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Can’t say I’d be surprised by his move, given that RUK will have all the Scottish racing now.
Tommo’s likely to be one to take over some of the commentary work I would think.
We should start a thread on "faces of racing and their chosen olympic sport to cover".
Emma Spencer – Beach Volleyball
Do you mean Emma presenting coverage of beach volleyball or taking part in it?
I could see the Pouting Heiress striding around on the beach in her skimpies. The sight of those slender flamingo legs would prove a real treat for some, I am sure.
She would have to be extra careful there was no repetition of the time she accidentally lost her drawers when she was interviewing the winning jockey returning to the unsaddling enclosure.
I did read somewhere recently that the humourless harpies in charge of the sport have banned the women competitors from wearing their skimpy costumes, so as not to "give offence" to countries which are used to women dressing more modestly. Viewing figures will certainly plunge, even if the swim costumes don’t.
Before anyone says anything, I am not making any special requests to the Olympic committee for Tanya Stevenson to be allowed to be part of the beach volleyball team (or John Hunt, for that matter, Dave!)Can’t say I’d be surprised by his move, given that RUK will have all the Scottish racing now.
Tommo’s likely to be one to take over some of the commentary work I would think.
That wouldnt be out of the question Tommo covering the Northern tracks for ATR. Definetly already a familiar face around here as a preferred commentator at Newcastle and a regular at Sedgefield/Hexham. Im sure theirs life in the old Tommo yet!!!
There won’t be if the Racetech axe falls on him at the end of June, remember. Very real possibility of that happening.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
There won’t be if the Racetech axe falls on him at the end of June, remember. Very real possibility of that happening.
gc
We are getting our wires in a tangle Jeremy, I meant covering the ATR northern coverage as a presenter, not in the commentary box. U get that big fella!!
Racing UK have just signed the rights for Kelso, Perth and Exeter.
Given he does mainly the northern tracks, the monopoly of Musselburgh, Kelso, Ayr and Perth. Would make sense.
We are getting our wires in a tangle Jeremy, I meant covering the ATR northern coverage as a presenter, not in the commentary box. U get that big fella!!
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I don’t think judging by the intense rivalary that there is between the two channels they will share a presenter.
I really wish the two channels would grow up a bit and work together instead of this constant them and us "the other channel" attitude.
I don’t see why both channels cannot show highlights or clips of horses what harm does it do really?
They are both on air for the same reason to support racing.
I agree with your last two paragraphs – imagine the sort of video archive the two jointly possess and we are being deprived of it, save a few great guys on Youtube who have posted their private video collections.
The problem seems to lie with SIS being owned by bookmakers, who were up in arms when the SIS monopoly was broken by Turf TV, thereby increasing the cost to bookmakers of showing live pictures.
SIS produce ATR and pretty much staff it as well (presenters such as Darrell Williams and Gary Selby for instance also present for SIS) so you can see the link between SIS and ATR is strong, which probably drives the animosity. But totally agree with you, they should get over it and work in harmony to give fans of the sport a much deeper access to the archives.
There won’t be if the Racetech axe falls on him at the end of June, remember. Very real possibility of that happening.
gc
By that do you mean he is being dumped off the course commentator roster? Thats sad as I actually think he is very good at race calling.
I seem to recall reading something about Aussie Jim McGrath and Darren Owen being under review as well, but that may have just been with regard to their BBC work, which is of course all academic now.
I don’t think judging by the intense rivalary that there is between the two channels they will share a presenter.
I really wish the two channels would grow up a bit and work together instead of this constant them and us "the other channel" attitude.
I don’t see why both channels cannot show highlights or clips of horses what harm does it do really?
They are both on air for the same reason to support racing.
I agree with your last two paragraphs – imagine the sort of video archive the two jointly possess and we are being deprived of it, save a few great guys on Youtube who have posted their private video collections.
The problem seems to lie with SIS being owned by bookmakers, who were up in arms when the SIS monopoly was broken by Turf TV, thereby increasing the cost to bookmakers of showing live pictures.
SIS produce ATR and pretty much staff it as well (presenters such as Darrell Williams and Gary Selby for instance also present for SIS) so you can see the link between SIS and ATR is strong, which probably drives the animosity. But totally agree with you, they should get over it and work in harmony to give fans of the sport a much deeper access to the archives.
To be honest the issues were there long before Turf TV came along ever since atr1 went off air and the two channels started they have been snobs with each other, all the ex-atr1 presenters like McNae, Willoghby, Hislop, Mark Johnson and Luck do not want reminding they ever worked for the other channel.
Racing UK knows it has the best raceourses and probably thinks it doesn’t need the highlights from "other channel".
It always seems to me like the posh boys work and like Racing UK and the lower classes want atr.
ATR is the punters friend with your "pub mates" like Luke Harvey and Jason Weaver having a laugh and Racing UK would take you to a posh restaurant with some wine and maybe a trip to the theatre.
Maybe this is why the two don’t work together well.
I am always surprised Racing UK didn’t go for Irish Racing but they tried American and it failed they got rights to South African and never showed very much.
Remember when Racing UK financially supported Channel Four Racing a few years ago Channel Four never even dared mention ATR unless it was unavoidable.
Yes, RUK do adopt a superior style. And yet we saw with yesterdays John Dunlop biog that one of their lead presenters "forgot" that Belmez won the 1990 KG (actually JD forgot but Lydia Hislop was unable to remind him) and she also did not know who Ron Hutchinson was (JDs Australian stable jockey who steered the likes of Scottish Rifle and Intermezzo to success at the highest level. Nothing like doing your research. Surprised RUK didn’t edit those bits out, I certainly would have done.
Remember when Racing UK financially supported Channel Four Racing a few years ago Channel Four never even dared mention ATR unless it was unavoidable.
Yes, it was very noticeable at the time that Channel 4 would see hell freeze over rather than mention anything to do with At The Races or show any race that had been covered on ATR and which would require a credit to ATR.
Eventually, we did see the "courtesy of At The Races" credit showing and now, of course, the end credits include "special thanks" to ATR and RUK.
It was also interesting a few years ago that Channel 4 were even prepared to show old clips of BBC racing from the Cheltenham Festival, complete with Sir Peter O’Sullevan’s commentaries, instead of his commentaries being replaced by one of the team talking over it.
Channel 4 also relaxed its stance over allowing Ian Bartlett’s course commentaries to be used on their programmes, even though he was a BBC commentator and analyst. I suspect it was because Bartlett was on the BBC so little with the cutbacks in BBC racing that it was hardly worth making a fuss over not using a BBC man, just to make a point.
Channel 4 did, however, feel one day that it couldn’t allow Jim McGrath’s course commentary for one race at Hereford to be used on the Channel 4 programme. Simon Holt, who was the anchor for the programme that day, was forced to do the Hereford race commentary from the monitor instead of us having Jim on Channel 4. A fine job he did, as well, I remember.
I gave Channel 4 a black mark once, however, when on one occasion it used the closing stages of Raleigh Gilbert’s course commentary on the New Year’s Day Hurdle at Windsor when showing a clip of the race and then, the next time the race was shown during some preview, they had needlessly got Graham Goode to dub it over with his inferior commentary. I couldn’t see the point as Raleigh’s commentary was perfectly good and he had been a long-standing member of the Channel 4 team.
If it had been someone like, for example, John Hickman, you could have understood Channel 4 dubbing over its own commentary for the sake of uniformity, if nothing else.Remember as well at the time McCririck, Tommo and Cattermole were under threat on Ch4 because they worked for ATR and the contracts were specific about working for "the other channel".
I think gorden brown should cover the irish meetings, the ones not covered by RUK and ATR. I think he is just right for the part.
Doing Sedgefield today so either the Racing UK tv guide is wrong or he is doing the freelance for both channels which would be a first I think don’t know any other presenters who work on both.
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