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In the last race at Windsor this evening , a 6 furlong handicap , Mike
Cattermole has called the wrong winner .Entering the final furlong he identified the eventual winner , Make My
Dream as Brazilian Brush and continued to do so up to the line as it
first fought off Woodcote and then resisted the late challenge of Kelamon .The blunder only came to light when the course commentator gave the
result of the photo finish and handed Alex Quinn the embarrassing job of
explaining it away.Brazilian Brush was laid for £ 102690 at 1.01 . It was never involved in
the race and finished 11th of 13 .Yeh, I seen tha I was a bit confused cos i seen the number 10 on the winning horse, was quite happy though cos i wanted to do brazilian brush haha
No sympathy whatsoever for the idiots who’ve laid the winner at 1.01. In being greedy and being too damned lazy to use their own eyesight and work out what is going on for themselves and relying on the commentary alone they deserve whatever comes to them.
Commentating seems like a very difficult job from where I am sitting.
People are bound to make the odd mistakes, or even howling blunders.
No sympathy whatsoever for the idiots who’ve laid the winner at 1.01. In being greedy and being too damned lazy to use their own eyesight and work out what is going on for themselves and relying on the commentary alone they deserve whatever comes to them.
I’m surprised by responses like above everytime a commentator makes a balls up, don’t recall any bettors whinging about it losing them money but the extremely poor commentating deserves to be highlighted.
In fact anyone who’s laid the winner at 1.01 would be reasonably happy compared to those who laid it at 1000 or backed the loser at 1.01.If you’re all honest guys, would some of your responses be the same if it was Derek Thompson that made the blunder?
I very much doubt there would be the "commentating is a hard job" and the "I have no sympathy for the in-running punters" replies (no disrespect to the people who made them), instead we would have pages of replies about how much of a terrible blunder Thommo has just made and that he should retire now for the good of the game.
Sorry for going off topic slightly, but I just find it amazing that people dislike Thommo for ‘trying’ to put a bit of humour in his calls yet Catt makes the worst blunder a commentator can make and people refuse to condemn him.
Mike
The bloke is human, he made a mistake, no big deal. Pity he never apologise’s though!
The racing people on TV who stick to the one task, be that presentation, punditry or commentary are generally the best at what they do, with one or two noteable exceptions.
If you’re all honest guys, would some of your responses be the same if it was Derek Thompson that made the blunder?
Hypothetical to an extent, Mike, as for all his traits and mannerisms, Thommo hardly ever drops a bollock as a commentator, and for that he is to be commended.
Catt makes the worst blunder a commentator can make and people refuse to condemn him.
He got both bouquets and brickbats from me in the piece below over his Newbury blunder last December, although the purpose of that piece was primarily to shed a little light on the whole business of hiring and firing commentators as I understand it;
http://thatracingblog.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Thanks for that Jeremy, a really enjoyable read.
It will however, bring to the attention (as it did to me) that Cattermole made a similar mistake just last December. Now I know his nickname is Cat, but how many lives has this guy got left?
Yesterday’s blunder was probably the worst a commentator can make (other than call a horse in the Queen’s colours with Princess Anne aboard as a Barney Curely horse with Kieran Fallon doing the steering), and his second major blunder within a short time, so I will shoot straight from the hip – should he still be commentating?
Mike
If you’re all honest guys, would some of your responses be the same if it was Derek Thompson that made the blunder?
Since you ask, yes.
I have never been one to pick on an individual because he is unpopoular with "the crowd". More likely to do the opposite, if anything.
I have made the "from where I am sitting commentating seems a tough job" comments before, but about different people. I couldn’t do it well, let alone consistently well, and I think it is a measure of just how good most commentating is that incidents like this are seized upon as they are. Even 10 to 15 years ago howlers were more common.
If you’re all honest guys, would some of your responses be the same if it was Derek Thompson that made the blunder?
I very much doubt there would be the "commentating is a hard job" and the "I have no sympathy for the in-running punters" replies (no disrespect to the people who made them), instead we would have pages of replies about how much of a terrible blunder Thommo has just made and that he should retire now for the good of the game.
Sorry for going off topic slightly, but I just find it amazing that people dislike Thommo for ‘trying’ to put a bit of humour in his calls yet Catt makes the worst blunder a commentator can make and people refuse to condemn him.
Mike
Here here! If was Tommo everyone would be up in arms. His commentary is second to none compared to mike cattermoles, in my opinion. This isn’t the first time Catt has made such a blunder, nor the second from my memory. They are paid decent money to do the job so it should be done correctly and proper. Should this man be getting the big meetings to cover when there are obviously more better prepared commentators?
Here here! If was Tommo everyone would be up in arms
I hold a similar contempt for your views in this matter as you clearly do for mine.
I have only just seen a replay so was not prepared to comment until I had seen it.
If you watch the replay the light does not look that good on TV. Remember that the TV picture is also brighter than “real life” and it was a dull evening yesterday. I very strongly suspect Mike did the call from his monitor,
Speaking of the monitor, whereas most of us watch the racing on decent LCD televisions the monitor in the commentary box is only a small CRT set, so is not of the highest quality. In the light conditions last night I suspect he was caught between a rock and a hard place in relation to calling from the TV or using his bins.
In some other forums the comment has been made why did he not see the saddle cloth, if he was using the TV he wouldn’t have seen it. Even if using bins the angle from the commentary box means the cloth would not be visible until inside the final half furlong. In yesterdays race the cloth would have been covered up by the runner-up. The commentary box is on the stand side at Windsor, whist the Judge is on the inside – so the Judge would have clearly seen the saddle cloth.
Looking at the racecard the colours of Make My Dream and Brazilian Brush are very different, however watching the TV replay and the colours of the winner and Brazilian Brush (running on the outside) do look very much the same – even knowing the outcome I had trouble differentiating the two and I would like to think I am reasonably adept at spotting runners.
It also didn’t help that the commentators / race readers “failsafe” – the cap colours, were almost identical on the two runners.
Notwithstanding what I see as the mitigating factors it is a bad howler and calling totally the wrong winner is not a good day at the office in anyone’s books and it does not help that Mike had the bad call at Newbury as well.
Having said that I don’t think Mike is by any means the worse caller on the rota. There is one “senior” caller who makes several errors at almost every meeting he calls – he’s just lucky he hasn’t called an incorrect winner yet.
was brazilian brush laid at 1000s and if so would the layers ahve to pay out?
Not sure if it was laid at a 1000, but whatever high it touched the layers will almost certainly have to pay out. Betfair, and all the other exchanges for that matter settle bets on the official result, not on what a commentator thought the result was.
Mike
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