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Classic stuff from the Channel 4 team this afternoon.
Jim McGrath to Dettori and Balding "He (Dettori) won the King George on Lammtarra , ’95?"
Dettori replied "’94"
Lammtarra won his three Group 1s in 1995.
Then McGrath says: "He beat a horse called Pentire who was a 4 year old…."
Dettori adds "he got 11lbs", and answers McGrath’s question about would he have beaten him without the weight advantage "No".
Pentire was a 3yo in 1995. The weight for age then, as it is now, was 12lbs (not 11lbs).
Balding failed to correct them.
How can the newbie’s they yearn to attract to racing take these people seriously when they cannot be trusted to explain the wfa scale without getting their example facts wrong.
You’d have thought someone in the production gallery would have known?
Haven’t watched it yet but from previous exchanges Dettori is sounding like a nightmare to work with as he makes a very unconvincing bid to become a star presenter……
Unwilling or unable to give his colleagues what they are after in terms of input..being Frankie Dettori will only take him so far but he needs to settle down and play ball.Dettori clearly has a self promoting for when he retires agenda here and it jars with the programme.
I’m almost thining bring back Willie Carson I say who had a winning way at being terrible without trying to make himself sound clever and something he wasn’t in the meantime.
You do need to forgive them the odd mistake, it’d be nigh on impossible to go through programme after programme discussing thousands of horses without the odd error. So long as it isn’t constant. I think the ex-jockeys turned commentators are the most likely group by some distance to get their facts wrong though.
Classic stuff from the Channel 4 team this afternoon.
Jim McGrath to Dettori and Balding "He (Dettori) won the King George on Lammtarra , ’95?"
Dettori replied "’94"
Lammtarra won his three Group 1s in 1995.
Then McGrath says: "He beat a horse called Pentire who was a 4 year old…."
Dettori adds "he got 11lbs", and answers McGrath’s question about would he have beaten him without the weight advantage "No".
Pentire was a 3yo in 1995. The weight for age then, as it is now, was 12lbs (not 11lbs).
Balding failed to correct them.
How can the newbie’s they yearn to attract to racing take these people seriously when they cannot be trusted to explain the wfa scale without getting their example facts wrong.
You’d have thought someone in the production gallery would have known?
Your rage is palpable, but explaining that lot to a newbie…..?
Tbh, mego sometimes – and I love racing. Discussions like the above about races held twenty years ago are more likely to alienate rather than engage newcomers.Imho.
So A.P after racing this evening nominated Clare Balding and Frankie for this ice nomination bull that seems to be the latest craze.
I don’t know if Clare will do it but i can safely say we’ll have to spend plenty of time tomorrow listening to Frankie playing up to the camera before finally succumbing and doing it after someone twists his arm
You do need to forgive them the odd mistake, it’d be nigh on impossible to go through programme after programme discussing thousands of horses without the odd error. So long as it isn’t constant. I think the ex-jockeys turned commentators are the most likely group by some distance to get their facts wrong though.
I take your point, but Lammtarra retired unbeaten becoming only the second horse after Mill Reef to win the Derby, King George and Arc. He is hardly a horse who can be lost among the thousands you describe.
You could forgive the ATR mob making a cock up like this but Channel 4 is the shop window for racing and has made an inauspicious start with ratings dropping to all time lows. If their chief expert cannot get his facts right, and worse still the supporting team are unable to highlight the error then surely something is seriously wrong.
I always say if you haven’t done your research and don’t feel confident about a subject then steer clear of it. I cannot imagine they suddenly decided on air to provide an explanation of the wfa scale. They must have agreed it in the pre-production meetings. So how long would it have taken the researchers to check the facts prior to allowing the shambles to ensue.
Discussions about races held twenty years ago shouldn’t alienate anybody provided they are being used correctly to demonstrate a point. Used inaccurately would simply confuse anybody trying to get into the game.
I was away for the King George and just watched the Sky + recording. Oh dear, the mistakes seem to be spreading.
Simon Holt in the immediate aftermath of Taghrooda’s win: "the first filly since Time Charter to win this Group 1 prize..". Danedream was in fact the last filly to win the KG in 2012.
Danedream is the only filly ever to win the King George and the Arc and with her achievement being so recent Holt’s error is all the more grating.
Again in the heat of live TV mistakes are to be expected, but a stat like that should have been sorted in his mind well before going on air, with Taghrooda having figured so prominently in the betting in the weeks leading up to the race.
I was a huge fan of tthe horses run by the wraggs and saw teenoso win the derby. Backed both the first and second and would have won a mint if carling ford castle(33-1) had won. For so called experts not to know pentires history or danedreams is poor to say the least. I’m a racing nut and wouldn’t get basics like that wrong. If your not sure of something don’t say anything. Matt chapman and the likes of Jason weaver would be much better heading channel 4 racing. I’d keep graham Cunningham but the rest I’m afraid are poor. They got rid of the wrong people and viewers have decided that by not watching.
I was away for the King George and just watched the Sky + recording. Oh dear, the mistakes seem to be spreading.
Simon Holt in the immediate aftermath of Taghrooda’s win: "the first filly since Time Charter to win this Group 1 prize..". Danedream was in fact the last filly to win the KG in 2012.
Danedream is the only filly ever to win the King George and the Arc and with her achievement being so recent Holt’s error is all the more grating.
Again in the heat of live TV mistakes are to be expected, but a stat like that should have been sorted in his mind well before going on air, with Taghrooda having figured so prominently in the betting in the weeks leading up to the race.
I’m sure he meant 3yo filly.
How can the newbie’s they yearn to attract to racing take these people seriously when they cannot be trusted to explain the wfa scale without getting their example facts wrong.
I doubt if the accuracy (or otherwise) of the reporting of the WFA scale is a massive pull for newcomers.
Mike
I’m sure he meant 3yo filly.
Maybe, however Time Charter was a 4yo filly when she won the KG. The last 3yo filly winner prior to Taghrooda was Pawneese in 1976. The only other 3yo filly to take the prize was the great Dahlia.
Maybe I am being harsh, but to me these are basics and the lead commentator on the only terrestrial platform for the sport ought to be getting his basic facts right. Old school commentators like Sir Peter O’Sullevan would have done their homework. As somebody else mentioned McCririck used to rattle off stats for fun – whether they were his own one’s or provided for him is irrelevant. The fact is standards are dropping across all fronts on C4’s coverage.
I’m sure he meant 3yo filly.
Maybe, however Time Charter was a 4yo filly when she won the KG. The last 3yo filly winner prior to Taghrooda was Pawneese in 1976. The only other 3yo filly to take the prize was the great Dahlia.
While it’s true that this was an error, there is general confusion about the definition of a "filly" versus "mare"
Strictly speaking, a filly becomes a mare on her fourth birthday, but the racing industry confuses the issue by giving every horse an official birthday on January 1
In races like the KG, a "filly" should be a female horse receiving WFA (eg Pawneese and Taghrooda)
Time Charter and Danedream were actually mares, because they didn’t receive WFA, ie they were considered to be fully mature
But the racing industry still refers to them, incorrectly, as "fillies". Biologically, they were mares
Maybe I am being harsh, but to me these are basics and the lead commentator on the only terrestrial platform for the sport ought to be getting his basic facts right. Old school commentators like Sir Peter O’Sullevan would have done their homework. As somebody else mentioned McCririck used to rattle off stats for fun – whether they were his own one’s or provided for him is irrelevant. The fact is standards are dropping across all fronts on C4’s coverage.
That’s a very good point ivanjica, you can’t beat preparation and homework. Was it Gary Player who said "The harder I practice, the luckier I get"
While it is quite easy sometimes to get years mixed up I would have expect a "form guru" like McGrath to know off the top of his head without thinking Pentire was a 3 year old, if you don’t know look it up, especially if you’re going to make a point about it live on air.
He then proceeded to say "The big mistake some journalists make on this subject is ….."If you’re going to criticise others, best to get your bit right in the first place.
I was surprised how fingers and thumbs McGrath still was with that touch screen on the Morning Line today. If they’re going to persist with the screen why don’t they give the staff some intensive training on it? It looks quite amateurish and they’ve only been using it for 20 months
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