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I believe Dave Smith was recently dropped from the Racetech roster.
Also think it’s likelier he was retired on age grounds rather than dropped – a subtle but definite difference.
gc
No graysonscolumn, like GG his services were dispensed with, they both commented at the time about being thrown on the "scrapheap" so to speak.
Think Dave was getting confused by mixing judging & commentating during a race but he still has plenty of strings to his bow, racecourse judging & greyhounds for Sky.Didn’t Phil Curry quit commentary to concentrate on being a Pro-Punter?
He did – July 2009, if memory serves.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Also think it’s likelier he was retired on age grounds rather than dropped – a subtle but definite difference.
gc
No graysonscolumn, like GG his services were dispensed with, they both commented at the time about being thrown on the "scrapheap" so to speak.
Both gentlemen are, of course, perfectly entitled to describe their departure from the roster as emotively as they wish – hardly surprising after over 75 years’ worth of doing the thing they love the most between them.
However, and I’m quite happy for someone close(r) to the process to correct me on this, my understanding is that retirement from the roster
can
be triggered upon reaching the end of the calendar year in which the commentator in question has ceased to be 60 years of age.
Graham Goode turned 61 in March 2010, for example, so whilst he was still of permissible age at the start of that year, he wasn’t by the end of it.
As I say, I don’t mind being corrected on this, but the rumours that several courses in the Midlands expressed an interest earlier in the year in using Goode as the on-course commentator, instead of the Racetech-booked caller, does suggest to me that the Leicesters, Uttoxeters and Market Rasens of this world would still have been happy enough for him to be present in a Racetech capacity were he so permitted.
I don’t know. Someone can advise. Or we can just wait to see what happens to, say, the likes of Derek Thompson, who turns 61 in late-July. Post-December 31st, whither Thommo?
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
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