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Having finally got round to watching the video of At The Races on Boxing Day, I really am baffled as to why Darren Owen is one of the commentators under review and presumably facing the loss of his racecourse commentary days.
He did a great job at Ffos Las, adding in all sorts of extra bits of information in the mainly small fields.
I just hope the powers-that-be who make the final decision on his future watch a video of his Ffos Las commentaries. It’s grossly unfair to question his commentary performance based on what I heard.
He could have made a lot less effort and some of the others certainly would have done.I am very disappointed to hear that Darren Owen is on the list for review. In my opinion he is the number 1 commentator in the north and I would personally rate him in the top 5 in the country. He is a true professional and a very nice chap. Also massively under-rated and deserves bigger meetings.
Darren is quite popular in the north at tracks such as Carlisle, Sedgefield, Hexham, Newcastle & courses in Scotland. He doesn’t need to improve at all in my opinion he just needs to keep up the fantastic work he does right now.
I also thought the BBC Grand National coverage was great yesterday. Great race commentary too in particular from Darren Owen and Ian Bartlett.
I must admit the overhead camera shot of a fallen horse covered in a green cover was not good at all in my opinion.
Steve
Has anything been confirmed yet?
I have noticed nothing on the Racing Post website or nothing on BBC News site either.
Sorry I find Mark Slater very dull and hardly brings any excitement or emotion to his commentaries.
Yes I agree Phil I find him a bit that way too. He dosen’t put up much excitement even on a close finish.
Would be good to hear Darren, Lee and Martin get calls at bigger races though.
I would say the following are underrated:
Darren Owen
Lee McKenzie
Martin HarrisThey should get more big race commentaries instead of the likes of Jim McGrath and Mike Cattermole.
No complaints from me on the commentary. Could do without any scrolling banners saying what’s out of the race though! Btw, i don’t get to watch as much racing as most on here, so Darren Owen seems to only crop up in my life once a year. I assume he is a course commentator?
Yes Darren is a very good course commentator.
He dosen’t seem to do many big race calls but I would put him on my top three commentators list.Just found the reason why from the racing post website:
http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse-ra … am/677988/
Ignore my first message
Darren Owen called last weeks Perth meeting.
Yes your right dprp!
Excellent commentary from him today at Musselburgh too.Steve
Lee MacKenzie
Can’t remember if he’s called at Perth, perhaps he’ll inform you himself
edit
: Lee or Iain?
Yes it was definitely Iain Mackenzie at Newton Abbot today.
I think Darren Owen is the best I have heard yet at Perth, he very rarely makes a mistake even though the commentary position is an a really bad place in the grandstand among the crowd and quite often I have noticed on a horrible wet day the bookies umbrellas block the last couple of furlongs.
Perth doesn’t seem to really have a regular course commentator its normally either Doug Fraser, Iain Mackenzie or Darren Owen but seems to vary from time to time as I have also heard Lee McKenzie and Alan Howes there too.
Trouble is that McGrath has deteriated somewhat over the last few years (like a lot of callers seem to do as they hit their fifties – look at GG for example).
When he’s on his A game he can still be up there with the top guys, but often I find he sounds either bored or muddled.
John Hunt is very good when on course, but I too find it infuriating when his 5live commentaries turn into a gentle natter with Harvey/Lysaught. Unfortunately, I think this is a case of being "under orders" (BBC orders that is).
Yes I would agree with you you "CarryonKatie" about the above topic.
I like him.. but the fella’s really struggling.
His recent commentary at Aintree after Denman fell and left the race to MdB was diabolical. He basically gave up and could have been reading out his shopping list.
Hello,
Who are you referring to above?
I think its a shame John Hunt doesn’t get a few more big race calls as he is great at his job and sounds pretty good and clear too!I do agree Jim does sound a bit boring now and again but generally I think we have a great bunch of good commentators in this Country.
With the exception to one or two of course!Paul & Others,
I have just seen the following from the BBC Radio 5 Live website:
"On Saturday 4 April, Mark Pougatch presents 5 Live Sport from Aintree from 12noon, with all the build-up to the big race at 4.15pm. Commentary on the day will be provided by John Hunt, Luke Harvey, Malcolm Tomlinson, Matthew Hill and Gary O’Brien."
If you look at the link below you will see this week’s schedule for the Grand National 2009 meeting:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressr … rald.shtml
I notice from the above that Mick Fitzgerald joins the BBC 5 Live team this year!
Steven
On course it is Mark Johnson, Richard Hoiles and Stewart Machin.
Last I heard it was going to be Mark in the Grandstand, Richard at the third fence and Stewart at Beechers although that may change
ok Cheers for that info Paul.
I did hear a while ago that Mike Cattermole was not going to be doing the Aintree meeting as the course had several complaints about his calling of the National last year and were going to conisder changing things in 2009.So the above may be correct but couldn’t say for definate why they changed this time around.
P.S Good to see that Mark is part of the team this year though!
Anyone know who’s calling the Grand National this year? Richard do you know?
I should imagine it will be the usual team on BBC (Jim McGrath,Ian Bartlett, Tony O’Hehir & Darren Owen).
Radio 5 is usually John Hunt and Malcolm Tomlinson I think?
Steven
He’s much the best.
If people think he is excitable, i’m not sure how people listen to Lee Mackenzie. Not the biggest fan of Lee Mackenzie i have to say.
I agree with you Gaz.
I think Mark Johnson is an excellent commentator and certainly makes a race sound exciting which I think what is needed most of the time especially at the smaller meetings.I thought Richard Hoiles was great at Cheltenham the other week and I find his commentary’s very accurate and informative.
Overall I would imagine that been a racecourse commentator is a hard job and other than the odd Mono tone voices that come from Graham Goode and Doug Fraser we have some good commentators in this country!
