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Robin Gray commentated at most of the big meetings in his day, including the Derby, Royal Ascot and the Cheltenham Festival, but it was noticeable towards the end of his time behind the microphone that he was relegated to the minor meetings, as was the case with a number of other commentators previously regarded as being at the top of the tree.
The same happened with Raleigh Gilbert and Graham Goode, who were both at various times regarded as being at, or near, the top of the pecking order.
Robin Gray often used to do a double act at Royal Ascot and Cheltenham, sharing the commentating duties and alternating races.
He also often teamed up with Bruce Friend-James at Newmarket in the days when there were two course commentators.
In recent years, Robin Gray has proved a notable supporter of up and coming commentators.
I remember he wrote a very generous letter to the Racing Post a couple of years ago praising Mark Johnson when he won his prestigious job commentating in the United States. His letter in support of Jim McGrath is in the same tradition.
I suppose it’s a symptom of changing fashions that, although Jim McGrath may be the lead commentator at the BBC, he very much does the small-fry tracks, often on the all-weather, as a course commentator, apart from the odd biggish day at Ascot.
His overall performance at Chepstow for the BBC on Tuesday revealed signs that the stress of this "death row" performance review may be getting to him. There were quite a few mistakes and more hesitancy than usual.His overall performance at Chepstow for the BBC on Tuesday revealed signs that the stress of this "death row" performance review may be getting to him. There were quite a few mistakes and more hesitancy than usual.
Suppose it is understandable Crusty, it didnt help calling the wrong faller in WN. Have the other 3 unfortunate gentleman got bookings for January?? I presume the so called review will be Jan to Jun.
Dave
His overall performance at Chepstow for the BBC on Tuesday revealed signs that the stress of this "death row" performance review may be getting to him. There were quite a few mistakes and more hesitancy than usual.
Suppose it is understandable Crusty, it didnt help calling the wrong faller in WN. Have the other 3 unfortunate gentlemen got bookings for January?? I presume the so called review will be Jan to Jun.
Jim McGrath looks to have got five days in January, Iain Mackenzie four, Darren Owen a whopping nine and Tommo seven, including Wincanton on January 7, which will be heard on Channel 4.
I don’t suppose it will matter how well they perform. The decisions will already have been made and it will just be a case of going through the motions if some of the faces don’t fit any more (or have too many wrinkles on them, in three of the cases).If you want to listen to a quality call listen to the finish of 3.45 at Lingfield on Wednesday, every horse named in correct order in a blanket finish, outstanding stuff!
Others would have made do and would only have been capable of saying it was a photo without even naming the horses involved, you know who they are, these are the ones who should be receiving their P45’s.If you want to listen to a quality call listen to the finish of 3.45 at Lingfield on Wednesday, every horse named in correct order in a blanket finish, outstanding stuff!
Others would have made do and would only have been capable of saying it was a photo without even naming the horses involved, you know who they are, these are the ones who should be receiving their P45’s.I haven’t seen or heard that race but I did catch a couple of the earlier races from Lingfield that day. Mark Johnson was the commentator. There’s certainly never any doubting his enthusiasm.
I’ve said before that it surprises me that so few commentators try to call the actual winner on the line, even when it’s not actually that close, preferring to play safe and say: "That’s one for the judge" or "It’s a photo".
As I mentioned at the time, Mike Cattermole has sometimes even blatantly passed the buck by saying: "That’s one for you, Dave Smith."
I was swiftly put in my place at the time by being told that it was not regarded as the commentator’s job to guess the result. It was the judge’s job.
We were also told that so few commentators were now prepared to put their head above the parapet in tight finishes for fear of being vilified by punters and on internet forums if they got it wrong. No commentator wanted archive footage of one of their mistakes being viewed across the world for ever more.
It’s just a cop-out in many cases. It’s obvious even to TV viewers who has won many races but still we get told: "That’s too close to call." Nine times out of 10, it isn’t.Having finally got round to watching the video of At The Races on Boxing Day, I really am baffled as to why Darren Owen is one of the commentators under review and presumably facing the loss of his racecourse commentary days.
He did a great job at Ffos Las, adding in all sorts of extra bits of information in the mainly small fields.
I just hope the powers-that-be who make the final decision on his future watch a video of his Ffos Las commentaries. It’s grossly unfair to question his commentary performance based on what I heard.
He could have made a lot less effort and some of the others certainly would have done.A quote from Rodney Masters in the post yesterday. "With modern day quality of performance so high, it is puzzling why a quartet of senior callers, Jim McGrath, Derek Thompson, Iain Mackenzie and Darren Owen, find themselves on a list drawn up by the ‘commentators user group’ for a performance review over the next six months. Could this be illicit ageism?"
I dont think the last sentence is too far from the truth.
The CUG was awarded a "Brickbat". The eqivalent of "NIL POINT" for us that prefer laymans terms!
A quote from Rodney Masters in the post yesterday. "With modern day quality of performance so high, it is puzzling why a quartet of senior callers, Jim McGrath, Derek Thompson, Iain Mackenzie and Darren Owen, find themselves on a list drawn up by the ‘commentators user group’ for a performance review over the next six months. Could this be illicit ageism?"
I dont think the last sentence is too far from the truth.
The CUG was awarded a "Brickbat". The eqivalent of "NIL POINT" for us that prefer laymans terms!Yes, I saw that, Dave, complete with the big picture of Tommo. It sure looks like ageism to me. I thought it was supposed to be illegal to discriminate against people on the grounds of age nowadays.
The trouble is, they’ll find a spurious other reason to get rid of older people rather than giving age as the reason. Tommo is 61 and Jim McGrath 59. They’ll find some bogus reason to get rid of Jim and the other older ones.
When I was first made redundant in 1991, it was because I was the youngest and the last in, so supposedly not as valuable as the more experienced older ones. Next time, of course, it will be because I’m one of the older ones and no doubt seen as over the hill. You can’t win.
There’s still supposed to be an unnamed fifth commentator at risk.
I was intrigued to spot on this forum the other day that the newest member was shown on the screen that day as being a certain tommo1. I tell you what, Big Feller, I wonder who that could be?
If it’s the real Tommo, he won’t be able to offer any public thoughts on the situation under pain of getting the sack immediately, instead of in six months’ time, from the Stalinist tendency of the Commentator User Group (Stasi affiliated).
Let’s hope he and the others will be heartened by many of the supportive views expressed here by quite a few people, notwithstanding the less-than-positive ones too from others.Having finally got round to watching the video of At The Races on Boxing Day, I really am baffled as to why Darren Owen is one of the commentators under review and presumably facing the loss of his racecourse commentary days.
He did a great job at Ffos Las, adding in all sorts of extra bits of information in the mainly small fields.
I just hope the powers-that-be who make the final decision on his future watch a video of his Ffos Las commentaries. It’s grossly unfair to question his commentary performance based on what I heard.
He could have made a lot less effort and some of the others certainly would have done.I am very disappointed to hear that Darren Owen is on the list for review. In my opinion he is the number 1 commentator in the north and I would personally rate him in the top 5 in the country. He is a true professional and a very nice chap. Also massively under-rated and deserves bigger meetings.
Darren is quite popular in the north at tracks such as Carlisle, Sedgefield, Hexham, Newcastle & courses in Scotland. He doesn’t need to improve at all in my opinion he just needs to keep up the fantastic work he does right now.
I’m sure all these commentators/callers are truly wunnerful and convivial ‘what’s yours’ kinda gents
Many here on TRF seek solace and acceptance brown-nosing the comfortably smug ‘n’ tweedy
To repeat an earlier post: putting the (relative) fear of god up them – turn up have a bevvy here we are again ain’t this the ideal way to while away a Tuesday – too too comfortable innit?
Kicks up the Jacksy boys
lovely job, semi-skilled
It’s always been my opinion that there is a lot of unjustified criticism with racing in the UK. You have it good in almost all aspects by comparison. I listen online to the UK racing, jumps or flat and it’s awesome compared to what we can get.Over here at Woodbine, I’d gladly take any of your cast off’s, as they would be infinitely better than what we have……one solitary commentator, Daniel Lozelle.
Now from what I gather, he’s a pretty decent sort of chap, but as a commentator he’s certainly lacking. That said, he’s perfectly inline with our clinical, extremely mundane and boring approach to the entertainment of horse racing.
Why ever would you need to mention past the fifth horse more than once on a race and why would you want to concentrate on any horses beyond the first four in the stretch. Those approaching with a ‘wet sail’ won’t get a mention until they take it up. I’m no fan of Thommo, but I’d have him any day over what we have to endure here.
With free admission to any days racing, even a days with two Group One’s and a Group Three, they wonder why there isn’t the attendance!!!!
C’mon Thommo, Toronto isn’t so bad in the summer
He should be on the "death row" after more appalling commentaries at Ascot yesterday where he even managed to bring "Tattenham Corner" into the equation again
A totally ott reaction from him to what an "absolute thriller" the big race was, probably influenced by the small field and him managing to spot the bad mistake by Captian Chris.
Makes you wonder what these people are listening to who rate him the "one of the best in the world"
It can’t be his commentaries.McGrath has become far too complacent and arrogant, and deserves to be reviewed. He was fresh and impressive when he first came over, but is now sounding tired and lazy with his commentary, relying on stock phrases and failing to hold the listeners attention. I mute the TV if he is commentating, he is that bad!
I couldn’t believe it when I heard his voice on the tannoy testerday, I thought he had been put out to grass.
What an insult!! To us, the paying customers!! Presumably he is cheap and the racecourse don’t care about the quality of experience they provide. I notice the admission wasn’t cheaper.
Jim’s bungling employers didn’t want to keep him on but they have been forced to do so after having to eat humble pie following the fiasco of publicly humiliating him and others by announcing towards the end of 2011 that they were under six-monthly review.
When Matt Chapman and others were tried out and only John Blance was taken on, the whole procedure was so badly handled that Jim and the others, including Tommo and Darren Owen, were not only kept on until the end of last year but, pointedly, given more work this year when the whole idea had originally been to drop them.
Jim has survived against the odds and, judging by the Tattenham Corner blunder at Ascot, is showing everyone why he was put under review in the first place.
Ironically, Ascot particularly like him and have had him marked down as one of their favoured and preferred commentators for a long time.
That’s why he keeps getting odd days there to contrast with the lowly meetings, including the all-weather, that he usually gets.
Lucky still to be working as a racecourse commentator at all.
Meanwhile, Tommo has been going from strength to strength despite his dropping by Channel 4. Darren Owen has also popped up as the racecourse commentator at a couple of meetings taken by Channel 4 under the new regime.
Stewart Machin is properly out of favour, not even being used for the Channel 4 coverage of his former happy hunting ground of Warwick this year.
Ian Bartlett was preferred as the racecourse commentator for the recent meeting there in what will have been a deliberate move not to use Machin, who was dropped by Channel 4.
Worst of all he is Australian! Get over yourselves!
The fact that Jim was Australian was actually a key factor in why he got the job in the first place, all those years ago, because he
was
so different.
He was a novelty then and was seen as a breath of fresh air among what were some pretty dull other commentators.
Certainly no discrimination against Australians intended. Richie Benaud was widely regarded as one of our finest cricket commentators.
It’s the mistakes and bumbling manner that people don’t like about Jim now, not his accent.
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