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John McCririck has claimed in a pre case hearing that he has been made unemployable by Channel 4 and has no work coming in… now surely he has ATR, they have employed him since he appeared on the first show from Southwell when the channel relaunched so why has he disappeared from this channel?
He has done Windsor Monday evenings every year for the channel except this year so have ATR dropped him, if so will he take action against them?
Has Big Mac deliberately not taken any offers from ATR so he can claim he has no work?
It is all a bit strange you would have thought ATR would happily have had the eccentric Big Mac and used him.
He was the Sunday morning forum…. Matt taking the micky about the case which he quickly brushed off.
Barney Curley nailed it:
"Everyone thinks I hate him, I admire him. He made a lot of money for a man who knows nothing about racing."
Barney Curley nailed it:
"Everyone thinks I hate him, I admire him. He made a lot of money for a man who knows nothing about racing."
I think thats grossly unfair. Whether you like him or not, Mac knows his racing alright, and was / is one of the few who bang the punters drum.
So of course, someone such as Curley (widely respected for having his horses run on their merits time after time of course!) would take cheap pops whenever they could.
Barney Curley nailed it:
"Everyone thinks I hate him, I admire him. He made a lot of money for a man who knows nothing about racing."
I think thats grossly unfair. Whether you like him or not, Mac knows his racing alright, and was / is one of the few who bang the punters drum.
So of course, someone such as Curley (widely respected for having his horses run on their merits time after time of course!) would take cheap pops whenever they could.
Too right pot calling black Mr Curley
I for one find him good viewing, very knowledgable and a great character – it’s a crying shame he feels he needs to go to these lengths in a court case which clearly has no grounds.
John McCririck is very knowledgeable about horse racing. His on screen bombastic and OTT delivery should not detract from this.
I was a fan for many years. His eccentric manner may have been very different from the more staid approach of Jim McGrath or Lord Oaksey, but he was good entertainment nevertheless – and knew his stuff, regardless of what his detractors think.
However, in recent years it has become all too evident that Big Mac’s appeal has grown stale – along with his over sized underpants.
He had become a caricature of his former self; the self deprecation and feigned indignation of past was replaced by a more visibly irritable, and dare I say, obnoxious, old man.
I think he should have went gracefully – like Francome and Thommo.
Does he really want his old job back – or is he really hoping that m’lud gives the go ahead for a £3m windfall to be deposited into his bank account.
I think the latter – and besides, who’d really want to return to a place which has changed and doesn’t really want you anyway ?
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
He might know about betting, about gossip and scams and what some see as entertaining stories. How much does he know about conformation, breeding, the temperament of thorougbreds, how to get them fit and mentally ready?
I’d say Mr Curley and very many others who are paid much less then McCririck know a hell of a lot more about racing than he does.
His brag and bluster is of course meant to fool people into believing he is some racing guru – he’s far from it imo.
He polarizes opinion; fine. Mine is that his buffoonery, rudeness, sexism and general boorishness has done racing’s image much more damage than good.
Steeplechasing, I’m interested in what perception people have of Barney Curley.
If we take the case of Sommersturm as an example, Curley bought a horse rated 85 and brought him down to 48 before he won with him. He won only once while in the Curley stable, and ran umpteen times.
Since the horse moved to Dave Evans, he has won three times in a few months, and his rating is now 75.
Even allowing for the gambling element, what are we to make of Sommersturm’s time at Newmarket?
Barney Curley is without doubt a good man (witness his work in Africa) but was he a good trainer?
I agree with your summary of John McCririck though.Steeplechasing, I’m interested in what perception people have of Barney Curley.
If we take the case of Sommersturm as an example, Curley bought a horse rated 85 and brought him down to 48 before he won with him. He won only once while in the Curley stable, and ran umpteen times.
Since the horse moved to Dave Evans, he has won three times in a few months, and his rating is now 75.
Even allowing for the gambling element, what are we to make of Sommersturm’s time at Newmarket?
Barney Curley is without doubt a good man (witness his work in Africa) but was he a good trainer?
I agree with your summary of John McCririck though.I know little about Mr Curley other than the fact he dislikes the ‘establishment’ and is pretty good at landing coups. I suspect his record as a trainer could not be judged on strike rates and such, as almost everything he did appeared to be geared toward setting up and bringing off gambles.
Here;s a piece by Greg Wood http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/ma … ney-curley
Barney Curley said that the annual Champion Trainer award should not be based on total prize money or total number of wins. It should be based on the trainer’s strike rate when the stable money is down! A novel idea there.
It is sad to see John McCririck embarrassing himself like this, though. He is going to finish up even further out of pocket with the legal fees and possible counter action from Channel 4.
McCririck understands little about betting or racing.
He does mug up on the superficial details to try and impress the mug type fans.
His posture to be on the side of the punter is merely an act of pure self publicity whilst taking the bookmakers shilling for opening shop after shop. He fools fools.Barney Curley and Martin Pipe are two of the best trainers UK has had in decades. They both had the only skill that matters – knowing when a horse would win and putting the maximum money down. Incidentally both were self taught which does not say much for the rest.
I think the pressures of the last few months are starting to show:
I think the pressures of the last few months are starting to show:
I hate to say it but he is now getting beyond a joke – he should be quietly put out to pasture.
I think the pressures of the last few months are starting to show:
That’s a distressing photo, as a better case-study of Clinical Depression would be hard to imagine; and if that picture does indeed paint those terrifying Two Words then we should all put personal feelings aside to sympathise with the man, fear for his well-being and hope that he gets psychiatric help
one-in-four
I still can’t believe that, at the age of 72 and now 73, McCririck doesn’t have the self-awareness to realise that he has had a very good innings on television.
His increasingly faltering, shaking, trembly-voiced and bumbling performances only added to the impression that it was time to go with good grace.
But he doesn’t do anything graciously.
From sitting silently (away from the cameras) ignoring everyone, brooding away and puffing selfishly on his big cigars in small rooms with other people in them, to his utterly graceless reaction when he was voted off on the Weakest Link, when he launched a tirade of totally unnecessary, humourless, nasty and personal abuse against Anne Robinson, he has shown what a bad loser he is.
Instead of taking a leaf out of Mike Cattermole’s book and accepting the end of his time with Channel 4 as one of those things that happens when you have the lucrative financial advantages of working as a freelance, he and The Booby made a series of very unpleasant outbursts over the ending of his time on Channel 4.
He wasn’t employed by Channel 4 directly. He was a contributing freelance and was no doubt officially on the books of production company Highflyer.
I was really surprised they let Catt go, because he was one of the most professional presenters on C4 racing, even if him and Emma had become a bit cringe-worthy to watch. When on his own he was very good.
Does anybody know just what losses the £3 million claim consists of? Surely not loss of earnings to that extent?
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