ATR New Irish Expert

First impressions are poor. You'd know he has a "blower" background, lots of filler words with very little actual insight or substance. Dave Duggan is being badly missed on the Irish coverage. Im getting sick of having English lads being asked to talk about Irish racing when they clearly have no knowledge of it and this chap isn't much better.

Simon Clifford is from Tralee. He may be living in London but he is Irish. Not keen on him myself but the last thing I would be asking for would be Duggan back.

Clearly Irish alright Bass, but doesn't seem to have much more to offer than the English lads they are getting to cover Irish racing lately. Duggan wasn't perfect, but he knew the Irish racing scene and talked about it well.

howd did ye know he from tralee bassanio?.....oh yeah hes told us about 50 times in the last hour....

We agree to differ on this. Duggan was a monumental bluffer in my opinion and that includes anything he did on Irish racing. The limited use of Gary O'Brien nowadays is very annoying as it is hard to believe that he is classified in the same profession as the other two mentioned on this thread. There is no comparison.

Gary O'Brien is the pick of the lot for sure, we'll agree on that. Thing is, there must be loads of lads out there worth giving a shot to that are better than what we are being presented with of late.

Yea he is defo the guy who does the irish racing when is on SIS+

I know it's minor but he thought the owner of Starstruck was Welds wife not his mother which I would expect him to know those colours at this stage.

He is getting a right slagging on the horse forum

brian cooper is from tralee aswell......knows his racing this guy??????

Absolute horror show from the bloke. Same as he was when on the SIS, totally clueless.

WINNER......he tips up a 4/5 fav...

It's the SIS guy alrite. He is absolutely brutal. All he ever did was read out the rp spotlight and name about three or four horses that had chances. If they won he would say he hoped the punters were on but not a geek out of him if they were beat. How he has a job on atr is a mystery. Even if DD was a bluffer he was able to present. This guy has no bit of a racing brain by the sounds of it if all he can do is read the paper.

GOB is obviously streets ahead of the rest but surely they could have got someone other then this guy if Gary didn't want to present from London on a regular basis. That is the only reason I can think of for him not going over there.

Bumper winner at Roscommon last night had a bet fair starting price of 317. Oliver Brabys winner in the north there had a bet fair staring price of 317!!
He surely went to 1000 in running, tried to make all, headed and dropped back to 5th, then rallied and got up

Sorry I meant the Roscommon bumper winner had a bps of 190

Rory Cleary and Emmet Mullins are top jockeys, according to him. He was unbearable all day and I'll be fairly annoyed if he is on again. All the best to him, but this job isn't for him.

a MORON if ever there was a MORON.....a brilliant ride by the winner as i said b4 the race.....a brilliant ride on the 2nd.....another exccellent ride on the 3rd there aswell.....oh and a fine riding performance by the excellent barry cooper staying on in 4th there....oh and did i mention that hes from tralee aswell.....his dad gave me and my brother a tip for a horse at listowel many years ago.....it won but i didnt back it......oh and did i mention listowel,is in kerry as i saisd earlier thats were im from.....
I fear for the future of ATR after this today.. i honestly do....

I found him irritating at the start but ended up feeling sorry for him,when asked a question about handicapping was completely stumped,didn`t know who Frank Oakes was but yet managed to call him a brilliant trainer,the poor fellow is just completely out of his depth.

his parting shot b4 he left the studio was 3 tips for the last 3 races at downpatrick 6.30.zadarska.....7.00......paidi the punter and 7.30 his best bet of the 3 which should win by 3 or 4 lengths Ride on......
cheers mate......

I hope that's the last we see of him, he literally knows nothing about racing in general. It was bad enough listening to him in the shops.

the problem is the studios in England.
Not worth the hassle for an Irish pro to go over there.

London is fine , if you dont actually live in London . Some lovely "suburbs" , but it takes 2 hours to get across to a similar nice place on the other side of "town " . I have 2 first cousins living "in London " , one in Horsham , and one in Abbotts Langley . Lovely spots  , both , but its 2 hours plus apart , and worse sometimes if the traffic is bad . .  I can get to the Curragh  from Belfast in that time without breaking too many speed limits .

No idea why anyone would want to work in London given an option .