Cliches….

[IanDavies]

Has anyone ever noticed racing journalism has a language and etiquette that is all it’s own?

Not just the sycophancy – ”well done Mr Billionaire Owner, you just spent hundreds of millions on horses and won a group race, you shrewdie,” or "well done big trainer and big jockey (who might never speak to me again and end My career if I’m not permanently in residence up your backsides) great training performance and ride” – I’m well over that, it’s just part of the game.

It’s the CLICHES and EUPHEMISMS that grind Me down.

Why are horses ”annexing” races as opposed to winning them all of a sudden?

Just how many ”imperious” performances are we getting a year now?

I guess I ought to forgive racing journalists as, somewhere down the line, someone somewhere led them to believe they should try to pack a fact (we already knew) into every sentence. That’s why Aidan O’Brien has to become the Master of Ballydoyle (oh, so that’s where he trains – never knew that) at the second mention of him, Australia similarly becomes The Investec Derby winner (oh, did he win The Derby? And it is sponsored by Investec? What do they sell, then? I am gonna buy Me some Investecs!)

Even worse, I see cliches creeping in here. So I make this plea to the racing forum massive – we’re not journalists, we don’t have to be like that. Just say NO to cliches!

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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"

[robert99]

Totally agree.
It is a bit like these morons on phone-in programs who always have to ask the host "How are you doing?" when every other moron has asked the same pointless question right through that program.
I no longer listen to, read, nor watch any racing journalists.
Can’t remember a single time they have uttered something which has the slightest worth as information. They add nothing to my life – just drain it.

[Drone]

I no longer listen to, read, nor watch any racing journalists.
Can’t remember a single time they have uttered something which has the slightest worth as information. They add nothing to my life – just drain it.

Perhaps a little extreme but I largely agree and furthermore would extend that to the large majority of professional hacks in whatever field: the production of grammatically correct appealing prose is something of a gift but it’s the content that actually matters

So if one can forgive grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and unwieldy prose then the emancipation of the great unwashed provided by the Internet has been a welcome revolution

Over the last fifteen years or so, amidst the myriad jumbled paragraphs, split infinitives and misplaced apostrophes littering cyberspace I have read things more interesting, more profound, more beautiful, more amusing and much more thought-provoking than I ever have from the keyboard of Hic Hacky

He hit the ground running and did his chances no harm at all if going for back-to-back victories in the big one at Heaquarters

[Roberto1972]

Isn’t it strange how this great sport of ours divides opinion? I have very different views to Robert99 about racing journalists. There are several I follow and whose opinions and news gathering abilities I respect. I also enjoy their occasional appearances on TV such as the Morning Line and Sunday Forum. Racing is a complex sport with events happening every day in various locations. Without racing journalists I’m not sure we’d be able to keep up!

[cormack15]

You’ve hit the nail right on the head there Ian.

[Drone]

Perhaps a bit unfair as the hack who composed this concatenation of the well-worn and florid does only report to a red-top…ab fab

AUSTRALIA powered through his toughest test to date with brutal ease, adding the Juddmonte International to his expanding seasonal haul of Group 1s in an impressive display of both speed and class.

Settled in last by his fasting jockey Joseph O’Brien, Australia followed the field as his stablemate Kingfisher set a fair gallop. Turning for home, pace was injected and as the field straightened up it became quickly apparent the race was Australia’s.

He travelled comfortably and as O’Brien fanned out to deliver his run he had to take a pull, so instant was the response from his mount. Having wasted his way down to ride at 8st 12lb his jockey could be forgiven for wanting to pause and take in the moment.
The feeling Australia would give him when letting out an inch of rein at this very moment must have been one of the reasons O’Brien had committed to making his lowest riding weight for over two years. The way his equine companion responded, it is sure to have put the biggest smile on his face.

It was an emphatic performance, especially from a horse Aidan O’Brien had openly admitted beforehand was not fully wound up. "If he was going to get beaten today it was the trainer’s fault," he said in the aftermath. "I thought maybe I let him get too heavy.

"If it was an ordinary race he would probably have gone for a racecourse gallop. But obviously with the prize-money here and the way everything is done at York and being such a prestigious race – the prize-money was so enticing he had to come here rather than go anywhere else."

Come the line two lengths separated him from his nearest pursuer The Grey Gatsby, himself a Classic winner. Kevin Ryan’s French Derby winner, a 12-1 shot, did his bit to further the impression the current generation of three-year-olds is beyond exceptional by putting a further two-and-a-quarter lengths back to Royal Ascot winner and King George runner-up Telescope in third.

Arc favourite Taghrooda managed to put less than that into Sir Michael Stoute’s yardstick, yet Betfred and William Hill left O’Brien’s colt unchanged at 5-1 for Europe’s richest race. Paddy Power however did cut him to 2-7 (from evens) for the Irish Champion Stakes.

The trainer said: "The plan was if he came here then he would go back to Leopardstown, but the boys will decide that. The Arc is a possibility but he is never a horse who needs to go a mile and a half. The lads will decide where he goes but I don’t think he has a lot to prove to anybody."

Two Derby wins had failed to take Australia out of the tremendous shadow cast by both his illustrious parents and his trainer’s assertions he could be the greatest he’d ever trained. With victory at York he stepped into the light for the first time, and has begun on his own path to greatness.

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