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If they don’t do something about it I will be disappearing ricky. It’ll be races only on BF and possibly a subscription to the archive. That would be a pity but there is very little for the racing enthusiast between races these days to justify the expense.
The annoying thing is there is so much scope for RUK. The product they deliver is very basic and far from being good enough considering the fact that they have a channel to themselves and all the time in the world. Basically all they offer is live racing and replays. That is nowhere near good enough. At least ATR do provide other programmes.
Each to their own, I suppose.
I think RUK do a pretty good job, and I’d much rather watch their coverage than ATR’s.
Give me Cunningham, Fremantle, Neesom or Mellish as experts, and Luck, Hislop or Hoiles as presenters any day over ATR’s gang of guessers.
Give me Cunningham, Fremantle, Neesom or Mellish as experts, and Luck, Hislop or Hoiles as presenters any day over ATR’s gang of guessers.
Trouble is we don’t get to hear him them or see the horses too much any more because the space between the races is filled up with absolute rubbish. I’m sick of paying good money to listen to frontmen from the bookmakers and watch continuous replays on what is supposed to be a live broadcast.
Put up a graphic at the end of racing with revised antepost prices if you have to.
I agree that smarmy bookmakers’ reps rarely offer anything of interest, and their increased presence on RUK is regrettable.
I emailed them about the same thing the other night. When they cover one meeting and fill the time in between races with repeated ‘filler’ it leads you to think that there is little point having presenters on track. A starting point would be to get rid of any racing replays during the live action or are they admitting that the presenters do not have the capability to fill 15-20 minutes between races with something that is worth watching.
Give me Cunningham, Fremantle, Neesom or Mellish as experts, and Luck, Hislop or Hoiles as presenters any day over ATR’s gang of guessers.
That may be so but the rest of the presentation is pretty poor, isn’t it for a pay channel.
Besides, I don’t watch racing tv for the opinion of these presenters. I want to see the horses and I want to hear the facts and the stats. For sixteen quid a month, that’s what I pay for.
Had Mr Clueless arrived at my house in time for an afternoon’s racing, we would visit a prominent high street bookmaker and listen to the opinion of the almost unknown Kel Mansfield who, to be frank, is light years ahead of any of the presenters you mention (and the ATR gang).
RUK really do need to float down from their cushioned cloud. They aren’t offering a service which can survive a credit crunch. Where do I start? I’ll keep this brief.
The festivals.
I was surprised last year at how late they start their festival coverage – 30 minutes to the first race. No "Get On". No Racing News. No sense of build up or occasion. No interviews with trainers. No betting forecasts. None of Fremantle’s opinions given in time to shape the market. Even the much-barracked Morning Line offer these services.
Without a shadow of a doubt, ATR hack all over RUK for context and build up.
For your RUK sixteen quid, you get the racing, a studio linkman, and a traditional Mike and Bernie Winters double act from the course. It’s all a bit, er, formula, a bit Sunday night at the London Palladium.
Why not do a Reality Competition with competitors drawn from subscribers.
The R-Factor
? Why not use a roving video camera? Like him or loathe him (and I know the answer on TRF), Thommo’s Winning Post experiments with the roaming video camera at Great Leighs on Thursday nights were a welcome innovation.
But will they? Evidence suggests not.
They have one of the best paddock watchers in the sport, and the hottest young tipping talent in racing waiting in the wings to join the team – and that’s where they stay!
All this strikes me of conservatism, safety, nepotism, a misguided focus on some
ersatz
showbiz chemistry – and good old fashioned nest feathering.
That said. ATR need to do some work. They have a superb analyst called Steven Milller who blew everyone away about five weeks ago on Stateside and he’s never been seen since. I have never seen a better presenter and tonight we’ve got Jason and Dale and really, it just isn’t worth watching.
I emailed them about the same thing the other night. When they cover one meeting and fill the time in between races with repeated ‘filler’ it leads you to think that there is little point having presenters on track. A starting point would be to get rid of any racing replays during the live action or are they admitting that the presenters do not have the capability to fill 15-20 minutes between races with something that is worth watching.
Don’t know if it is the Kempton Thursday show you’re expressly refering to, but if so I wonder if their comparatively late acqusition of a meeting originally programmed for ATR-covered Great Leighs might have had a bearing on how much they had prepared for the evening (or could muster at shortish notice).
I know they’ve tied down 15-minute intervals with live phone calls to the likes of Tom Segal on some weekday evenings, trying to tap him for weekend tips and the secrets of his success. Routinely planning to have one such character in reserve for all the quieter nights might be one way to go.
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 much prefer RUK to ATR – ATR is full of guff; I don’t want to see Matt Chapman shouting into the camera on another egotrip, I want to see racing replays and the racing!
In fairness to RUK, ATR hardly ever show horses in the paddock whereas RUK do tend to more often than their counterparts. They at least tend to show them going down whereas a lot of the time ATR switch straight to them at the post.
As has been said, the presenters and pundits on RUK are in a different league to those on ATR.
The ATR coverage form Folkestone today was a case in point. In the minutes leading up to the off-time of the bumper, they were pre-occupied with showing a telephone interview with someone (I clean forget who) about Cheltenham – they didn’t switch to Folkestone until 20 seconds before the off-time, when all the runners were already at post.
It was nearly as bad as the William Hill radio coverage before the hunter chase – two clowns messing about like 5 year olds, with the supposed expert pundit laughing himself silly whilst saying he couldn’t say anything at all about the race since he knew nothing at all about any of the runners – and the lead person pretty much agreeing! Then the pundit started banging on about how he’d be much more interested come the end of March when the flat season started – FFS! They could at the very least have given a rundown of the betting rather than behaving like complete and utter arses.
It was nearly as bad as the William Hill radio coverage before the hunter chase – two clowns messing about like 5 year olds, with the supposed expert pundit laughing himself silly whilst saying he couldn’t say anything at all about the race since he knew nothing at all about any of the runners – and the lead person pretty much agreeing! Then the pundit started banging on about how he’d be much more interested come the end of March when the flat season started – FFS! They could at the very least have given a rundown of the betting rather than behaving like complete and utter arses.
That’s the sort of behaviour that makes my blood boil, notwithstanding the fact I love my hunter chases.
I’m not familiar with messrs Aplin and Brierley, who appear to be the host and pundit in question. However, I would remind them that EVERY race on any given day means something to someone out there (even those at the lower end of the food chain such as classified stakes and hunter chases), and that they’re not being paid to belittle fans of those races by belittling the races themselves.
Disappointing.
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.
EVERY race on any given day means something to someone out there
Indeed.
Apparently some people out there even care about Nad Al F***ing Sheba.
come on now if it was not for nad al f***king sheba we would not all have seen our favourite horse ankable winning at last.
EVERY race on any given day means something to someone out there
Indeed.
Apparently some people out there even care about Nad Al F***ing Sheba.
Really? Ah well I suppose there are. Interests me about as much as syncronised swimming.
Bubbling up nicely towards World Cup Night, Archipenko tonight! Superb stuff for a Thursday in Feb
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