Forum Replies Created
- Posts
Would like to add my sympathies too, he was great local favourite and a number of racegoers stayed up in the stands to see if he made it, willing him on. They spent about 15 mins trying to save him until finally having to admit defeat. A very sad loss to all, especially Val.
I enjoyed all your replies more than my own story! Yes Cheltboy, am in the broadcast office in the weighing room at the Festival again, so I get the chance to see the jockeys celebrating at close quarters as they come back after the races, good to know you have fond memories of those days too. Corm and Paul, I do of course still look like that vintage photo… from an exceedingly long distance!
JJM Sports, glad I haven’t driven you nuts (yet) with that – it wasn’t intended to be a catchphrase but I used to say "they’re racing" when a race began, then we were reminded to say "they’re off" (the official phrase to declare a race underway) and I ended up combining the two. I decided to stop saying it a few months ago but as soon as the stalls opened, out it came again!
Gamekeeper – that’s a question I was often asked at the time… I had been offered the chance do some TV work (sport but not racing) and decided to take the plunge. I’ve since done some great things – for example I have been asked to commentate on various sports at the London Olympics – so (while it was a hard decision to make) I haven’t regretted it.
Sincere thanks for sharing all your comments with me and the forum, and hoping you all have a fabulous Cheltenham.
Lee
Thanks for getting back Bob, I agree with you – we all have our favourites whether it be commentating or anything else – singers, actors, you name it.
If I were to name my own three favourite current racing commentators, many of you would be astonished with the choice of at least one of them (sorry, you’ll never get me to do that though).
Pompete brought up the fact that I’ve spent a lot of my career as a radio presenter, and I realised long ago the diversity of opinion out there (I had many "appointments" with the station manager and kept the abusive letters to prove it, but for some reason he kept employing me!)
However, while it isn’t possible to please all the people all the time, I do take on board points that everyone makes (but please be gentle, even commentators have feelings…)
I’m getting off this thread now before I start to dominate it and it becomes even more off-topic!
Lee
he does everything a commentator shouldn’t do IMO particularly sounding like he’s trying to come up with red top tabloid headlines as the race comes to a conclusion
Bob, I can take criticism but if you listen back to the eight races at Lingfield last Friday I think you will see that this just isn’t true… even when Fallon was beaten on his first ride back! No tabloid headline at all, just "It goes to Mr Mahoganeigh, won by three…" Maybe you don’t like the inflection in my voice as the winning horse crosses the line, but I would say it is good practice to reflect the climax vocally, as a football or cricket commentator would when a goal is scored or a wicket taken.
Everybody has a different idea of how a commentator should do the job, and I appreciate sometimes I may be too excitable for many of you. But you have to take into account the fact that the commentary is also taken by the public address system and betting shops, whose customers may appreciate a different style.
When you go racing you will notice that racegoers usually react as much to the commentator as they do to the action, and it seems fair to give them value for money by helping to make the day out an exciting one.
Many racecourse management teams, who are among our main clients, understandably like the commentator to help create a buzz amongst the racegoers, and my own feeling is that we are an integral part of the atmosphere. However, I also recognise it is important for us to balance that with impeccable race-reading, sound editorial judgement and common sense. That is is the eternal search for the perfect solution.
I would admit I don’t always get it right but I am only reacting to what I see, and definitely not trying to whip up a sense of hysteria where it isn’t relevant. If I fail your ears I can only apologise.
Pompete is right though – I have spent most of my working life doubling up as a radio DJ (or "presenter" as the BBC calls them), and introducing records in the style of a racing commentator, though an interesting concept, is unlikely ever to catch on!
Lee
Sounds a good idea to me Roseblossom – if a horse has been withdrawn at late notice it would be useful to know the reason when looking back at the form later on. Leave it with me and I’ll see what others think.
Regarding the business of being diverted when clicking on form or Live Reporter, this still never happens to me. Maybe others can help again – would this be computer settings (like pop-up stopper)?
Hi RH
The way I would do this is to click on News Archive from the options on the home page:
Write "stable tour" in the box marked "search for headline"
and change the "from date" to 28 June 2008 (ie limit the search to one year)
click on the red search box and they appear(However – and this may have been your problem – there are viewing restrictions if an article only appeared in the print version of the newspaper – members only)
If you click on "help" on the home page (unlike many "help" features on other sites, this one is very helpful!)
http://www.racingpost.com/help/help_centre.sd
there’s a guide to navigating the site together with a video tour and a feedback link for any points you’d like to make, have fun!reet hard – after checking with others including our very own Paul Ostermeyer, it appears that the overprinting isn’t the fault of the website. I’m told that printing problems (from many websites) often arise because of browser and printer issues.
The first suggestion is to make sure you have the latest drivers installed for your printer (go to the website of your printer to download). You may also like to trying googling "web printing tools" for your browser, which may be able to offer you software to vary the look of what you’re printing out.
Maybe the experts on here can help you more, good luck!
Meanwhile thanks for all the points you and others have made. The Monday night upgrade already seems to have rectified some of the problems that many of you were having – it must be ESP!
reet hard – will investigate that tonight, thanks. Regarding things that have been already been updated, there was a major overhaul of the site on Monday night which will have corrected some of your points. It’s magic!
indocine – that may be the case, but I’ll have another go when I get in tonight
Here we go then, working backwards:
zilzal – there isn’t a restriction on the number of pages you can access during any one session, so it may be a PC/laptop thing. Paul is an expert on IT so maybe he can offer you a suggestion on how to avoid this happening. I would be interested to know if others have experienced this – just PM me. Regarding your other point, you’re right – when you hold your mouse over a horse’s name, it now says "Click to view details". Sorry if you would prefer to see the breeding at this point, but the idea is to signpost the fact that there is much more to view when you click (including the breeding), hope you can get used to it.
indocine – maybe I’m being stupid and doing the wrong thing, but that doesn’t happen for me, have others experienced this?
Librettist – I’ll investigate the possibility of naming the stage that the big races have reached, though in most cases there aren’t many these days – you obviously have long term interest in certain events! I think the fact that the trainer entries don’t currently list the autumn juvenile events and next year’s Derby is just a space issue but I will look into this.
reet hard – those sound like things that can be sorted if necessary, I just need to know if others have had the same problem with overprinting of weights and ratings. Also, I assume the lack of race meeting name is on printed (pdf) versions of the card only? Standard times and comparisons in foreign races – can someone give me a link to illustrate this so I can check it out, ta?
When we’re all sure that these are site issues rather than PC settings I’ll pass on the info, cheers
Thanks reet hard, am at sunny Brighton doing close ups for the Post today, will take a look at those and report back
Pleased to say this has been fixed now (in Results/Analysis on racingpost.com); it has backdated so all earlier cases have been updated too. Do let me know if you spot anything else that needs tweaking or explaining and I’ll do my best to get it sorted, cheers
You may be interested to know that the judge has the authority to "tweak" any of the margins (up to 2 1/2 lengths) if he or she feels the computer-generated distances don’t quite reflect what actually happened.
Thus if the conversion from time to distance produces an official distance of, say, 2 lengths, but the judge feels it looked more like 1 3/4 lengths, it can be amended.
In theory this can be done all down the field, but in practice it is more likely to be applied to the winning distance than the others, and the closer the margin the more obvious any minor discrepancy becomes.
The most interesting instance would be when one horse beats another by a nose – when it is possible for the two horses to return the same time (to two decimal places, the standard for Flat racing in the UK). A time discrepancy of zero would technically mean a dead-heat, but common sense prevails and the judge is thus able to declare a winner.
While it isn’t entirely satisfactory to have a two-standard system, it does mean that the winning margin should match what punters see with their own eyes, so it is understandable why it was introduced. If you’ve got any more questions about this subject, either PM me or post here and I’ll follow up for you, cheers.
The £ problem is being sorted and should be corrected when the next update takes place on Monday, hope that helps
