as it was 30 years ago but his humour and humanity remain. The poster quoted can hardly complain about literary style and comprehensibility. But knocking copy is very easy to write. Has Down not given you sufficient attention?
Humour and humanity sums it up very well. He’s got style. I could listen to him rambling on about Cheltenham for hours. He gets right to the heart of it.
I'd like to live in a place where they cordon off swans...I spent a few weeks in Stow-on-the-Wold last year, quite close to Alastair Down’s home. His drinking is legendary in the local pub, where they say he turns up twice a week, buys two bottles of wine, sits at Al’s Table, reads and drinks himself into a stupor.
Who knows if that is true, but one could understand if Down isn’t at his best every week.
He’s fallen off the wagon back into the splosh then?
Recall him a few years ago writing a heartfelt article in the RP about the damage a lifetime’s over-indulgence had caused him and his nearest and dearest, culminating in the well-worn type-of-phrase ‘it’s got to stop and it will’. That it seemingly didn’t and won’t is no surprise, sadly, as the large majority of drying alcoholics relapse sooner or later
The distinctive verbose, wistful, moist-eyed, metaphor-laden prose peddled by Down was an enjoyable well-wrought diversion but is of the type likely to succumb to repetitive parody after too many reams, particularly if, as seems probable, he’s now just going through the motions and producing no more than what’s expected from him
He often sounded the worse for wear when he worked for Channel 4. I suppose he’s a dying breed, the drunken journalist.
I saw him in the Mount Royale after racing during Ebor week a couple of years ago. He was off the wagon then, drinking red wine.
He had already declared sometime previously that he had a problem and needed to stop. Sad really.
He’s very good at his job but excess will hurt both his performance and obviously his health.The fact is that his replacements on Channel 4 are now so poor that they cannot really be described as journalists. You only realize how good both he and Mac were when you see the viewing figs go down faster than a Thai brass!
"You're a funny guy, Sully. I like you. That's why I'm going to kill you last."
In the spirit of the 3am Girls, here’s a Wicked Whisper.
Which renowned racing journalist was spotted well before the first on Tuesday in the Quevega bar at Cheltenham, pint in hand, unsteady on his feet and rather the worse for wear when he was supposed to be at work?
Or, as the person in question would put it
Which great equine wordsmith, scribe if you will, was noticed at the start of those four glorious days in March at the epicentre, in the place of refreshment named for Willie Mullins great mare, imbibing one of many – and certainly not the first – of the great continental drinks.
How pissed was he? Perhaps we will never know, but what is for certain is that he was one of the pioneering drunks at this year’s four glorious days at the epicentre [you’ve already said this – Ed.]…The great Lester Pigott…The incomparable Arkle…I think it’s your round… (cont page 94)Answers on a postcard, please.
BlueSky @pghenn.bsky.social
So don't run, just like the others always do
Never been a Down fan, but then I wouldn’t be – I wasn’t a fan of Jeffrey Bernard or that whole raffish, rakish, persona he seems to style himself upon.
The one and only time he ever made me smile was donkeys years ago when he wrote: “every year you go to Ireland pre Festival to find out what’s fancied, and every year you get put away as some steamer called ‘Fill Yer Boots’ romps home apparently backed by every Irishman present.” :)
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What’s he doing these days?
and orator of reviews at his best. However, seems has a demon which makes him top class but inconsistent.
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