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It doesn’t matter how bad Tanya is as being female she ticks a big box with both ch4 and Clare "feminist" balding.
The same goes for Gina Bryce, I had the misfortune to see her at a Cheltenham preview where she just trotted out what tom scudamore had told her the previous day and then yesterday she was just terrible in her role as race day presenter at sandown when managed to call Sarah Hobbs Diana Hobbs after menorah won lol.Very sad news for me he represented all that was good about tv racing when I got into racing back in the mid-eighties a very far cry from the dumbed down ch4 of today.
Thankfully some of his work is available to enjoy on YouTube.
My thoughts are with his familyIt sure was a fine sight Phil seeing all the racecards in the paper back in the day.
I still have a sporting life from Easter Monday 1985 and that day we also had the welsh champion hurdle at Chepstow on the bbc featuring desert orchid,proof for me anyway that racing was really better 30years agoMy thought was that aintree Ayr etc would be on the same weekends every here and if that fell on Easter week then so be it
I see ch4 are jumping up and down with their 8m viewers for the national,we’ll in my book the beeb would have got 10m!
The new format isn’t working and I just wish the pig-headed bosses would admit it and change back to treating the horses as the stars not the connectionsif the next 2or3 nationals are like last years ie:nothing much happens will the general public lose interest in the race?
after all why don’t 8 million tune in and watch the derby?Stop playing inane music every they put the runner&rider caption on screen.
Spend more than the usual 4/5 mins on the build up to a race.
Stop showing egg&spoon races from away tracks.
Accept that Emma spencer and nick Fitzgerald are flat/jumps experts and not the other way round.
Always use nick luck….him not being in ruk means the wonderful lydia hislop is now a regular on the big daysI still enjoy the race and with the likes of long run in it this year you could argue it one of the best of recent years,will be interesting if they take as steady as last year early on but one things for sure is I’m not convinced that making the fences softer makes it a safer race.
People have been saying for months that the policy of not showing the horses before the race in favour of interviews drive then up the wall but still the ill thought out format continues.
Also why do we have to put up with that annoying music every time they put a caption on screen?Couldn’t help notice that the 3horses charging up the hill all ran jan/feb leaving bobs worth and silvinaco conti behind,maybe they both blew up having been wrapped in cotton wool since Christmas?
So much for wrapping in cotton wool for 10 weeks! Shame they didn’t follow the same route as last year and taken in the ascot chase.
Must be a hell of a disappointment but there’s always aintree but less hope there’s no more big names dropping outWith the modern trend of the top jump horses being wrapped up in cotton wool in their stables during jan feb I think the aw has missed a trick by not staging a 100,000 race every winter Saturday instead of this million pound race day on Good Friday.
Not that I wish to defend all-weather racing but only 3,000 turned up to sandown last Saturday.
I think the fall in attendence can partly be put down to the fact you can watch every race live from your armchair these daysTalking of Agfa I rekon what is now the betfred "contenders" hurdle used to be the Agfa hurdle and before that otley hurdle.
The worst ones for me are the mildmay of fleet (Byrne group plate) at the festival and the game spirit(super Saturday) chase at Newbury.
At last with victor chandler throwing his toys out the pram at ascot we now have the Sodexo Clarence house chase.I’m surprised to see that Clare balding is putting herself out to present the show again next Saturday from Cheltenham…crikey that TWO weeks running.
Has she had a senior moment and thought ascot yesterday was flat racing or is it to help the sinking ship?
Yesterday’s Clarence house coverage was as usual poor and no better than the grandstand days.
Sadly if they don’t admit they are wrong and start showing the horses instead of the personalitys then the viewing figures won’t improve and at the end of the contract ch4 will offer peanuts for the new contract or give up altogether.Even more inept phil was the fact that they had Sam twiston Davies on the morning line yet failed to mention that he’s the new rider of big bucks despite the news being in this mornings sun!
When Jamie Moore made his chinky horse comment on a recent morning line, that was the first time I’ve laughed watching it all year … A far cry from the francome days.
I actually think its better when the overrated balding isn’t on there,just as well as she can’t be botherd with jumping it seems.
Hopefully the penny will drop one day and they will realise the link between falling audiance figures and them avoiding showing the horses before the race,I can’t be the ony one who enjoys watching horses cantering to the start can I ?
