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Over the past few years we have had a few international commentators over here,
Matt Hill from Australia as part of the Radio 5 live team did part of the Grand National and also called a Hunter Chase at Bangor on Dee aswell as working at a Point to Point.
Sheldon Peters from South Africa did some calls at Lingfield one time i remember.
Larry Colmous worked on the old ATR in the studio for an evening USA racing broadcast before doing a commentary at Wolverhampton.
Jonathan Horowitz called one race at Musselburgh last autumn – I think this is an ongoing relationship he has with the track, having spent at least some time studying in Scotland previously.
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.
I always wanted to become the first woman to commentate a horse race lol. I just couldn’t do it though, soooo difficult to do. Though must be the best job in the world!!
I don’t think i’d actually enjoy listening to a female commentated race. Do you think there’ll ever be women doing the job a few years down the line?Hi Kautostar!
I see no reason why there cannot be.
You should give it a try. Here in the USA, good female sportscasters earn more than their male counterparts when they can do a job traditionally done by males.
Call a few off the TV and get yourself going!
Craig
GC:
Robin is an excellent commentator but I bet he has his work cut out up a crane along the back straight!
Great guy!
Cheers,
Craig
I’ve enjoyed reading this thread but wouldn’t be me if I didn’t offer to lower the tone a tad on behalf of the forum …. so, any thoughts on this commentary ? : http://tiny.cc/0uL9n
and on a slightly more serious note, there were a few trotting races shown on ATR the other day and it was suggested that trotting is harder to call than standard racing as the jockeys (if they’re called that) are hidden for some of the time.
Is trotting harder to call or is it not much difference ?
and on a slightly more serious note, there were a few trotting races shown on ATR the other day and it was suggested that trotting is harder to call than standard racing as the jockeys (if they’re called that) are hidden for some of the time.
Is trotting harder to call or is it not much difference ?
Simon:
You definitely need to use a different approach. In Trotting I rely mainly on the large saddlecloth numbers, headgear the horse wears, color of the bike and then the silks of the drivers. On Flat Racing, I primarily use the jockeys colors.
To prep for Flat Racing, I sketch out the colors and learn them but in Trotting, I draw in the saddle cloth colors and say if the Driver is wearing black and yellow, I will write the drivers name in black with a yellow box around it and learn it that way.
90% of the time I use binoculars (Swift Audubon 8.5×44) to call both Trotting and Flat Racing.
Plus in trotting you refer to fractions versus furlongs and never say a horse is running well in a trotting race!
Cheers,
Craig
Whilst I’m sure a woman would be technically capable of calling a race my concern would be the voice.
Somehow a woman’s voice does not sound right doing sport commentary – especially where the voice is needed to rise when there is some excitement. Jackie Oakley pn five live is a technically competent commentator but the pitch of her voice is wrong when there is goalmouth action.
You only have to listen to judge Di Clarke calling a result on course – speak to her in normal circumstances and her voice is fine – get her over the PA and her voice just sounds shrill.
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