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I was surprised when Ferguson gave up his ‘proper job’ as a successful trainer to become effectively a ‘racing manager’ which has always struck me as a bit of a non job,and certainly so compared to being a trainer in my opinion.
Money talks I suppose.Interesting to see that maybe loyalty to Bin Suroor has won out in the end in this story especially as it seems he has either been very indiscreet or has been right royally stabbed in the front by the Racing Post.
Whatever is said about how polite AOB is I can’t be alone in being annoyed and frustrated by the lack of content,meaning and insight in what he says,to the extent that there is virtually no point in the interviews.
Amidst a blizzard of ‘listens’ and lists of names of staff and lots of gratitude all AOB ever says is that ‘everyone is pleased’ with whatever horse he is talking about and then after the race you still get nothing that might for example explain why a 4th,5th or 6th string at best has won the Derby and why it could be argued that arguably the greatest trainer in the world doesn’t seem to know what he’s got in his stable.
Horseplay,Isabelle and Enable look like they’ve got better stamina pedigrees than Rhododendron who despite the Galileo factor has to be a lay at odds on for me.
….and I know I’m not alone when I smile wryly when I read the likes of ‘some of my best friends are (fill in the relevant blanks) therefore ‘I can say what I like on the subject and offend as many people as possible without suspicion ‘…..pal!
… and I get equally unsettled by obvious cheap and unfunny posts like this (above) that use outdated and unaware terms like ‘coloured’ but more importantly bundle their idea of minorities all together in a way that screams ‘subconscious sense of superiority’ in a bid to ridicule what they see as ‘political correctness gone mad’ by lashing out and trying to offend as many people as possible in what they see as a ‘ so obviously a parody I couldn’t possibly be seen as offensive’ way as possible.
Bringing the need for ‘diversity’ into every little thing is clearly silly but at the other end of the scale missing the point and giving bigotry a nod is more worrying.
I’m regularly twitchy about discussions about diversity but never moreso than when pro-diversity remarks seem to be confined to whether or not black people are involved in whatever the subject matter is.
What about other ethic groups? Chinese? Asians? Greeks? Arabs? Other groups don’t get mentioned and it leaves me feeling very patronised.
As for the Sunday Forum I’m afraid the combination of Muscat(rarely says anything of interest) and Berry ( worthy but dull) were enough to have me switching over despite the attempt to add interest by having the two of them hosted by Chapman.
…… Talking of interviews, I think it was Gosden who showed signs of wanting to walk away, today, whilst a bookie told Chapman to look down the line for 7/4 on the O’Brien horse. Once again he was being a pest.
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Aidan O’Brien was entitled to be really annoyed on 1000 guineas day because Oli Bell was exploiting his good nature by buttonholing him for an interview as he walked back to view the race…seemed totally intrusive at a time when O’Brien could probably have done with a bit of privacy…..it’s not as though the interviews are any good either.
Early days but Cumani does not look the answer here on this showing…..she’s just an over polished talking head with very little passion or insight coming through.
Dettori had clearly done no homework and is trading on his name and didn’t lift things.
As if it needed it Chapman is still spoiling the whole thing with his total inability to bring any gravitas to absolutely anything or whip up excitement in the way McCririck used to do,even if it was in a marmite sideshow way…..McCririck could do it Chapman can’t.
Bell and Chamberlain are just about acceptable hires for this gig but maybe not in their current roles but everybody else represents lazy, unthinking recruitment by ITV.I don’t think I could have been alone in sensing the distinct unease of Nicky Henderson when being totally embarrassed by Chapman’s inappropriate and disrespectful ‘interviews’ at Sandown on the final day of the NH season.
Chapman’s joy at landing the terrestial gig is there for all to see but he is totally indisciplined and even his colleagues are clearly unsettled by his loose cannon and frankly arrogant input.He’s like a drunk at the party who doesnt know when to shut up or how boorish theyre being and I think this boils down to a line management problem because surely his employers must know that although the excitable puppy routine maybe something new to the way racing has ever been presented on a mainstream channel but they must also realise how demeaning it is to the sport to have its human stars being forced to talk to somebody who has zero journalistic or interviewing skill whose intention is to make everything about themselves.Truly awful and can’t be allowed to continue.
ITV is worse than C4 ( nothing much wrong with C4 IMO) Sally Ann (terrible presenter and interviewer),Hayley Turner ( nothing to say and no homework)Jason Weaver( dull and cliched) and Matt Chapman (over excited and inappropriate)are all vastly inferior to virtually anyone on the C4 team with the exception of Tanya(amateurish)
As for seeing the horses and summarising their chances …C4 werent great but Cunningham and McGrath used to at least do their homework and although their tips were poor they gave accurate and succinct summaries of most of the horses chances before races and totally knew what they were talking about re form.
The in jokes and teasing of each other by the ITV team is getting arch and annoying and once again there were more genuine laughs on C4 for me.
I’m certainly not enjoying this more than the C4 product and some of the hires are baffling.
Chapman is annoying and inappropriate most of the time but some of his off the cuff interactions with the public are entertaining.
His attempts to ‘whip things up’ to add interest or tension are usually awful but surprisingly he mostly struck the right tone during the difficult job of introducing the usually dreary presentation ceremony.
Inclined to agree with the above.
Even though you have to draw the line somewhere in your interest in horseracing,a major international meeting featuring horses and jockeys that are extremely well known in the UK seems like an odd point to do so.
Its the same kind of odd as people who follow club football but aren’t interested in the National team.I would understand the negativity more if it was about maybe the Dubai World Cup following on too soon after Cheltenham for some with no seasonal build up.
Linking the coverage of the event with the too much racing argument is just bizarre.
Not sure counting and commenting on the contribution of ‘ethnic minorities’ adds much of relevance to the discussion Gladiateur but very good of you to be ‘all for’ seeing more of them
Personally I defend the right of anyone on television of any gender or ethnicity to be as crap as they want to be, everyone is individual and represent themselves and ONLY themselves ,they are not in some kind of ambassadorial role to promote ethnic or any other minority and don’t need to be patronised by anyone.
Treat people as individuals and you’ll scarcely ever stray into dodgy patronising or prejudiced territory.
This is certainly not better than Channel 4.
Nick Luck is a way better anchor than Chamberlain…..world class in fact.
Gleeson is brilliant at conveying betting ring excitement….not what he is made to do here.
Graham Cunningham and Jim McGrath were excellent at evaluating form and Cunningham was amusing aswell.
Hoiles is not a better commentator than Simon Holt and could do with turning his mic up for starters.
McCoy is getting worse and should be dropped ( doesnt want to be there) and Fitzgerald has nothing but cliches to offer.
Chapman just doesn’t seem to suit the big occaision…..not as bad as Tanya but not the answer either.Itv have changed things for changes sake without doing anything that different but the changes they’ve made have been bad ones and they’re bringing no gravitas to the sports premier meeting and even though its early on day 1 we can be confident that it wont change.
Nothing much to criticise here and the people on here who only ever want to see horses will never be pleased.
McCoy was surprisingly articulate and involved by his standards and himself and Luke Harvey played off each other really well.
Chapman does need to tone it down and Ed Chamberlain is a very good anchorman.
Weather girl is stunningly beautiful but not needed and Pendleton can’t add much.
It’s not going to be much different to C4 and I never had a problem with that ….the fact is that for the vast majority unless people have had a bet they couldn’t care less about watching racing so attempts to boost figures won’t work.
McCoy’s appointment is symptomatic of how ITV have approached this …McCoy is statistically the greatest jump jockey in history BUT he is a terrible broadcaster with nothing to say….he looks irritated and as if he doesn’t want to be there ‘that’s for sure’.
ITV have been deeply unimaginative with their bookings and they have compounded this with a dash of change for changes sake with the needless replacement of Simon Holt with the wordy,preppy and humourless Richard Hoiles.Silly.
Whilst on the subject Sam Twiston Davies is bloody awful as well ..he’s like a thunderbird puppet …his mouth opens but absolutely nothing worth listening to comes out .Bland,bland,bland.
