TV racing: new names, same old annoyances
We have seen name changes to the specialist channels covering racing, but the same old bugbears continue to annoy.
Various presenters on the racing channels should stop believing that they are God’s gift to broadcasting when in reality hardly anybody is listening to them.
When interviewing trainers/jockeys/Clerks of the Course don’t ask ten questions when one will do and unless there is good reason to think you might get an answer that is out of the ordinary don’t ask a jockey/trainer what it feels like to win the Grand National/Derby/Class 6 Handicap – we already know.
Richard Osgood is probably delighted to have retired as Clerk at Newbury as he will no longer have to worry about being asked if the rails have been moved four inches out on the bend into the back straight.
Commentators should stop thinking less about a pre-rehearsed pun relating to the name of the winning horse as it crosses the line and more about calling the race accurately. Even the good ones seem to be doing it now so maybe this is an unwritten rule but most of them are plays on words that a six-year-old could come up with.
To all interested parties in television coverage of racing (too many of them), please remember you are all part of one sport and everybody should be working together for the common good. The recent unavailability of Irish race replays from last year is a case in point.
Unfortunately, in this age of looking after number one this is something of a pipedream but one only needs to look at the sad demise of greyhound racing to see what can happen if people are only in it for themselves.
