Observations on At The Races

[phil walker]

Gary O’Brien – I’ve heard him commentate a few times on Irish racing over the past couple of weeks and he sounds great. Is he a replacement for Des Scahill or has he been calling races for a long time? Also is there any news about him moving to Racing UK (Racing TV) from next year?

Hayley Moore – I’m not sure what relation she is in the Moore family but in my opinion she’s not a star, making silly mistakes during the early races at Chepstow. She sounds as exciting as Ryan.

Robert Cooper – I’m not his biggest fan but I thought he was excellent at Chepstow yesterday, giving it that extra bit of oomph to the traditional start of the jumps season. It’s a real shame the BBC no longer show races such as the Mercedez Benz Chase from yesteryear, and if ITV could ignore their obsession with the flat they could have fitted in one or two of the top races from Chepstow’s two day card.

John Hunt – I’m really surprised he turned down working on ITV. I understand that he gets to commentate on different sports on Radio 5 Live but he’s lost working on ATR unless he’s going to be one of the main hosts of Sky Sports Racing?

[runandskip84]

Agree with you Phill about ITVs flat obsession,it’s like they are stuck in the 80s.
As for ATR,it’s cheap & cheerful with its grainy pictures and going for adverts just before big races but hopefully will be better on sky next year when it will be in HD and no Irish racing getting in the way.

[Gingertipster]

It was Future Champions Day, fellas.

I don’t think it’s fair to say ITV have an obsession with Flat racing. Might seem at times ITV favour flat, but there are also times when Flat racing appears pushed aside. imo We need to ask ourselves whether it is our own personal bias towards Jumps or Flat that’s skewing our view of racing, rather than ITV’s choice.

Am equally a fan of both Flat and Jump racing and used to love the Mercedes Benz Chase too in its 80’s guise. There is no Merc Benz Chase anymore.

When I were a la-a-a-d there were two terrestrial channels showing horse racing, no ATR and no RUK. If memory serves me right, way back when BBC had Chepstow it was Channel 4 showing Newmarket… Have the two ever mixed? If so suspect the racing at Chepstow was of better quality than it was yesterday.

Value Is Everything

[steveh31]

I would be surprised if many of the presenters stay on Sky Sports Racing, certainly Weaver & Harvery won’t keep Friday nights now they have lost Dundalk & Chelmsford.

I think if Sky wants to stand out it will certainly not take on Cooper and a few others, they need to stand out from the crowd if they want to take the rights off itv in 2020 and get some courses back in a few years time.

I can see Alex Hammond getting a bigger role and to save money probably use Sky Sports presenters now they will be in Isleworth & not Milton Keynes.

Racing UK’s issue could be taking SIS as their providers considering the ridiculous picture quality at Hexham and Chepstow yesterday.

[phil walker]

Fair point Ginge, I am looking through rose-tinted spectacles of the Merdedez Benz at Chepstow, and for many years Newmarket which staged the Dubai Champion Stakes and Ces shared coverage with the other much-missed race the Charisma Gold Cup at Kempton Park.

I also admit a jumps bias, apart from the Ces I deliberately avoided the rest of the future champions meeting and find Champions day at Ascot a total bore. Considering all the rain that has fallen in the south of the country over the past few days, I hope that they don’t ruin the hurdle course by switching the races to that course instead!

___________________

In response to Steve’s point I wonder if Mike Cattermole might be one of the main presenters on Sky Sports Racing alongside Alex Hammond, considering how often I see him presenting the sport on Sky News?

[Austin]

Think everyone has their own preference phil and its not the fault of ITV. I personally prefer flat racing more and take a break from racing during winter jump season. For me, racing starts from Lincoln Handicap and ends with racing post trophy. During winter, I only watch big international races like Melbourne cup, Breeders cup, Dubai WC etc but dont gamble. Not a fan of all weather racing either. But ITV gives equal importance to both flat and jump season. Their coverage of Cheltenham and Grand national was pretty good last year.

[wordfromthewise]

Hayley Moore is absolutely terrible………talk about phoning it in……doesn’t seem the slightest bit interested .
Particularly lifeless doing the US racing in the evening.Not good.

[Author]

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