Forum Replies Created
- Posts
“Garbage”?, “Making things up”? Thanks for that! Have a listen to a few commentaries, and you’ll see what I mean.
“Simon Holts assertion that he believed that ITV didn’t have much idea about horse racing certainly rings true”
No, he’s just having a flounce because he didn’t get the job. If he’d been given it instead of Hoiles, he’d be chirping away about how ITV’s coverage was going to be the best thing ever.
“You say floating viewers will be put off by the jargon but those floating viewers will not be looking at the racing in the first place.”
Quite so, and why might that be, I wonder? Well, one of the reasons, imo, is because of the way the sport’s broadcasters appear to want to render the sport almost unintelligible to anyone other than those who by chance already “get it”. We’ve got a great sport here, let’s not turn people away.
Racing in America uses miles, furlongs and yards, not metres. Americans may still use cubic inches instead of ccs for vehicle engine sizes.
As for people googling the jargon, they’re hardly likely to do that twenty times a broadcast. They hear people talking what sounds like gibberish, and they switch off. A bit like expecting people to watch a foreign language film on television without subtitles. I’m not saying that all racing jargon should be translated into “normal” English, but there’s no need to be deliberately obfuscatory.
It’s not like the old days, when horse racing was just about the only (betting) game in town, and so you had to learn the secret words and phrases, and so get into the sport that way.
All sports use jargon to an aextent, but racing is the worst in terms of trying to keep it just for the converted by its use. I’ve given you two examples above.
And of course, “Most of the people who watch racing on tv will be familiar with most of the terminology used…”. Well yes, most will, all few hundred thousand of them. That’s what I’m getting at.
If Pendleton isn’t a big enough draw from outside the sport, who do would put up in her place?
Some monosyllabic ex-jock? Some otherwise unemployable ex-public schoolboy? Some vacuous clothes horse prancing around in silly hats and dresses?
People you need for a racing programme:
1. Presenter
2. CommentatorThat’s it.
There speaks a voice of reason.
You will not be understood by those behind this flight of fancy I’m afraid.
What on earth Pendleton brings to the table is beyond me ?I sympathise with the general slant about a surfeit of presenters, but you need two presenters really. You want differences of opinion/approach to provide an entertaining experience for the viewer.
Let me explain about Victoria Pendleton (or any other non-insider contributor a broadcaster might use from time to time). This sort of “what does she/he bring to the party?” complaint is quite common.
Victoria Pendleton is someone who bridges the vast chasm between dyed-in-the-wool racing fans and the general public, she’s someone who might light a spark and get people to think, “Maybe I should find out about this”. Nobody’s suggesting she’s going to be on as a form guru or breeding expert.
Most racing commentators and broadcasters seem to take an almost sadistic delight in making the sport as impenetrable as possible to outsiders.
Nobody wants to be served up baby talk, but do we really need to have a commentator saying, “…and with seven-and-a-half furlongs to run…”, rather than, “…with just under a mile to run…”?
Pre-race, what would a casual viewer make of, “…they’ll be looking for some black type with this one…”? It’s gobbledegook, yet people within the sport bleat about how racing gets so little coverage in the non-specialist mainstream and sports media.
Holland wasn’t given a chance.
They offered him the position of stable jockey, then wouldn’t give him any rides.
40 days live on one of the two mainstream channels is an excellent result.
How many other sports can boast that?
Racing fans should stop whining and be thankful for what they’ve got.
“What did he do? Is it reliale evidence Venusian?”
I don’t have anything physically to hand, although you can always look on the net. No doubt he mellowed in his old age, but he used to treat his staff almost as slaves, virtually locked them up. If you did anything out of place, like blab about how well some horse was working on the gallops, a beating and/or a sacking were the order of the day.
On reflection, perhaps “shrewd” would be more appropriate than “competent”. He was a classic gambling trainer, who’d regularly have horses hooked up until the big day arrived. Think George Todd, and you get the idea (wouldn’t like to mention anyone still alive!).
He came from a wealthy Irish family who’d made a fortune in whiskey distilling, among other things, and went to Oxford university for a while.
He bought The Tetrarch for about £1,300 as a yearling, a fortune in those days, think well over £100,000 today, and passed him on, at cost, to his cousin, Major McCalmont.
Persse really messed up his three year old career, not running him in the 2000 guineas because he though he wasn’t fit (he was), and then running him in a 1 1/2 miles trial on the gallops a few weeks before the Derby, breaking him down. That would be the gambler in Persse coming out, conducting a full-scale trial to “make sure”. Any half-decent trainer would have won the Guineas with him, possibly the Derby as well, and not b*ggered the horse up with a silly trial as though he was readying some handicapper for a coup (he’d already broken down The Tetrarch’s sire, Roi Herode, four years ago, preparing him for the 1910 Chester Cup).
What a grand old character he was
Not quite how I would describe him.
Persse was a thoroughly nasty piece of work, whose treatment of his staff, even by the standards of those days, was appalling.
Certainly, he was a competent trainer, but coming from a wealthy family, he could afford to be. He certainly didn’t have to work his way up from the bottom!
Most racing books, like sporting books in general, are pretty dire, tough reads even for die-hard fans.
Autobigraphies are mainly ghost-written by racing hacks of no great literary abilities, and biographies tend to be more like hagiographies with anything controversial carefully sidestepped.
My three against the field that I posted on the best books thread – Seabiscuit, Men and Horses I have known, Sods I have cut on the turf – were all written by the people whose names appear on the dustjackets.
In random order…
Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand.
Men And Horses I Have Known by George Lambton.
Sods I Have Cut On The Turf by Jack Leach.
called Brooklyn Bobby (named after Bobby Frankel of course)….
Or perhaps after Bobby Fischer.
I’m not sure what the contractual position is – I’m guessing, worse case there may be a financial penalty for C4 but if it’s less than the cost of covering the meeting they’ll probably consider it worthwhile.
I can’t believe there’d be any sort of penalty. C4 have bought the rights to broadcast horse racing, but not the obligation to do so.
But, I agree, not showing this relatively unimportant days’ racing is of little consequence. We may well see ITV doing the same on a few Saturdays.
Although Frankel’s first few runners have impressed in terms of speed, it’s a little alarming to see that amount of temperament on display.
Usually, 2 year olds are reasonable cooperative, at least in the first half of the season, as they haven’t yet picked up any bad habits or started to get fed up with it all.
We’ve only got a tiny sample to look at and it’s early days yet.
For all I know, the rest of the season may disappoint as far as Frankel’s offspring are concerned, and perhaps the majority will turn out to possess the most equable of temperaments, or maybe they’ll mostly be sprint types, who knows?
Manny was his brother, but he was in the same yard at one point as Eph Smith – perhaps that’s where the confusion’s arising
Yes, you’re quite right, I was thinking of Doug and Eph.
Eph Smith was just an ok jockewy of the same era.
I’ve edited my post accordingly.
Joe Mercer’s tragically ill-fated brother Mannyas gene wrally considered the better of the pair.
No doubt those courses racing today will have enjoyed good crowds and made a profit into the bargain.
I don’t see there’s too much wrong with scheduling meetings on days and at times which suit the public. Racing is a spectator sport after all.
The moaning seems to be coming from people who say it’s too time-consuming to study all the cards. Well, you can either just choose one or two cards to get involved with, or you could actually attend one of the fixtures.
