Irish commentator.

Same here Honcho , each to their own though regarding commentators 

he does make it sound  exciting gotta give him that

RRROOOOAAARRIIINNNNGGG BULLLL

Can't beat that

he sounds like he is going to self combust near the finish !

You'd take him over the smart ar5e gimmicky preset puns from the likes of Machin all day long.

Strange rule over there that the callers can't speak before the race.

He does, however, get TOO excited at the Finish, though - and garbles his words. 

I had absolutely No idea which horse he was calling the Winner in that last Close Finish.

They don't Pay anybody any more extra than the Price you took - for getting excited.

Sure there's 1 over here.

reckon he would burst one of those portable blood pressure machines if they hooked him up on it in a big race finish ,entertaining tho!

Got a lot of stick after Roaring Bull due to him thinking he was a Lord. He had to withdraw from social media. Not a patch on Dessie but I'd have him over 'I know everything and everybody ' Richard Pugh.

Jerry H a top caller along with Dessie of course who was tremenjous.

I'd take him over what we have over here, the likes of Barty and Cattermole. Even the likes of Hoiles and Holt have gone past their sell buy dates. Wouldn't be disappointed if all of them were pensioned off.

I turn the sound down as his shouting over a finish annoys me to hell, he even shouts when a horse is winning by 25 lengths.
Too harsh an accent for me.

Why don't they just listen to commentators like Peter O' Sullevan,Raleigh Gilbert, John Penney etc from back in the day and model their commentary on them.

Too much shouting now.

i agree as well, hes by far the best commentator around,

i thought Goode was a superb commentator until the silly puns came in

he gets himself in trouble because on home turn ,straight he,s determined to pass on useless info about where already beaten horses are in the race ,if he was commentating on tour to france on final sprint to line he,d be mentioning riders 40 mins behind back down the mountain, or a grand prix driver been lapped for the 2nd time

If you never heard Peter O Sullivan. Go to you tube and have a listen to the master. Voice like velvet and never shrieked once.

Peter O Sullivan was definitely the model. I virtually NEVER listen now, only long enough to establish that my selection doesn't have a colour change :) ..... the Irish guy has good content in his commentaries but I also can't tolerate the screaming - just too much. Most of us can get excited enough in the closing stages of a race without someone faking it to add something more.

Jerry by a mile for me.

O’Sullevan was brilliant but should have retired 12 years before he did.
His latter year commentaries are littered with mistakes.

Best commentator - Hoiles and co try to predict what is going to happen and have an orgasm if the fav is niggled or makes a mistake.  Hannon just calls it as he sees it.

Aug 3, 2023 -- 11:09AM, flapper wrote:

Best commentator - Hoiles and co try to predict what is going to happen and have an orgasm if the fav is niggled or makes a mistake.

saxon farem spot on about o,sullivan a national embarrassment for last 10 yrs .but no one kind / big enough to tell him or he wouldnt listen

Everything revolves around the favourite for most of them these days unfortunately.  You don't even have to know the field or betting to know by their tone and continual reference to a horse that its the favourite.

Again saxon farm is correct about O'Sullevan, but nobody is ever honest enough to say so.

yes mjk also the close up shots focusing on the fav as if it is the only horse important enough to warrant it! hey its the fav everyone must want to see a close up of it in the race , fook anything else !

shouty man commentating on every john smiths cup,always gives the FAV a mention coming in to straight as it moves in to 11th place to get the  crowd screeching,

Foyles it also extends to the on track pundits. They'll usually only concentrate on the first three in the betting. Poor ol' Bob is usually dumbfounded when the fav doesn't win.

Saw an interview with him a couple of years ago and comes across as a really nice guy. He has a very nice soft voice when just talking; but don't like his over excited shrieking which becomes very harsh in a close finish.

Uncle Bob is no mug, he plays along with the "Tim nice but dim" persona as it suits his languid demeanour. That's part of his charm really, I think he's excellent.

Gerry is a personal friend and one of the nicest people you could meet, we are going to the York Juddmonte meeting together if anyone would like to meet him give me a pm.

Some may or may not know, but in England there is a mandate for the callers to mention the fav. Ratpack mentioned the rules on here at some point, I believe they apply to the course calling, but it would become embedded in practice. There are several rules is my understanding, one is to mention the fav (first 3 in betting I believe) another is possibly to mention the colours. It's one of those jobs that I'm sure is ten times more difficult than it seems, and one faux pas at any time could mean you are never forgotten for it.

I can understand that Jerry Hannon wouldn't be everyone's favourite but what he does do is create excitement and racing is just that. I recall him once saying that every race "should be treated like its a Derby". Would all those that are complaining about his calls be happier with Tony O'Hehir or Justin O'Hanlon being the Irish number one? Those that say Sir Peter O'Sullevan was the greatest may be right or wrong, but its about opinion and his velvet tones helped hugely to his broadcast. Most of his commentaries sounded pretty similar to each other in my opinion and the other oldies Raleigh Gilbert, John Penny and John Hanmer wouldn't, again in my opinion, have the deftness of some of todays callers. I can remember the first named wanting to be known as 'the snippets king' and if you threw in some of his one-liners these days he would be lambasted to high heaven. Hoiles, Holt and Harris remain my top three but I like Hannon.

Holt is my favourite

Another commentator thread and as usual no mention of the best of them all by a country mile. Alan Howes, always under the radar, never gets noticed, but always faultless, no gimmicks, a voice that's easy to listen to and due reverence to a sense of occasion. Plenty candidates for the second worst. Non of them get near Darren Owen.

Surprised Howes doesn't get more gigs

Well I like Tomlinson

People dislike the likes of Tomlinson and Owen but at least they don't try to be over clever, don't try to predict what will happen, don't fixate on the favourite and don't give any stupid quips trying to be funny. Just read the race and do what they're actually being paid to do. It's not about them, it's about the horses.

Tomlinson is fine. My problem with Owen is his voice. I find it deeply unpleasant. It sounds like he's sneering, no doubt unintentionally, but I just feel my toes curling up. And he's often grammatically poor.

Bartett is the worse, when he gets worked up through the race he sounds like a Dalek

Bartlett

Martin Harris is probably my favourite.

the most annoying thing for me is after race interview and the interviewers asking what race next.trying to be clever cloggs naming race after race to the trainer.you can tell trainer just wanting to tell them to fook off.

^and then asking a question that the jockey/trainer has just answered because they haven't the brains to move on from their pre set of questions

What I find unfathomable is that there seems to be some general concurrence on which of them have voices that irritate. Owen, Barlett, Johnston the worst offenders, yet they somehow get given jobs for which the number one qualification should be to have a voice that doesn't irritate. And then there's Derek Thompson.

Go on Jerry

5.05 Galway , great commentary

Aug 3, 2023 -- 10:56AM, saxon farm wrote:

O’Sullevan was brilliant but should have retired 12 years before he did.His latter year commentaries are littered with mistakes.

This is true, I remember the 1987 Sussex Stakes

POS was decent in his prime but went on far too long , as well as making more errors he started whispering a lot.

Paul McCartney is pysh now  in his old age as well but it doesn;t take away from the brilliance of his prime.
O' Sullivan was peerless and still is.

Hayden

5.05 Galway , great commentary
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Agreed,he nailed that one.