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This is spurred by listening to Graham Goode calling the 1.30 Nott, he was useless his quote ‘but the favourite has flown’ as protectorate was clearly closing & taking the lead from the Favourite!!. His performance over the last few days had been crap, he fails to spot finishers or when he does he makes em sound closer than they really are, time to retire for this dear old boy.<br>John Hunt, this bloke aint so bad until it comes to the finish when he starts shouting, that annoys me.<br>Derek Thompson, as good at commentating as he is at tipping, nuff said.
Who do I like???
Jim Mcgrath on BBC, he is good, always uses ‘and on settling down’ sometimes twice at the start of a race :)<br>Simon Holt, I think he is very good but has the odd tendancy to shout abit towards the end of the occasional race.<br>Mike Cattermole is my fav, cool & calm & calls the races well.
All this being said, I don’t think I could do the job!!! :)
Jason
Really can’t disagree with anything you have said Jason.
Having said that, we do not know what view "GG" had of the race.
I think Simon Holt and Jim McGrath are the best commentators.
Regards – Matron<br>:cool: <br>
The view they have is something I have often wondered about before but, I think I saw a piece on Simon Holt & he said he had to do the commentary from the TV as that is what the viewers see?? I dunno though, I couldn’t do it.
Jason
TV Commentators alternate between bins and TV monitor so they can be sure they’re talking about what the viewers actually see whilst still getting a full view of the action. Very difficult indeed.
Doesn’t matter how difficult it is – Graham Goode has always called a race as he expects it to pan out, and fails to commentate on the actual action; I can never forget a well touted horse called Nash House running in the Dante (he was a half brother to Spectrum).  GG rated the horse a good thing.  He made a short lived effort to challenge over a furlong out before fading tamely to finish a well beaten fourth of seven.  Needless to say he was a disappointing animal.
To cut a long story short, GG’s commentary was shocking, ignoring the winner throughout and constantly remarking on how Nash House was poised to strike; he reached a nadir by calling "Just look at this go!!!" as he expected his fancy to go on, but the animal was already off the bridle and going nowhere at the time.
A truly overrated racecaller, and unprofessional to boot.
In my opinion the 3 best commentators are Simon Holt, John Hunt and Mark Johnson. If I was forced to name a 4th I’d go for Stewart Machin.
I would say that Simon Holt is the best, just ahead of Jim McGrath. Although McGrath always overuses the quote "i reckon", but both are very professional.
I used to hate it when Halling ran and Graham Goode was commentating, i.e in the 1995 International and the 1996 Eclipse when he stated the obvious shouting "Oh a good horse!" when Halling edged ahead of Pentire and Bijou D’Inde. And sometimes when a horse wins well he starts exaggerating the winning distances "3,4,5,6 lengths clear!" when the horse is probably two in front.
Worst one is John Hamner for me. He should stick to being an agent. I can never forget when Fujiyama Crest won Frankie’s 7th race and Hamner was commentating with his high pitched voice.
And the Irish commentators don’t show much emotion. When a horse trots up in a Group One (Daylami for example) it’s very unexciting for them, a s well as Galileo and Fantastic Light last year.
Do you remember John Hunt’s brilliantly over-excited commentary on See More Business’ victory over Challenger du Luc in the King George in 1997?
Challenger du Luc absolutely cruised upsides the apparently toiling SMB at the last, but Hunt knowing what a rogue the Pipe animal was screamed (and I do mean screamed) prophetically …."What’s he going to do? Will he throw it away?"
He threw it away! One of the most memorable commentaries of my lifetime.
This is a tough job, but some (GG) make things tougher for themselves with these ridiculous comments such as ‘slow go’, ‘centre-field sweep’. It’s a desperate attempt to be different – it just annoys. Go back to commentating like you used to!
Was it John Hanmer yesterday, who managed to commentate on Rag Trade winning the 2.20 at Newbury? The first time, I thought my ears were deceiving me, but after the third or fourth I was fairly sure that’s what he said… :biggrin:
Hanmer must have the shock of his life each April, when in the middle of a quiet Saturday afternoon he wakes up to find himself stood in the commentary box by the first fence at Aintree. Just as 40 horses have started thundering towards him.
He must think to himself "what in the name of arse am I doing here?". A thought mirrored by several million TV viewers.
I just don’t get it. He’s loaded and has a top job in racing. Why give him another job as well, and one that he patently cannot do at all? GG has his critics, but at least he can do his job. Hanmer cannot.
There, I enjoyed that. More in early April 2003.<br>
(Edited by RichK at 9:42 pm on May 18, 2002)
Would agree with the view about Simon Holt being very good, as for racing television personalities in general, John Francome is the one I feel is the best.
The las on that Teamtalk radio are tripe. I have to endure them as its the only way I can get live racing in work.They are under orders to call each race as being a tight finish when in fact it could be a facile winner and often they get the wrong winner being called.
Another classic Goode-ism: "And he’s shovelling the coal on that one…"
Simon Holt comes out tops. J A McGrath is either really good or really crap – he has his off days. Cattermole is impressive too, very professional and with a searching eye he does a good job.
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