Little things in racing that annoy or irritate you.

[Posts: 203Joined: 08 Jan 2001, 13:28]

Add me to the Lee McKenzie "not so keen" camp.

Gets far too excited for my liking.

and me! He has no sense of timing in relation to the pitch of his voice. Compare his technique with someone like Richard Hoiles, Hoiles is different class.

[Posts: 192Joined: 27 Aug 2008, 14:12]

.....There are very few commentators who make any reference to the horses colours during commentaries so unless you have done your homework it can be needlessly difficult to pick out the runners that you want to keep an eye on.........Ian Bartlett is about the only one who does do it but there are none that do it as a rule.


Hate to say it because she is remarkably efficient if you email her but Tanya Stevenson dresses like an old granny particularly when wearing a hat....what is that all about ? Can't someone have a word......I know little about fashion but her hat at Cheltenham on Tuesday???!!!............

[Posts: 148Joined: 27 Jun 2009, 21:56]

People who can't grasp that horses are not robots and whine through their pockets when something doesn't work out for them. Stick to virtual racing.

And second the drunk thing; that's one of the reasons I've not been to the Festival in years.

[Posts: 53Joined: 21 Feb 2009, 15:14]

Five live chit chat during the race ,does my nut.

[Posts: 89Joined: 21 Mar 2006, 11:42Location: Northumberland]

Racing programmes that waste too much time focusing on the spectators- Royal Ascot is of course most guilty of this- I detest the fashion pieces taking time away from looking at the horses in the pre-parade ring. But Channel 4 keep taking in the folk kicking about the stands too!

[Posts: 2155Joined: 16 Jan 2001, 18:51]

Second, Third , Fourth Colours etc of owners that are indistinguishable from each other.

In last year's King George we were told to look out for markings on the horses' noses to tell the main two protagonists apart! Yesterday, we had a terrestrial race at the Cheltenham festival where not even the commentator, who'd probably swotted up for hours, could tell you if the jolly had made a mistake or a nigh identically garbed horse.

Do racing folk not understand the concept of the away kit? The idea is that it's a completely different colour to make it easily distinguishable.

[Posts: 1068Joined: 07 Sep 2006, 10:32]

Racecourses judges, some bust a gut to announce the result without calling a photo and others like the clown at Cheltenham yesterday think it's good fun to have dramatic pause before announcing the result. Both have got it wrong in my view and one of the newer judges, Di Clark does the job how it should be done imo.

It seems like judges and starters are just allowed to do what they want by the BHA, a judge last year had Cattermole and some women in his box before he had announced the result

[Posts: 1192Joined: 18 Nov 2008, 06:19]

Yeats stated.....a judge last year had Cattermole and some women in his box before he had announced the result

AC/DC? Everyone to their own thing, I say. Whatever turns you on.

[Posts: 1485Joined: 20 Feb 2006, 12:12Location: Bristol]

They still persist with that annoying Paddy Power advert and the grinning baboon!!

[Posts: 382Joined: 10 Feb 2003, 15:44]

The phasing out of traditional race titles.

For example, the 'Grade 1 joebloggsbookies.com Novice Chase' (registered as the Pendil Novices Chase) etc. Why the 'Grade 1 joebloggsbookies.com Pendil Novices Chase' couldn't work is beyond me.

And the complete removal of a long standing race title to make some tosser of a sponsor happy. Such as tomorrow's STAYER'S Hurdle.

World Hurdle?

[Posts: 245Joined: 17 Nov 2009, 01:13Location: Virginia]

Ugly sponsor logos on fences. It's okay if it's a horse feed or the name of a racetrack or something, but garish colors and ads for things like car insurance remind me of NASCAR.

[Posts: 1908Joined: 14 May 2001, 19:05]

Five live chit chat during the race ,does my nut.

Seconded.

Add me to the Lee McKenzie "not so keen" camp.Gets far too excited for my liking.

Disagree. It's a pity he's not doing the Radio 5 racecalling anymore, a class or several above the garrulous old women (Cornelia, Joan and Lucy) that make the R5 commentaries so cringeworthy these days.

[Posts: 53Joined: 21 Feb 2009, 15:14]

Second, Third , Fourth Colours etc of owners that are indistinguishable from each other.

In last year's King George we were told to look out for markings on the horses' noses to tell the main two protagonists apart! Yesterday, we had a terrestrial race at the Cheltenham festival where not even the commentator, who'd probably swotted up for hours, could tell you if the jolly had made a mistake or a nigh identically garbed horse.

Do racing folk not understand the concept of the away kit? The idea is that it's a completely different colour to make it easily distinguishable.

It would be handy to take on the french coloured sash idea.

[Posts: 1163Joined: 13 Jun 2008, 03:07Location: London]

No full body shot pictures of horses in their profile on the Racing Post.

[Posts: 411Joined: 12 Jan 2008, 10:22]

No full body shot pictures of horses in their profile on the Racing Post.

Contrariwise, I thought it was pretty silly of Racing UK to show slow-mo close-ups of all the jockeys' faces before the World Hurdle. It would have made more sense to show us the horses, or failing that a more backward part of the riders. A jockey's facial features are not the most recognisable part of his or her anatomy during a race.