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ITV should have moved mountains to secure the services of Mattie Bachelor as post-race interviewer.
One day, after AP McCoy was edged out in a close finish by a female jockey, Bachelor meandered into the jockey’s room and consoled McCoy like so:
Don’t worry champ. She would’ve won on either of them.
I hope Richie Persaud is reading this.
People you need for a racing programme:
1. Presenter
2. CommentatorThat’s it.
There speaks a voice of reason.
You will not be understood by those behind this flight of fancy I’m afraid.
What on earth Pendleton brings to the table is beyond me ?I sympathise with the general slant about a surfeit of presenters, but you need two presenters really. You want differences of opinion/approach to provide an entertaining experience for the viewer.
Let me explain about Victoria Pendleton (or any other non-insider contributor a broadcaster might use from time to time). This sort of “what does she/he bring to the party?” complaint is quite common.
Victoria Pendleton is someone who bridges the vast chasm between dyed-in-the-wool racing fans and the general public, she’s someone who might light a spark and get people to think, “Maybe I should find out about this”. Nobody’s suggesting she’s going to be on as a form guru or breeding expert.
Most racing commentators and broadcasters seem to take an almost sadistic delight in making the sport as impenetrable as possible to outsiders.
Nobody wants to be served up baby talk, but do we really need to have a commentator saying, “…and with seven-and-a-half furlongs to run…”, rather than, “…with just under a mile to run…”?
Pre-race, what would a casual viewer make of, “…they’ll be looking for some black type with this one…”? It’s gobbledegook, yet people within the sport bleat about how racing gets so little coverage in the non-specialist mainstream and sports media.
There is a fine line between dumbing down the content and treating the audience as idiots. I doubt that the audience are that lazy that they can not bother to study what a furlong is, of how many furlongs makes a mile. In France and the US and elsewhere they talk about meters. Maybe we could go crazy and go and talk about a kilometer race etc
As for the black type. Heavens forbid that the causal viewer does not simply google the term on his or her mobile or come onto sites like this. Heaven forbid that the great unwashed would learn something for themselves
Pendelton can’t even get people into her own spoke, what hope has horse racing ?
Considering the amount of people who watch the Derby and Aintree Grand National, on the various platforms (not just terrestrial tv) I don’t think it needs the causal celeb like her.
In France and the US and elsewhere they talk about meters. Maybe we could go crazy and go and talk about a kilometer race etc
You obviously haven’t seen the captions on Channel 4, where one mile is also, apparently, 1609 metres.
Racing in America uses miles, furlongs and yards, not metres. Americans may still use cubic inches instead of ccs for vehicle engine sizes.
As for people googling the jargon, they’re hardly likely to do that twenty times a broadcast. They hear people talking what sounds like gibberish, and they switch off. A bit like expecting people to watch a foreign language film on television without subtitles. I’m not saying that all racing jargon should be translated into “normal” English, but there’s no need to be deliberately obfuscatory.
It’s not like the old days, when horse racing was just about the only (betting) game in town, and so you had to learn the secret words and phrases, and so get into the sport that way.
Here's your ITV Racing lineup in full for 2017.(pic via Twitter – @RacingPost)
Posted by Great British Racing on Monday, 17 October 2016
Racing in America uses miles, furlongs and yards, not metres. Americans may still use cubic inches instead of ccs for vehicle engine sizes.
As for people googling the jargon, they’re hardly likely to do that twenty times a broadcast. They hear people talking what sounds like gibberish, and they switch off. A bit like expecting people to watch a foreign language film on television without subtitles. I’m not saying that all racing jargon should be translated into “normal” English, but there’s no need to be deliberately obfuscatory.
It’s not like the old days, when horse racing was just about the only (betting) game in town, and so you had to learn the secret words and phrases, and so get into the sport that way.
Garbage Venusian, you’re making things up to fit your opinion. I can’t recall a commentator in recent memory saying 7 and a half furlongs left to run (even Tommo) but I can recall plenty saying just under a mile to run.
You say floating viewers will be put off by the jargon but those floating viewers will not be looking at the racing in the first place.
When looking at the list of presenters etc for ITV’s coverage, Simon Holts assertion that he believed that ITV didn’t have much idea about horse racing certainly rings true.
Don’t blame the likes of Richard Hoiles for signing up for very good money on a 4 year contract but it just shows how much the BBC must have given John Hunt to keep him.
Hopefully bookies adverts wont be allowed befor 9.00pm.
“Garbage”?, “Making things up”? Thanks for that! Have a listen to a few commentaries, and you’ll see what I mean.
“Simon Holts assertion that he believed that ITV didn’t have much idea about horse racing certainly rings true”
No, he’s just having a flounce because he didn’t get the job. If he’d been given it instead of Hoiles, he’d be chirping away about how ITV’s coverage was going to be the best thing ever.
“You say floating viewers will be put off by the jargon but those floating viewers will not be looking at the racing in the first place.”
Quite so, and why might that be, I wonder? Well, one of the reasons, imo, is because of the way the sport’s broadcasters appear to want to render the sport almost unintelligible to anyone other than those who by chance already “get it”. We’ve got a great sport here, let’s not turn people away.
cannot see the point of signing up haley turner. i see and listen to her on at the races and she has not got a clue about anything horse racing. she cant see a fit horse in the ring. or a good horse going down. absolutely useless. she should take up cycling for the olympics or something. also she cant really talk on tv not a clue what she saying. its all rubbish
It doesn’t matter a jot to me who the presenters are. So long as they are back from the ads in time for the race live and show a decent replay. Rest of the time the mute button does its job!
ITV are bringing-back wrestling to our screens:
https://inews.co.uk/essentials/culture/television/itv-brings-wrestling-back-rebooted-world-sport/
The World Of Sport returns.
A quick round of wrestling before the next race starts?
Richard Hughes on why C4 failed ultimately.
Can’t say I agree with him that it’s only in the last two years that it’s been bad, it was right from the start with too many people, too much betting and not enough of actually seeing the horses before the races.
Still I hope ITV take note, particulary of the following comments:
“There is too much talk on Channel 4 Racing about facts, betting odds and the opinions of too many people.
Who really wants to be told that because a horse is drifting in the market it’s perceived as a negative to its chance in the race? I certainly don’t.
When you watch Channel 4 Racing now it is like walking into a betting shop and listening to various pundits on something like Ladbrokes TV talking about the day’s racing.”
“We need to see more of the horses and hear less of people’s opinions about them.”
Given the size of the team they seem to have amassed so far, I’m not hopeful.
“There is too much talk on Channel 4 Racing about facts, betting odds and the opinions of too many people.
“We need to see more of the horses and hear less of people’s opinions about them.”
Given the size of the team they seem to have amassed so far, I’m not hopeful.
He’s absolutely right, of course. Those who produce racing programmes seem to have forgotten that the horses are the stars of the show, not the hapless presenters.
ITV were on a dummy run yesterday at Cheltenham, they made a cringeworthy attempt of changing the winners’ presentation process with a ramp from the front up to the usual platform and replaced Charlie Parkin with John McDoanld (who apparently is the caller for Darts & Boxing ?) calling the connections up. Highly embarrassing.
ITV were on a dummy run yesterday at Cheltenham, they made a cringeworthy attempt of changing the winners’ presentation process with a ramp from the front up to the usual platform and replaced Charlie Parkin with John McDoanld (who apparently is the caller for Darts & Boxing ?) calling the connections up. Highly embarrassing.
John McDonald? No, just no.
John McDoanld (who apparently is the caller for Darts & Boxing ?)
Yes, his main gig is being the MC for PDC darts. Also does some boxing and pops up elsewhere occasionally. Very good at what he does but can’t see it working with racing.
Oh dear, sounds like ITV are going to make a complete and utter bollocks of this.
The regular audience for terrestrial racing is surely 98% experienced punters. Not necessarily expert, but experienced enough not to need or want a darts/boxing type of presentation, or a massive team of presenters all vying to be the key ‘personality’.
If ITV could say with confidence that they know that say 25% of the audience every week were new to racing and it was worth trying a different approach to see if they could keep them, then fair enough (though I’d still mute/switch off). But I can see no way that this would be the case, and all they’re going to do is p1ss racing regulars off and drive them away.
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