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I think Sir Robert Cooper is the most irritating man in racing with his annoying habit of creepily butting into trainers/owners private conversatons and asking the most stupid questions
( they rightly seem to address him as a figure of fun)
He’s some way to go to be in the Persad/Tommo class admittedly but in fact he’s done 2 or 3 excellent interviews at the track this week, Richard Rowe at Folkestone was very good.
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Mr Cooper is a highly professional, understated linkman and polite interviewer, one of the National Treasures of Racing. Makes listening and viewing a pleasure.
But, dear MNB555 (welcome), we’ve done this topic to death many times before….
If by highly professional you mean turns up and reads the spotlights of the racing post, then I couldn’t agree more.
If I were to criticise ATR it wouldn’t be because of the bloaty one’s interviewing style. It would be the numerous annoying ads that tell you how and where to sell your car for the lowest price possible to fund your next bet.
They are unethical in the extreme.Watching Channel 4’s interview with Hen Knight, Alice got nothing about where Somersby was likely to go. Yet on ATR with Sir Bob she said they favour the Champion Chase.
Sir Bob comes accross as a bumbling idiot, but I quite like his self deprocating style. He should not be seen as a racing tipster or paddock expert, just a racing presenter.
Value Is Everything- Total Posts 17716
Well put, Ginger: by not pushing and remaining friendly, he quite regularly gets interviewees to reveal considerably
more
than some of his flashier colleagues.
And as for Mr Johnson’s snide remarks about reading out Racing Post’s spotlights, as Ginger has pointed out Robert Cooper is not a paddock pundit or betting expert, but a presenter-interviewer and link man.
In any case, he could do worse: he could be reading out Timeform comments!
I don’t expect anyone to be a ‘paddock pundit or betting expert’. However it would add to ATR’s coverage if all of their presenters did the research and had the knowledge of the likes of Chapman and Boyce.
Agree it would be nice if ATR had more form experts, there is really only two at ATR who I listen to when it comes to form / betting talk. Boyce and Taylor. ATR need some more, RUK has plenty, like Mellish, Cunningham, Nevison, Neesome, Freemantle etc.
May be ATR need a David Johnson or TAPK?
But good racing presenters / interviewers also have their place.
Value Is EverythingI don’t think a comparison with someone like Alice Plunkett really stands up as ‘evidence’ that Cooper is any good.
Yes, trainers and jockeys probably love him because they know they are going to get the easiest ride possible.
Having said that none of ATR’s on-course presenters are particularly informative or entertaining. They should kick out the dead wood and look around for some new faces, preferably not ex-jockeys.
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Robert Cooper brings nothing but bumbling buffoonery to ATR’s coverage, laying neither insight nor poise on the presenting table. Anyone watching racing for the first time would be forgiven for thinking ATR had been ‘caught short’ and had dragged someone out of the nearest retirement home. Indeed, I often get the impression ‘Sir Bob’ is happy just to have remembered to have put his trousers on before leaving the house.
If he’s on, I switch off.
But he’s not alone. Mick Fitzgerald is adept only at napping 4/6 shots that invariably get beaten and is remarkably awkward when tasked with interviewing trainers and jockeys: the questions just don’t come quickly enough and, at times, it’s painful to watch. Jason ‘The Shark’ Weaver would be tolerable were he to update his book of racing cliches, but the Harvey Combination make taking a power sander to the scrotum look inviting.
I’d quite happily run the channel around the knowledgeable pair of Chapman and Boyce and clear the rest – including Gordon ‘I’ve Heard A Whisper About Every Runner On The Card’ Brown, Mike Cattermole and Simon ‘I’m Going To Pick Half The Field’ Mapletoft – out.
Does anyone know what Hugh Taylor does aside from providing a tipping column for ATR’s website? Obviously he makes a couple of appearances during the week, but what is his ‘day job’?
[quote="Armchair Jockey"
Does anyone know what Hugh Taylor does aside from providing a tipping column for ATR’s website? Obviously he makes a couple of appearances during the week, but what is his ‘day job’?Gambler!
Value Is Everything
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