michael o'Hehir or peter o'sullevan...who was your fav ??

anyone watch the old races on youtube............bbc racing was brilliant.....o'hehir came over every year to do the national.......its his commentary on the foinavon race when the carnage happened

BOTH EXCELLENT BUT SIR PETER FOR ME

I frequently watch old races on youtube ,they were both fabulous commentators , mind most sports had superlative ones then ......unlike today.

espmadrid and eddie c have loads of races uploaded on youtube..some have extended footage which is great

hard split them.they were def 1 and 2 of all time

agree both are great but as soon as I hear graham goode on I have to knock it off

Only one winner must be Sir Peter !

I agree he was excellent but the voice of MOH is just made for racing commentaries

Peter for me, but the greatest commentary EVER has to be O'Hehir's Foinavon National.

I swear it must be Oath ...... the king is in his counting house ......yeuckkkk two real low points.

Sir Peter every time.

think peter was great.......unflappable ...made very few mistakes ....great voice......think Julian wanted to take over but peter stitched him up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgsYJfViql0 the golden age of hurdling .

I love watching the hurdle races with comedy of errors\Lanzarote\night nurse\grand canyon\ monksfield\ dramatist

2 outstanding ones for me from Peter O'sullevan the calmness with Be Friendly winning the Vernons sprint
you would never guess he was the owner.
Secondly "the mare is getting up "

SIR  peter wins hands down.

Neither could hold a candle to Tom Durkin.

I vaguely remember one race from the late 70s...I think it might have been the Irish Sweeps Hurdle & O'Hehir was magical with his observations on the race & general enthusiasm...a great voice for racing commentary and yet for consistently good performance & not going over the top O'sullevan was majestic..pity todays lot don't watch some of it to see how it should be done

As was pointed out by John McCririck (he gets some thing right) the typical O'Sullevan commentary would not be acceptable today. All he did was to name the horses in the order he saw without identifying them for viewers. That was his way. The modern commentary (ATR and usually RUK not always ITV) starts " Brown Boy leads in the purple silks from Grey Girl on the inside in the noseband" etc. Anyone who hasn't checked the colours (sometimes they bear little resemblance to what is shown in the press)now knows which horse is which.

It's natural to look back on the past with somewhat rose tinted glasses but having recently looked back at many Youtube recordings of past Grand Nationals and Champion Hurdles O Sullivan's commentaries varied between average and poor.His voice was excellent for commentating but his accuracy and awareness of what was happening in the race were poor.

Before anyone tells me I'm writing rubbish look back over the available recordings and see what you think.

"He's beginning to get up...."   Still gives me chills

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcCuIVn6egM

^ Agreed
Calling See You Then, See You AGAIN on the run in of a Champion Hurdle.
Calling Loving Words, Loving RECORD  home in 3rd in Grittar's Grand National.

Hi Tolmi (Black, White sleeves and spots on body).  No wish to malign the great man, but I have some sympathy for your view, although there are lots of diamonds to set alongside the poorer efforts.

intresting article about sir peters legacy.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/628430/Peter-OSullevan-horse-racing-grand-n...

   
  i would recommend his book  " calling the horses " to any racing fans. 

Spot on(if you pardon the pun) blackbarn.

I just stumbled upon the youtube recordings when I looked at Red Rum's National's after Brian Fletcher's passing.One thing led to another and I must have viewed 20 Nationals and 10 Champion Hurdles over the next few days.

Many of the commentaries were towards the end of his career but I was struck by the lack of detail and accuracy in many of them.

The consensus view is that PO'S went on way too long and towards the end his commentaries suffered, and he'd call horses by (say) their sire's name (which is probably more than some could do today even if they wanted to -- but that is not the point).

David Coleman (iirc) made a point about commentating on the Olympics that is probably relevant here -- that as he got older, he (Coleman) had to leave the 100 metres to the younger guys because he could no longer get athletes' names from eyes to brain to mouth quickly enough.