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its not often i feel the need to praise channel 4 racing these days but a big well done to them for making ayr the priority meeting yesterday.
of course ayr always had the day to itself until newbury arrived on ch4 and as its a flat meeting spring cup day took top billing despite the scottish national being far more valueble.
jumping is far more popular than flat racing nowadays so the flat should only hold sway from the guineas meeting when the jumping has finished.its not often i feel the need to praise channel 4 racing these days but a big well done to them for making ayr the priority meeting yesterday.
of course ayr always had the day to itself until newbury arrived on ch4 and as its a flat meeting spring cup day took top billing despite the scottish national being far more valueble.It’s always surprised me in the last few years that Channel 4’s coverage from the Scottish Grand National meeting has used the course commentary, not its own commentator.
Channel 4 also seem to have the same policy for the Ayr Gold Cup meeting on the Flat. You would think they would have their own commentator for these prestige meetings rather than just taking the course feed.
I know they have had to make cutbacks and the Ayr races aren’t absolutely top class but you would think these Ayr big meetings would take priority on those particular days.
I know some colleagues on this forum don’t see a problem in using the course commentary all the time, even for major festival days, but you can always tell the difference between a TV commentator and the course feed, not just in terms of sound quality, echoing and poor linking to the commentator at the beginning, but also often in its style and delivery. I accept that some viewers won’t be able to tell the difference and couldn’t care less whether it’s the course commentary or not.its not often i feel the need to praise channel 4 racing these days but a big well done to them for making ayr the priority meeting yesterday.
of course ayr always had the day to itself until newbury arrived on ch4 and as its a flat meeting spring cup day took top billing despite the scottish national being far more valueble.jumping is far more popular than flat racing nowadays so the flat should only hold sway from the guineas meeting when the jumping has finished
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No it’s not, jumping is the clique version of racing, being slightly more organised than PTP.
A quarter of this forum think the National should be scrapped and half of these think all jumps racing should be scrapped – imagine what the numbers would be on a forum that wasn’t for racing fans…
Yesterday, Channel 4 took Ian Bartlett’s commentary from Ayr, not for the first time.
Ummmm Barty was at Newbury, Simon was at Ayr.
Barty was only at Newbury as Richard, who was originally rostered to call there was doing Goodwood / RUK promotion in Jersey.
Yesterday, Channel 4 took Ian Bartlett’s commentary from Ayr, not for the first time.
Ummmm Barty was at Newbury, Simon was at Ayr, also doing the course commentary.
Barty was only at Newbury as Richard, who was originally rostered to call there was doing Goodwood / RUK promotion in Jersey.
Haven’t even seen the Ayr and Newbury coverage from Channel 4 yet and am looking forward to watching it but, the way things are going, it won’t be for about two weeks.
Have only just watched the last of the Aintree coverage yesterday and have still got the Channel 4 programmes from the last three Saturdays to watch. Just don’t seem to find the time….I was surprised by Alex the Salmon’s expert racing knowledge!
C4 made a good effort to make Scottish Grand National day seem a biggish deal which was nice for a Scot to see, because most southern broadcasters seem to think the North Sea starts around Nottingham.
Sorry, I realise how far into the North Sea Nottingham really is, make that Stevenage
To what extent did putting the big Channel 4 unit / Morning Line set north of York for the first time since the Morning Line was rebranded in January 2011 have anything to do with Highflyer’s impending bid to keep broadcasting horse racing coverage on Channel 4 beyond the end of this year? Even Simon Holt made the trip, albeit in his course commentator / C4 piggyback role.
Hitherto Northumberland Plate Day, Scots National and Ayr Gold Cup had been given the second meeting look in terms of cameras / presentation / Morning Line set up…
If Highflyer don’t get this contract, then almost everything is up for grabs in terms of presentation, commentary and format.
As the title of this thread is "well done C4", I really do think Channel 4 ought to be congratulated for showing races from Perth and Leicester in the next week.
Unexpected but welcome bonuses.
I love it when the smaller courses get a showing, even if it’s just one race. Channel 4 has got a long and commendable tradition of showing extra races from small courses.
Kelso springs to mind and, of course, when racing has been off in previous years, Southwell has been added to the menu. Small beer for some but all part of racing’s rich tapestry.its not often i feel the need to praise channel 4 racing these days but a big well done to them for making ayr the priority meeting yesterday.
of course ayr always had the day to itself until newbury arrived on ch4 and as its a flat meeting spring cup day took top billing despite the scottish national being far more valueble.It’s always surprised me in the last few years that Channel 4’s coverage from the Scottish Grand National meeting has used the course commentary, not its own commentator.
Channel 4 also seem to have the same policy for the Ayr Gold Cup meeting on the Flat. You would think they would have their own commentator for these prestige meetings rather than just taking the course feed.
I know they have had to make cutbacks and the Ayr races aren’t absolutely top class but you would think these Ayr big meetings would take priority on those particular days.
I know some colleagues on this forum don’t see a problem in using the course commentary all the time, even for major festival days, but you can always tell the difference between a TV commentator and the course feed, not just in terms of sound quality, echoing and poor linking to the commentator at the beginning, but also often in its style and delivery. I accept that some viewers won’t be able to tell the difference and couldn’t care less whether it’s the course commentary or not.They havent always used the course commentary Crusty, the collection of scottish Nationals on YT include John Penneys magical Moments from the 70s, GG calling over the top of Doug Fraser in the 80s/90s. Derek Thompson is used a couple of times 1985 C4 commentary, which sounds like the course commentary not ITV feed. Thommo was also the C4 commentator in the 2003 renewal, again at the expense of using Doug Frasers course work. Simon Holt and Richard Hoiles have farmed the C4 commentary for the last 10 years or so, bar Thommos 2003 stint. One year in my view was a very poor performance in Richard’s extremely high standards. Missed a lot of fallers.
I like it when they use the course commentary, as it gives other commentators exposure to ears that wouldnt normally hear them. Im looking forward to Iain’s work at Perth on Friday, It will be a professional as ever performance no doubt, every runner called in order, and showing a real interest in a job he is very good at. From the new recent additions only David Fitzgerald has impressed me, None of the others.
Dave
They havent always used the course commentary Crusty, the collection of scottish Nationals on YT include John Penneys magical Moments from the 70s
Absolutely right about John Penney. He was always the Mr Ayr of the ITV coverage. He did nearly all the Scottish Nationals in those days and it was very rare indeed that it wasn’t him.
So frequent were his Scottish trips that John Penney, then based at Saffron Walden in Essex, was actually the top man for the Scottish branch of the horse race writers for many years.
Even when he wasn’t commentating at Scottish courses, he was doing the close-up comments for the race reports from Scottish courses that appeared in the Sporting Life and elsewhere. He certainly must have clocked up some mileage going up and down to Scotland and other northern courses from Saffron Walden.
He did virtually every Ayr meeting, including a regular televised meeting in January, when Raleigh Gilbert was usually in Kenya. Raleigh caused great surprise one year when he actually did do that Ayr meeting. In those days, it was nearly always the team of John Oaksey and John Penney at Ayr.
John Penney, now in his 80s, is still going, although now not so strongly, and there was an interesting Where Are They Now? feature on him in the Racing Post a couple of years ago which can be found on the online archives.
I also love to hear the course commentaries and am looking forward to hearing Iain Mackenzie at Perth.
David Fitzgerald is in a class of his own, no two ways about that.One year in my view was a very poor performance in Richard’s extremely high standards. Missed a lot of fallers.
In Richard’s defence the falls he missed were at the last fence in the back straight which is unsighted from the commentary position.
That year there was no camera giving a decent angle of the landing side of that fence.
Since that renewal the camera positions have been changed to give an excellent overhead shot of the landing side of the fence.
One year in my view was a very poor performance in Richard’s extremely high standards. Missed a lot of fallers.
In Richard’s defence the falls he missed were at the last fence in the back straight which is unsighted from the commentary position.
That year there was no camera giving a decent angle of the landing side of that fence.
Since that renewal the camera positions have been changed to give an excellent overhead shot of the landing side of the fence.
And the Pulled Ups Paul? Lets not use the old cliche of "too much use of the monitor". Maybe we should make more use of the course commentators view, which 9 times out of 10 have a better idea of whats actually going on. The use of "using our own commentator" surely is old hat these days. As always, I stand corrected.
DaveOne year in my view was a very poor performance in Richard’s extremely high standards. Missed a lot of fallers.
In Richard’s defence the falls he missed were at the last fence in the back straight which is unsighted from the commentary position.
That year there was no camera giving a decent angle of the landing side of that fence.
Since that renewal the camera positions have been changed to give an excellent overhead shot of the landing side of the fence.
And the Pulled Ups Paul? Lets not use the old cliche of "too much use of the monitor". Maybe we should make more use of the course commentators view, which 9 times out of 10 have a better idea of whats actually going on. The use of "using our own commentator" surely is old hat these days. As always, I stand corrected.
DaveRichard was also the course commentator that day and Ayr is not one of the better commentary positions.
As the title of this thread is "well done C4", I really do think Channel 4 ought to be congratulated for showing races from Perth and Leicester in the next week.
Unexpected but welcome bonuses.
I love it when the smaller courses get a showing, even if it’s just one race. Channel 4 has got a long and commendable tradition of showing extra races from small courses.
Kelso springs to mind and, of course, when racing has been off in previous years, Southwell has been added to the menu. Small beer for some but all part of racing’s rich tapestry.Agreed without reservation.
I’d love to see the Saturday half of Cartmel’s brand-new £125,000 two-day July fixture get a small look-in as well; though with the Summer Plate taking place simultaneously, they may not have given themselves the best of chances to grab a bit of terrestrial attention.
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.
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