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Not that long ago Mick Fitzgerald put it to Jim McGrath that sprinter Orion’s Bow had gone up the handicap 36 lbs since the start of the season and was, therefore, a six lengths better horse than he had been. Jimbo was wide-eyed before stating that it was actually more like 10 to 12 lengths better.
It would help if they keep Mick to the jumps but I find him a really hard listen and he just doesn’t seem clued up on Flat Racing at all.
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
If they are looking to target a new audience I suggest that them picking Mick that they are looking to attract a similar audience as that of antiques roadshow, songs of praise and the Waltons…..ZZZZZZZZzzzzzz
Blackbeard to conquer the World
Joke he knows diddly squat about flat racing as’well as A-P! Hearing Ap on willihill radio is unbearable when his talking about flat racing
They might as well go all out for complete viewership suicide and get Colin Jackson, Sally Gunnell and Michael Owen to join Fitzy and push us all off the edge.
Viewers would be down to single figures after 3 races.Seeing is believing.
Matt Dawson to return…do you think they should? Or did I only dream he was once on Ch4 racing (nightmare)
I sort of believe reincarnation and karma, Mick Fitz. must have been boiled alive somewhere in his past to be given so many strokes of fortune this time around.
I just don’t see what he offers the racing viewer so maybe he caught someone burying someone along the way as that’s all i can come up with.Haven’t they realised that it’s down to having the likes of Fitzgerald on that the viewing figures have gone down so much ?
What is the point of having a new channel if you’re just repeating the same old rubbish on it ?Poor old Mick, friendless in this world of critics.
As a broadcaster, I think he’s improved two stones since he started. He’s almost always comfortable and confident when they cut to him (he has the odd blip as they all do, even Clare). He’s lost that early rabbit in the headlights look and concentrates much more on his interviewee and encourages responses.
Although talkative by nature, he seems to me more thoughtful these days about what he says – which is where he seems to come in for most flak. But what do people want from him? He can’t be insightful and incisive about every horse; he talks about dozens of them every day. They each have a head and a tail and a jockey and form which is usually not dissimilar to everything else in the race. He’s not dissecting the plans for the Hadron Collider.
On a separate note, Nick Luck will be a huge loss, I think. His only failing seems to be in the eyes of class warriors for his appearance, accent and lucidity. He’ll be missed.
And, as Ivanjica mentioned earlier, it’s all heading south anyway. ITV’s four years will, I believe, be the swansong for racing as a terrestrially broadcast sport. It’ll end up having been on TV for about as long as I’ve been around, and maybe, like an old salmon coming home to die, ITV will prove a welcoming and appropriate final resting place.
It’s looking a truly underwhelming line-up and I’ll be surprised if ratings don’t plummet further, signalling the end of terrestrial coverage.
We will probably look back in a couple of years and rue the day that Channel 4 lost the rights.
Most non-racing people and probably many racing fans will never have heard of the main presenters. Rishi Persad and Mick Fitzgerald are proving to be the great survivors, making the transition from the BBC to Channel 4 to ITV.
Both have improved and I don’t mind either of them now. Mick always seems fluent, capable and knowledgable, able to pick out runners easily and confidently in things like the Grand National replays and is probably often criticised unjustifiably, no doubt often for the sin of being Irish.
Glad that the appalling Tanya Stevenson seems finally to have run out of luck, unless she becomes the latest drip-drip surprise announcement, but she has managed to get her finger in so many pies as a result of her Channel 4 ramblings that nobody should shed any tears for her.
Hayley Turner, with her glottal stops, bad grammar and inarticulate waffling, is a poor choice. Another reason for Emma Spencer to keep well away from her, although it doesn’t seem like the Pouting Heiress is joining the team at the moment.
All in all, it seems the new team will make the present Channel 4 line-up look positively scintillating. No doubt it will all prove a big disappointment and ITV will realise they have made a big mistake and that most people don’t give a hoot about racing. I hope I’m wrong but the omens aren’t good.
Mick Fitz = Fluent capable and knowledgeable?
Goodness me.
I have heard it all now.A cardboard cutout of a horse would be as fluent capable and knowledgeable.
Hope you are wrong CP but agree with most of what you say here, although I haven’t seen much of Hayley Turner to comment. Don’t mind Mick F, Rishi or Nick L but Tanya was embarrassing with her tongue tied garbage. Looks like, like Jamie Spencer, ITV have gone for a bit of younger stuff, if Emma doesn’t get a gig. Not sure how old Emma is but she’s still quite a fine sight. Just checked and she’s only 38. She seems to have been around for years. Hayley Turner does have the time to improve if she’s that bad.
Please not Mick Fitzgerald, his accent is so grating and he talks rubbish at times as well.
Poor old Mick, friendless in this world of critics.
On a separate note, Nick Luck will be a huge loss, I think. His only failing seems to be in the eyes of class warriors for his appearance, accent and lucidity. He’ll be missed.
How can he be friendless after your glowing appraisal? Unless of course you are trying to pretend that you are something a little bit better than a critic?
Is Luck retiring? Some people like him, others don’t. Painting those making the decision as to whether he is employed by ITV as class warriors is nothing short of pathetic.
Stilvi, if I’m to add modifiers to everything I write to satisfy you it would make pretty dire reading for everyone else.
Still, good to see you on your usual solid form. I believe you’ll remember Jeff King. They used to call him ‘the professional’s professional’. You are the curmudgeon’s curmudgeon.
We’ll have to accept what they give us and be grateful some free to air coverage continues. Let us hope that the cross pollination we`ve had to put up with regarding flat and jumps presentation is addressed. Even the BBC addressed the situation of having Jimmy Lindley casting his eye over the grand national field in the Aintree paddock (good though he was).The only presenters I’d miss from C4 are Nick Luck and Graham Cunningham. I think Fitzgerald, far from a vowel mangler, speaks good English. He’s lucky to have been taken on though. Steeplechasing mentioned Jeff King , a wonderful addition to the team he would have made.
To be honest I don’t see the point of watching channel four racing or itv anyway.
If I miss a race I’ll just watch it on sportinglife replays and most online bookmakers stream live racing.
Truth is none of these commercial tv companies really want to take risks as they are afraid of losing viewers. you see that with film studios now as they just pump out tired sequels of franchises that were never good in the first place, like Transformers or fast and furious, or some other garbage, as they know that way they are sure of getting bums on seats, which they can’t be sure of if they go with a completely fresh idea.
We are living in an increasingly risk-free world.
Most of these racing commentators and hangers on are gravy-trainers who do very little research. Just in it for the easy money.
To give you an example of that I am listening to the commentary from sporting life radio on a fillies maiden at Salisbury, and the commentator is describing each horse as a “HE”
Pathetic.
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