Unerring accuracy, incredible memory and the ability to convey the emotion of racing’s special moments: that’s the demanding brief of the racecaller – perhaps the toughest sports broadcasting gig outside of providing sideline commentary for the Iditarod huskie sled race across Alaska.
Hong Kong Jockey Club caller Darren Flindell earned rave reviews for his calls of the four features at the Hong Kong International Races this month – adding to his reputation as one of the world’s best, and he is part of a long lineage of Australian callers.
Before Flindell, and his right-hand man Brett Davis, the number one was their countryman David Raphael, who saved his best for the big occasions and whose “mare of the world” call of Sunline v Fairy King Prawn in the 2000 Hong Kong Mile makes our top five list.
It’s a tough gig – next time you think a racecaller has got it wrong and think you could do better, turn down the volume on the TV, commit to memory a field, and have a crack. And what if you’ve got a sore throat? The show must go on. Listen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHdapW_utus) as legendary harness racing caller Jimmy Jacques makes it to the end with a formidable case of frog in the throat.
In Australia, and New Zealand, good racecallers grow on trees – in fact, you can usually find one in a tree at the local sports ground each weekend, belting out a play-by-play description of whatever code of bash-’em-up football they play in their part of the world.
Perhaps it is the frantic nature of their football codes, particularly the unpredictable Australian Rules, that gives Aussies an edge in the race-calling stakes and explains the proliferation of antipodean expats in on-course broadcasting booths throughout Asia and the world.
As will as the Flindell/Davis duo, Craig Evans is in Singapore and Murray Johnson does his best to deal with the random cutaways on the TV broadcasts in Japan. Over in Kuala Lumpur, up-and-comer Anthony Manton is cutting his teeth. Terry Spargo, who spent time here, brings even the most mundane meetings at Meydan to life and then rises to the occasion come Super Saturday and World Cup night in Dubai.
Another to spend a stint in the Sha Tin box was Jim McGrath, who became the voice of racing for the BBC for nearly 20 years. Since 1990, Michael Wrona has been bringing his catch cry of “racing!” to the start of every call from Hollywood Park, the former Queenslander among a handful of Aussies sprinkled across the US.
It’s not just accuracy, but this injection of colour that makes southern hemisphere callers so sought-after. Before the advent of live television coverage it was a lot easier to inject some life and take some poetic licence. Two legends – Bert Bryant and Ken Howard – helped pave the way.
A couple of Bryant’s best lines were “Couldn’t pull the skin off a bread and butter pudding” in describing a slow one, and during his famous call of the Big Philou-Rain Lover match race: “There won’t be much change for a while, so if you want to put the kettle on now would be a good time to do so.”
Maybe that’s a line Flindell or Davis could use when some Class Five battlers at the end of 1,800m settle into one of those interminable ‘you win ... no, you win’ slowcoach slugfests at Sha Tin.
Live TV not only called for a combination or accuracy and colour, but also stopped the sort of shenanigans Harry Solomons tried to pull off in Melbourne in 1939. In an audacious attempted betting sting, Solomons’ cohorts cut the cables from all of the rival radio broadcasters just before the jump, as off-course betters loaded up on a horse called Buoyancy.
Solomons bided his time as the race was run, spinning a tale that Buoyancy was playing up behind the gates and was delaying the start – co-conspirators getting even better odds about their selected fake winner. He then delivered his “phantom” call, with Buoyancy winning of course, but his ruse came unstuck when one of the cable cutters didn’t get his job done in time and SP bookies smelt a rat.
Giving the Aussies a run for their money could be Italian jockey Umberto Rispoli, who told us last week his long-held desire to call races and his habit of providing a blow-by-blow in-race description for his fellow riders.
We’ve heard his calls, and they seem pretty good – no idea what he is saying, but the delivery is smooth. It could be the way of the future, a wireless microphone fitted to Rispoli so we can cross to him mid-race to get his thoughts, although he may struggle not to be biased or give someone stick for being stuck three wide.
After surveying our Twitter followers for nominations for their favourite call of all-time, the award has to go to “The Accurate One” Bill Collins, for his stirring 1986 Cox Plate call.
This was the epic head-to-head battle between Bonecrusher and Our Waverley Star where Collins asks the question in the middle stages “Have they gone to early?” – the answer; “Yes, probably” – given the breakaway pair did just go straight past a powder blue Holden Torana travelling along an adjacent highway. Capped with the fantastic line “… and Bonecrusher races into equine immortality”. Chills every time.
