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As the search function can’t seem to find anything to do with ITV starting a new thread to post this.
While I think a lot of betting stuff could be cut back I do think it shouldn’t be completely ignored either. At the moment it feels like betting is the only reason for horse racing as far as the commentators are concerned. Some betting coverage yes, but concentrate on the racing and the horses please. Let’s face it, if they devoted as much time to covering betting during the football matches on telly instead of concentrating on the matches there’d be an outcry.
What a new great idea, a racing program with no mention of betting.
Add that to the currant format of pass the sick bag features, group class brown nosing, endless almost pointless pundits/analysts who only comment on things they know won’t upset anyone (unless they are foreign riders) anything else that happens simply didn’t happen.
At least with football if a player stinks the place out, the pundits will analyse it afterwards.Let’s face it, if they devoted as much time to covering betting during the football matches on telly instead of concentrating on the matches there’d be an outcry.
Idiotic by Mark Johnston. Racing’s raison d’etre is predominantly betting – it’s what overwhelmingly funds the sport. Football has betting as an appendage; it’s not the core reason for the sport.
Mike
Tune in and watch a race, you see an almost certain winner to follow.
Make a note of the horse and be really happy for the owner when it wins.Who needs betting on horses, just be happy for the connections.
Mark Johnston hasn’t got a clue.
Under his format the audience would die.
He even contradicts himself in stating that a fresh format is required and then gets on his cheerleading high horse to start a campaign to get Derek Thompson back in the mix. That’s about as fresh as Julius Caesar’s last jobby and about as appealing.
Mark Johnston should be working hard at finding out why, if the are always trying, his horses go stinker, stinker, good run, stinker, stinker, stinker, good run, stinker, stinker and then win a huge pot.
There are occasional races that you could watch without the need for a bet but it can’t read across to football coverage. While the Premiership is on every week and represents the top flight, Racing is occasionally presenting top fair but in the main there’s a fair bit of dross in there that is only really of much interest if you have had a bet. It can’t be compared directly to football because the stars are not on show every week the way that the footballers and the best teams are week in week out.
A silly comparison and suggestion from a man in a totally different role in the Racing game.
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
How would Mark Johnston make a living without the sponsorship of bookmakers providing prize money for racing?
I think he is living in cloud cuckoo land if he thinks betting is not particularly important to racing.
It would be interesting to know what percentage bookmakers provide to prize money and if anyone has any figures I would find it an interesting read.
Also lets trial a day at the races with no bookies and see how many people attend. This is the Uk not Dubai and betting is part and parcel of a day out at the races and is integral to its survival!!What the ruddy hell has Top Gear got to do with it? Also he says football goes hours without mentioning betting, not sure that’s true. Maybe I just notice it more now but betting tends to get some kind of mention in a lot of sports coverage. Pretty sure I’ve seen examples of various sports using the odds in their discussions of who will win a match/tournament etc for example even if its as simple as saying ‘Murray will be fav now Djokovic is out’.
Johnston is deluded or a fool – perhaps both.
He has a blog called “Bletherings”, in this case he is blethering out of his Haggis Refuse Disposal Pipe.
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
Johnston’s rant is even more baffling and unhinged than his resident nutjob Yorkidding.
Horse Racing is different to most sports.
Most other sports you can play yourself ie go to the shop and buy a football or a cricket bat but you cant go to the sports shop and buy a horse to race against your mates up the park therefore the appeal just to watch doesn’t exist for the normal person. Over 18’s can however bet so the viewing audience has something in which to go live with.
Simples.Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
Horse Racing is different to most sports.
Most other sports you can play yourself ie go to the shop and buy a football or a cricket bat but you cant go to the sports shop and buy a horse to race against your mates up the park therefore the appeal just to watch doesn’t exist for the normal person. Over 18’s can however bet so the viewing audience has something in which to go live with.
Simples.If I could buy a horse in the pet shop I would pretend I was Rich Ricci.
I would invite my mates to race against my horse over 3 miles 2 Furlongs and once they had trained for that distance I would tell them that the race was now on a different day and that it was over 2 miles 4 furlongs
Of course, I would be offering an apology the equal of Hughie Green in regards to “I mean than most sincerely folks” and yet said in the most insincere manner that Hughie was the master of.
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
How would Mark Johnston make a living without the sponsorship of bookmakers providing prize money for racing?
I think he is living in cloud cuckoo land if he thinks betting is not particularly important to racing.
It would be interesting to know what percentage bookmakers provide to prize money and if anyone has any figures I would find it an interesting read.
Also lets trial a day at the races with no bookies and see how many people attend. This is the Uk not Dubai and betting is part and parcel of a day out at the races and is integral to its survival!!Bookmakers provide nothing, it is all punters money and not nearly enough of it.
Bookmakers are bleeding the sport dry while not laying 2 bananas to a banana to punters.And while betting is integral to racing, bookmakers are bad for racing and bad for punters, if only we had a Tote/Exchange monopoly like other countries, everyone would benefit.
We need betting but not bookmakers.Incidentally we did have a trial day without bookies, the first ever Sunday meeting at Doncaster in 1992, it was packed to the rafters with an attendance of 23,000.
Is there really that much betting coverage on a typical Channel 4 broadcast to begin with?
Beyond the pre-race 45 second piece from the ring with Tanya/Tom/Brian and the SP’s given in the result, what other mention of betting is there?
I see the vast majority of a broadcast taken up with, pre/post race interviews with connections, pre/post race analysis with Nick Luck and the boys in the caravan, pictures of horses in the pre-parade and parade ring/going to post and the odd feature piece, none of which ever seem to relate to betting.
So what is Mark Johnston talking about here??
He’s not trying to dictate to ITV who can advertise on their network is he…
Not agreeing with MJ at all here Cav, but have you seen C4 Racing lately?
There are a heck of a lot more Paddy Power, William Hill, Ladbrokes and BetVictor ads than the ones you mentioned. The full-screen ones that appear two minutes before a race (runners circling/loading at the start reduced to a tiny window in the top right) are the most upsetting.
Coiffed blowhard Geoffrey Banks is a regular on The Morning Line. Star Sports also seem to have paid for a little airtime, as Tanya usually makes a point of visiting them on the rails before the off – they even broadcast their liabilities.
Occasional C4 commentator Stewart Machin also has a Tommo-like obsession with namechecking ‘the favourite’ in his C4 calls, sometimes failing to call the horse by its racing name through an entire race.
Johnston is calling for no betting talk on TRF in this mornings post.
Instead he cites for us to all talk about Mark Johnston talking about no betting……
Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
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