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"Liverpool are no threat, Rafa Benitez is a nobody and the club are twenty years behind Man Utd" – says Alex Ferguson.
we like listening to Simon Cowell telling us how the majority of the participants are talentless mugs.
I find the mean-spirited gracelessness prevalent in football, and Simon Cowell’s bullying, depressing phenomena. Please let’s not introduce them to racing.
Im not sure that this is so much of a case of rivalries within the sport as the relationship between the sport and its greatest contributors. The punters…
The journalists are the conduit between that… or should be
But its one way traffic. The Post was full of a virtual propaganda campaign on behalf of Mccoy yesterday with all and sundry telling us that "hes a great jockey and we should belt up". Where was the dissenting view?
Did every journalist think that Monty Panesar must play for england regardless and will they all trip out the party line that "hes a great bloke blah blah"?
The whole attitude was summed up by Ted Walshs response to Macs querying (rightly i thought) of certain rides on the (generally awful) Morning line the other week
It was "fck off punters, how many winners have you ridden"
I find the mean-spirited gracelessness prevalent in football, and Simon Cowell’s bullying, depressing phenomena. Please let’s not introduce them to racing.
Seconded.
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 Racing needs to go to those lengths and no-one is suggesting anyone bullies anyone else or acts in a graceless manner. All one would ask is that, where appropriate, people within the sport are allowed to criticise and be criticized.
The point is, Racing and its media will go
out of its way
to avoid controversy – something that would be a completely alien concept in most other (popular) sports.
- Total Posts 17716
The point is, Racing and its media will go
out of its way
to avoid controversy – something that would be a completely alien concept in most other (popular) sports.
Precisely. That’s why some of us prefer it.
Somewhat ironic coming from you Pinza….
As someone who deals in it yourself, I would have thought you would be a supporter of reasoned and well directed criticism, rather than the saccharine fluff we are constantly subjected to….
- Total Posts 17716
Somewhat ironic coming from you Pinza….
I bow to your gracious comment.
As someone who deals in it yourself, I would have thought you would be a supporter of reasoned and well directed criticism, rather than the saccharine fluff we are constantly subjected to….
Reasoned Criticism
bears the same relationship to
Media Controversy
, as the Papal Conclave does to a Chimps’ Tea Party.
One’s faith is sometimes shaken; but what’s pleasant about Racing compared to the sporting ruck is the civilized and intelligent manner in which debate is
usually
conducted.
I’m all over the place on this subject. I happen to think our media are just about the worst single category of evil-doers in the country. Well, it really means their owners, since the journalists know what side their breads buttered. And yet, the villainy and prurience they manage to dig up, often on probably quite innocent individuals can make hilarious reading – in a nasty, envious, rancorous sort of way!
Beaverbrook apparently told his editors to always address their readers as if they were a class above their actual socio-economic status. A bit on American lines. If your not loaded, and your not homeless, you’re middle class. But of course the media’s titillation of the worst side of our nature extends over a vast field – I’m not talking about truculently-expressed controversies, here, which are and should be meat and drink in some contexts, such as politics and religion, where so much is at stake.
Considering how truculent I am in political and religious forums, I suppose it seems strange that I’d far prefer racing coverage to stay the same: usually quite anodyne and polite. It’s the betting that interests me, and I’m quite content with the rest.
Interesting about the jockeys routinely risking life and limb – literally. The harder the sport, generally, it seems, the better the camaraderie – and the humour and high spirits. Blokes express affection by taking the **** out of each other. Try it with a girl and she’ll think you’re being catty! Although Hayley Turner is obviously wise to Jason’s ribbing.
Still, each one to his own. That’s just the way my temperament filters thangs.
Great post, Grimes. Not often we see you this far north.
Whatever happened to the likes of Bob Seiver, the Australian who used to rip the kettle hiss out of the rich racehorse owners of the early twentieth. He was about as popular as smallpox with the aristocracy and the establishment but the masses loved him.
Is there an equivalent today? Peter Thomas (deservedly?), smashed up the Aga Khan three years ago and was forced into a humiliating retraction by the French-based Ayatollah’s heavyweight silks. Maybe satire and bite is just not possible nowadays.
Thank you, Maxilon. I’m in Auld Reekie, ye ken? Isn’t that far enough North? I’ve probably not got the gist of that comment.
That Bob Seivert sounds a terrific character. I can imagine him dismissing his patrician adversaries with my favourite Aussie saying: "S*d ’em all bar six. I’ll keep them for pall-bearers!"
He also reminds me of that incident in the desert in North Africa. Monty was chatting with the Kiwi general, Freiberg, when a small group of ANZACS strolled by, not far away. Monty asked Freiberg, "Don’t your men salute officers?"
"Oh, they’re OK, Freiberg replied, "If you wave at them, they’ll wave back…".
… and how about this for Aussie lese-majeste, from Barry Humphries biography, Max?
"When Laurence Olivier, not then knighted, and his wife Vivien Leigh were touring Australia in 1948 the Lord Mayor of Sydney, at an official reception, introduced them as ‘Sir Oliver and Lady Leigh’. When told the actors had been slightly miffed by this imaginative transposition of their names, the Mayor had merely shrugged affably and said, ‘****, you can’t win ’em all.’"
reasoned and well directed criticism
This is moving the goalposts slightly from ‘verbal warfare’ isn’t it.
Grimes,
Great stories. You’ve got to love the Aussies. I was reading a blog last night with the Top Fifty gamblers as viewed by an antipodean. There wasn’t a single British or Irish punter in his gilded roll of honour. No JP, no Mick Buckley, Patrick Veitch; no Nevvo, no Harry Findus. You get the impression they don’t really respect us all that much. And by north, I meant your infrequent visits to this part of the forum. I am a mere southerner in real life by comparison.On Topic: Didn’t Charlie Mann called Martin Pipe a cheating canute in the winners enclosure at Ascot one afternoon, after a certainty of his was destroyed by one of the Pond House massive in a novice hurdle? That was hushed up, if I remember correctly.
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… and how about this for Aussie lese-majeste, from Barry Humphries biography, Max?
"When Laurence Olivier, not then knighted, and his wife Vivien Leigh were touring Australia in 1948 the Lord Mayor of Sydney, at an official reception, introduced them as ‘Sir Oliver and Lady Leigh’. When told the actors had been slightly miffed by this imaginative transposition of their names, the Mayor had merely shrugged affably and said, ‘[expletive], you can’t win ’em all.’"
Sorry to rain on Mr Humphries’ parade, but in the interests of accuracy I’ll have to issue his story with a minor yellow card. Olivier was knighted in 1947, so by the time of his 1948 Australian tour the Mayor was at least getting that bit right! The tour (to raise funds for the restoration of London’s Old Vic) was a huge success, but the punishing 6-month schedule led to the couple’s exhaustion and the beginning of the Leigh’s depression which eventually finished off their marriage.
To a certain extent I agree with the thread starter that Racing could improve its media profile with a gool old barney between stables or jockeys but racing isnt as tribalistic as football or boxing. The audience is entirley different to that of a football match where punters will shout there horse home along with a few thousand others but theres gonna be another 50,000 shouting for another 10.
Win or lose the crowds gonna be philosphical and appreciative compared with rivalries between two opponents.Racings a tough sport with some tougher characters
in it but footballs a 90 minute game seperated by two benches around 15 other staff members. Who’s going to kick off? They are in effect protected by cotton wool and can say what they want and know theres not gonna be any violence. Trainers and owners are there 7-8 hours in a stable, grandstand or paddock 7 days a week and the chance to have a ruck is far more likely should the fighting talk get a bit juicy.If theres gonna be rivalry I’d want real rivalry like Benitez and Ferguson and not like the WWF.
Alex Fergusons like a pussycat on the race track calmed down by osmosis from his surroundings and enjoyment of the sport.
Trainers and jockeys only seem to fall out with people on the periphery of the sport like the hacks or TV presenters and dont appear to fall out with other trainers because of the carmaderie. Its a somewhat insular sport in that respect I geuss.Then there is the famous story of Ian Botham who replied to the obnoxious question of the Australian Immigration officer who inquired if he had a criminal record? I did not know you still needed one.
When Australia won the America’s Cup a mood of celebration spread across the country and the then Australian PM Bob Hawke proclaimed to the nation: “Any boss that don’t give a bloke a day off to have a drink and celebrate – is a bum”
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/BobHawke%28cropped%29.jpg/225px-BobHawke%28cropped%29.jpg
What A Top Bloke
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