Mccririck

Well strangely enough I'm going to speak up (kinda) for McCririck. Yes, he can be terribly boorish at times but he can also be entertaining and, the main point being, the public associate him with racing. He promotes racing and everyone knows who he is. Christ's sake, it's been asked in press rooms "who is Tom Lee? Never heard of him" so what hope does racing have of reaching the public eye if the racing press don't know who the hell he is? Other comments observed how little charisma he has, in fact inanimate objects have been described as having more charisma. That'll do racing's public profile good then, won't it? (and if he's remotely like his sister, racing is in big trouble!!!!!)

Or would you rather have that arsehole Chapman as the public face of racing? You may as well nuke the entire industry in that case.

McCririck is a strange one. He is hugely offensive, sexist, whatever - and acts ignorantly most of the time. However (and I didn't think I'd ever say this) he can also surprise by being perfectly civilised and friendly. I'm actually beginning to think that he is far more intelligent than any of us take him for ~ promoting his offensive, sexist, boorish persona even out of the public eye whilst knowing he can be perfectly rational and civilised if he so wishes.
 
Quite true - McCririck is much more intelligent than he now lets on, as his earlier journalism bears witness, but he has played up his buffoonish side so far that it's kind of taken him over. I don't think he now realises how far it's gone, and that whatever his 'real' character is, or rather was, it's now forever lost in the caricature
 
'The extraordinary thing, I think, is the reason they gave. It was not because I'm too old or too fat, but they said, ‘You're doing it too well, you're dominating the programme and getting too much publicity and we've got to give other people a chance'.

“If you accept that I'm one of the star acts of the programme, then it's like Benitez getting rid of Gerrard, as you've got to bring the youngsters up.
 
I can see where you're coming from, SL and in part would agree with you but what really irritates me about the man is precisley the fact that he isn't on screen what he probably is in private!

Why, as he obviously is an intelligent and erudite man, has he almost gone out of his way to promote the image he has? To be commercial?

Well, being comercial will always have its sell-by date and he's just reached his!

I believe he would have done himself and racing a better favour if he'd cut out his boorish behaviour and let his innate intelligence do the talking on and off screen...
 
I think there is more to the decision to cut back McCririck than meets the eye. It has been apparent to those who have seen him recently that the man does not seem to be well, not only is he looking a little shaky, often frail, he has quite a few "senior moments". It wasn't long ago he kept talking about Earth Summit when he was meaning Paul Nicholl's horse Earth Planet, not an uncommon occurrence of that type to happen of late.
 
I would agree - he seems to have lost a lot of his former robustness. Have never liked the man but certainly wouldn't wish him anything but good health. He appeared to be slightly away with the fairies at times during the weekend's TV coverage.
 
That's a fairly regular occurrence nowadays from what I've seen of him, Songsheet.

I feel quite sorry for him, as you say he's lost a lot of his robustness. Like him or loathe him, he's not as bad as his public act depicts (for that's what it is - and lets face it, you wouldn't despise an actor for playing an evil role, would you?) and he does do a lot in promoting British racing, he is an instantly recognisable racing character to the entire British public (bar those who have been living in caves in the Orkneys for 25 years with no electricity nor papers.....!)
 
Did anyone see him at Sandown on Whitbread Day with Oscar the guide dog?

Priceless, absolutely priceless - the man is a brilliant and eccentric broadcaster, and it will be racings loss when he goes - like a lot of larger than life characters, we only really miss them when they are not around.

On the subject of larger than life, Brian Blessed is a comic genius!
 
Believe it or not, it was McCririck who spotted the guide dog and insisted on him being brought into his and Tanya's piece - he loves his dogs, and has golden labs himself. He made a right fuss over the animal and his owner were pretty chuffed at the attention.

Mind you, it did lead to him talking about "Oscar De Balme" in the Scottish National, another example of him getting mixed up over horses' names!
 
In fairness to McCririck, getting horses names mixed up is not very difficult these days.

If it is a sign of oncoming senility, I will be babbling in a corner soon.

OI! Leader...................I 'eard that!!!!!
 
:D

I know it's easy to do - we all do it! - but getting so many names mixed up on such a regular basis isn't the Mae West.
 
Now I know you are probably having to spend a bit of time on the 'Couch' at the mo,but there's no need to start speaking like him!!
 
I met him at Newmarket races a few years back when I was entertaining a few Japanese colleagues. We introduced ourselves to him and he was the perfect gent, posing for pictures with them etc. I was surprised at how "nice" he was and he couldn't do enough for my colleagues. He really was a pleasure to talk to.
 
I think he is much better than many of the pundits and commentators in the channels.

I much prefer to listen to McCririck rather than Nick Luck, Luke Harvey, willie carson, John Francome ,Jim McGraph or Zoey Bird.
 
Originally posted by LUKE@May 11 2008, 05:18 PM
Now that Rishi Persad has disappeared Zoey Bird is the most cluless presenter in racing.
Click to expand...
He backed Zahid at 14/1 on Sat and tipped it up before the off....maybe not so bad ?
 
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