Racecallers

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Where is Brian Markovic these days.

Darren McCauley just edges out Matt Hill as the best caller in Australia for mine.
 

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I don’t mind seeing this thread started up again. Amazing how some things don’t change in nearly 15 years.

Don’t mind Mark McNamara as a caller, recently back from a long stint in NZ. Definitely most at home calling the trots but I heard him calling dogs from Mount Gambier yesterday of all places. In the couple of races I heard he brought the same professionalism and accuracy to it that he brings to his preferred code.

Being a shift worker I’m quite a fan of the late-night English racing but their approach to racecalling is completely different to ours... “two lengths further back to the 6/4 favourite in the red and white chevrons, white sash, red cap, red jacket and cheekpieces nearer to the running rail as they enter the final two furlongs...”

Their greyhound callers that just sit in a studio and call numbers out are also... um... interesting. “It’s the two taking them along by three lengths to four in second then one three five and six. Four now comes to challenge on the wide outside and goes on now by a length as they get close to home and four looks as though it’s going to hang on and score!! Trap four from two and three!”
 
English callers - especially in jumps racing - have a lot more time to pass, and a lot of the time the fields are small, so they have more time to describe things like jockey silks etc. Their style is also suited to how they race over there, i.e. start slow and gradually build up the pace of the race.

By comparison Aussie callers are built to call our 1200m squib-fests - that's why Rick Mc is so bad at calling the 5000m jumps races because he has already blown his load in the first 800m.
 
iluvparis said:
English callers - especially in jumps racing - have a lot more time to pass, and a lot of the time the fields are small, so they have more time to describe things like jockey silks etc. Their style is also suited to how they race over there, i.e. start slow and gradually build up the pace of the race.

By comparison Aussie callers are built to call our 1200m squib-fests - that's why Rick Mc is so bad at calling the 5000m jumps races because he has already blown his load in the first 800m.
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Havent heard Ronny Hawkswell call the thoroughbreds for a while but when he did i reckong he would go through a field about 12 times in a 1000m race. He called it like a greyhound race. Will never bag big Ronny though, he is a great dog caller

As an aside, y pet peeve with Sky Channel Tab Coverage is when they cross to broadcast a greyhound race in the middle of a horse race, we don't need a broadcast we can see the freaking colors. Stick to the horses knobs!
 
I know this won't be a popular opinion, but I think Matt Hill is overrated.

His 2 biggest moments as a caller have been Winx's 3rd and 4th Cox plate and he ballsed both of them up with nonsensical comments in the straight where you know he was trying to come up with something iconic like Greg Miles and Makybe Diva.

I might be naive but how was Winx winning a 4th cox plate, 'the great trilogy of the turf'?

and what does 'the valley is rocking and the world is knocking' mean as horses are coming around the turn?
 
I like Hill but totally agree on that point. His calls of last two of the Winx's Cox Plates were absolutely awful - 2/10 material.

His call of the two Japanese wins this year were outstanding though. I was listening to the Caulfield Cup in the car and the way he called it you could tell at about the 600 MDG was going to win.
 
Also agree on Hill's CP calls, but holistically he is the best caller we have in the nation and my favourite. He is rock solid and several lengths clear.

The other one I enjoy is the bloke who does the GP trots in WA, not sure who he is but he is very solid and always predicts the right winner on the corner.
 
yeah overall Hill is pretty good. Just a shame he mucked up those 2 huge moments in the cox plate. It actually makes the replays of the races kind of cringe.

On an unrelated note Bill Collins announcing 'Kingston Town can't win' has to be one of the more stupidly arrogant comments I have heard a racecaller make. I dunno what he was talking about. But it has gone down in folklore.
 
Bill Collins obviously had a heap on KT and went for the reverse curse, brilliantly executed.

race calling/sports commentary is a pretty tough gig and when the big moment arrives quite often the commentary can be as big as the moment itself eg; Perkins Atlanta and Johnson Seoul
 

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tombomb said:
yeah overall Hill is pretty good. Just a shame he mucked up those 2 huge moments in the cox plate. It actually makes the replays of the races kind of cringe.

On an unrelated note Bill Collins announcing 'Kingston Town can't win' has to be one of the more stupidly arrogant comments I have heard a racecaller make. I dunno what he was talking about. But it has gone down in folklore.
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If you actually look at that replay Kingston Town was gone at the time. then he picked up and won running away.Collins hated that call as well but i dont mind it. Collins was great in how horses were going and hardly ever messed up a photo. He was the best i can remember.
 
HeathComeBack said:
If you actually look at that replay Kingston Town was gone at the time. then he picked up and won running away.Collins hated that call as well but i dont mind it. Collins was great in how horses were going and hardly ever messed up a photo. He was the best i can remember.
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Yeah, that isnt my recollection of a the replay. He was under a bit of pressure, but about 3 lengths off the lead and not really giving any ground.

To say he was gone or couldnt win was ridiculous.

edit. I just watched it again, and it is even worse than I remembered. He is actually almost in the perfect spot and beginning to make ground when he says 'kingston town can't win'.
 
tombomb said:
Yeah, that isnt my recollection of a the replay. He was under a bit of pressure, but about 3 lengths off the lead and not really giving any ground.

To say he was gone or couldnt win was ridiculous.

edit. I just watched it again, and it is even worse than I remembered. He is actually almost in the perfect spot and beginning to make ground when he says 'kingston town can't win'.
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Going to have to disagree with you on this one. He was hard ridden all race and never ever travelling. The only time he looked comfortable was the last 100m and even then he looked to be finishing fairly slow but faster than the others. I would have declared him not being able to win at the same time as well!
 
th
IKnowtheDog said:
Bill Collins obviously had a heap on KT and went for the reverse curse, brilliantly executed.

race calling/sports commentary is a pretty tough gig and when the big moment arrives quite often the commentary can be as big as the moment itself eg; Perkins Atlanta and Johnson Seoul
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Just cos its hard doesn't mean you should be incompetent like TB. Plenty of others that could do a better job
 
HeathComeBack said:
Going to have to disagree with you on this one. He was hard ridden all race and never ever travelling. The only time he looked comfortable was the last 100m and even then he looked to be finishing fairly slow but faster than the others. I would have declared him not being able to win at the same time as well!
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Nah i'm with tomb - obviously we are all talking in hindsight but he is definitely not travelling badly - and its definitely a super early call when he says he can't win. It's not like the horse was being scrubbed along for the previous 600m - it's just that he is not bolting.
 
54Dogs said:
Go and give Terry a bake on Punters, they'll jump out of trees to attack you. Mildly amusing pastime on a quiet day.
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I did get in a twitter argument with TB after Walker whipped POA to the shizenhausen in the cup and TB defended him. Tried to not get myself blocked so i can hate follow him and succeeded and shut him down as well. My proudest twitter moment.
 
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