- This topic has 2,305 replies, 117 voices, and was last updated 1 week, 3 days ago by
.
-
Posts
-
His commentary for Red Rums third National is unlikely to be topped, best commentary ever in my opinion, it just flowed, and fitted the occasion perfectly, without a hint of the pre-written lines that the commentators have on hand for whoever’s winning The National. It was a masterclass call to the finish.
Even with that great call though, he completely missed Boom Dockers exit from the race, and in the process, managing to combine the great call at the finish, with a serious blunder during race, the type of blunder which by then had became his trademark.
He went quickly downhill from there. In truth, he was already well on the decline long before 77, but that commentary for Red Rums third National, no doubt saved him, and subjected us to another 20 years of him.
He owed Red Rum that, at the very least, have you watched back that 74 race, and listened to his commentary, absolutely awful.
It’s not recency bias either, as he was the main commentator when I was growing up, and I grew up with his error strewn commentaries. It was a constant.
He was very poor in the 80’s and 90’s. For some reason, people desperately started looking for some of his calls to be given legendary status. There seems to be an awful lot of confused people, who can’t watch an historic win, without desperately wanting the commentary on the race to be historic too.
The best example being his commentary for Dawn Runs Gold Cup. Not a terrible commentary, but nothing special either. It’s actually quite worrying that people consider this a great commentary. Still, it’s better than his effort for Aldaniti in 81, when he nearly self combusted at the prospect of Spartan Missile getting there. Despite the fact that he was the only person watching, who seemed to think Spartan Missile might get there.
Too much is made of his impartiality towards his own runners. People lazily roll out the likes of his Attivo call, but that misses the point, it’s way overplayed. This fails to take into account that his commentaries could be very partisan, and it was always very easy to spot the horse he really wanted to win.
Check out his commentary for the 79 National, it’s pretty evident that he really didn’t want Rubstic to win. As they turned for home, he was obviously just interested in Zongalero & Rough and Tumble, Rubstic was a distraction to him, and you can just hear the disappointment in his voice when it became clear that Rubstic was going to win. Amateur hour. Could give you loads more examples.
Another example is his commentary for the 83 National, where he seemed hellbent on breaking the world record for most mistakes during a commentary in one race.
Anyone who thinks he’s the best ever, is either looking at it through several pairs of rose tinted specs, haven’t actually listened to any of his commentaries recently, or are just stubbornly or pig headedly refusing to admit that he wasn’t that special.
As I said, it’s like The Emperors New Clothes with him.
Agree about the 1977 Grand National call. His phrase “They’re willing him home now” was brilliant and caught the moment perfectly.
One example of his bias was in the 1991 Gold Cup. He clearly wanted The Fellow to win, partly because he had backed the horse at big odds and partly because he was best friends with the horse’s owner.
It is very interesting to read his obituary in The Guardian, written by Julian Wilson and published posthumously. Wilson was clearly bitter with O’Sullevan and makes no attempt to conceal it.
Back to the subject of the thread:
Was I alone in suffering an all time low by Chapman when he began his post race interview with Champion mile winning jockey P-C Boudot with an incredibly childish,offensive and dare I suggest racist comedy mock French accent ……absolute disgrace.
It was mortifying and there have been traces of that kind of attitude to the French on SSR from Chapman previously which indicate a readiness to mock non English people in the disgusting way a very small minority of English people do…..but I’m sure we know the type.
For that alone Chapman should be sacked…..If he isnt an ignorant bigot he is certainly guilty of behaving like one.
Do you think the French pundits could follow suit?
English jockey wins on Arc day “Alright me old china, lovely jubbly!”
Irish jockey wins, “Bejasus and begorrah, sure wasn’t that a fine win so it was”.Chapman is relatively well-behaved on ATR (or Sky Sports Racing, as it is known these days), and it appears that the powers that be at ITV actively encourage him to be controversial and loud… but why? It’s completely unnecessary.
I don’t like the way Chapman rolls his tongue around certain unusual horses’ names and spits it out…when he got to RAAEQ on the card yesterday he sounded like he was going to be sick. I agree about the French accent thing too it sounded so childish and PCB was very gracious in response.
Also why pay to have McCoy on every Champions Day he’s a jumps jockey and had nothing interesting to add to the day.
Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...I believe they had Mark Johnson commentating from Cheltenham yesterday; why is it that, even after all these years of French-breds running in this country and the recent success of Bristol De Mai, he was still getting Cobra De Mai wrong?
Did Rishi really think that Paul Nichols was going to come on the Morning Show and tell everyone how fit and jumping out of his skin to run Frodon was. So after a few fitness doubts are thrown in the ring he decides to drop Frodon as his tip and then, of course, the horse dots up ….
It’s called keeping your cards close to your chest Rishi ….and Mr.Nichols is very good at it.
Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...Not really much point in having him on the show if he’s going to put people off his horses is there?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highwaysThe trouble with Julian Wilson was he had such a high opinion of himself he had issues with anyone who was better than him …… which was probably most in the industry.
It looks like they want him to be the new Big Mac and have the village idiot role – unfortunately he’s taking on that role too well.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I wish Matt would cut down on the stupidity because when he is more serious he can be a damned good interviewer.
With the buffoon act it undermines his credibility when he does espouse a valid point.
From seeing Chapman on the ‘lesser’ racing channels, he was just the same as he is now. That’s what attracted ITV racing to their ‘show’, with a cast of thousands.
That’s probably a recipe for success if you like, people a bit out of the ordinary, with an opinion, with a bit of character.
If you look at most of the sorry mess cast on ITV racing, they are pretty boring lot on the whole, so it’s easy to stand out.I’d like a few more ‘characters’ in there, and a lot less people who just chat and chat for chat’s sake.
Always baffled by these conspiracy theories. Do people really think that Nicols have the time and inclination to bother?
His horses are rarely unfit but its more than possible that they can win when not quite up to his very high benchmark perhaps?
Frodon (which for once I didn’t back) got in a good rhytmn (again) at a course he loves. He was a class above. Thats all there is to it
Agree with Paul. Chapman is knowledgable and strong in interviews. He doesn’t need the bombastic clowning
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.