Um, er, er, um, er, er,um,um.

The arrival of Mark Neisius on Tellytrack is just the latest in an almost unending succession of rank amateur, untrained 'broadcasters' ( sic ) who are foisted on us because they are allegedly 'expert' in horse racing.

Now I am absolutely certain that Mark is a very nice guy but he has the TV presence and smoothness of a brillo pad.

Nobody has yet suggested putting me up on their Fort Wood first timer for one very simple reason - I am totally unschooled and inexpert in the matter of race riding! Yet week after week we are inflicted with a succession of personalities who give sheltered employment a bad rap.

Racing's spin doctors are quick to throw around terms such as 'world class' yet in the matter of an area where ( God forbid! ) an international market sees our product they are quite happy to adopt a 'have microphone, will travel' approach.

I challenge any clan member to take a random 5 minute slice out of virtually any broadcast and come up error free. In a recent pre race summary covering a mere 3 minutes I counted no less than 27 'er's' from Dees Dyanand. Julie Alexander remains in a league of her own so I won't even refer to her track record. And Neil Pretorius is quickly learning that studio presenter is a lot more demanding than a 5 minute slot from Kenilworth every 30 minutes.

Why is it that Tellytrack appears grimly determined not to train these people? At the very least they should all have to go through speech & drama training before they are inflicted on us.

They are quite simply excruciating to listen to.

garrick sounds like butter dont melt in your big mouth

i say try it yourself and um, er, mmm, um we can count your eff ups

mark tipped a few winners, i dont care what he sounds like

MM that is not the point. these guys are the showcase for SA racing and paid to do a job. a small investment in training for professional broadcasting would go a long way.

I am always amazed at those who believe that,if you you are not qualified at something,you may not have a view....The issue is that if someone is remunerated to perform a task,their competence is entitled to be questioned.
Does it follow that you cannot complain about the way crime is policed,if you are not a policeman?

i have to fully agree with garrick on the presenters of tellytrack.I'm so happy when i see shaheen shaw cause he's brilliant.The rest is simply mediocre to average.

I agree fully -so easy to fix, so near yet so far. Good read as always, Garrick. My usual point is, with the logic you speak and have spoken for many years,
howcome nothing has been done - its been at least 15 years no? What will it take for certain people to smell the coffee? Surely it doesn't take a rocket scientist to arrange a short course in presenting/journalism - get one of the vocational schools such as Delia Sainsbury's Waterfront School or even E-Tv's studio's to help? Or, failing that - there's the basic route of mimicing UK's or USA's presenters? - free??????? tape and replay and copy!!
HOw they don't see how bad they are I don't know...

This is just South African Standards. So much money poured into the game and yet no money put towards simple resources. The rich just get richer ...

trickle down mediocrity...

christo, got to agree with you, shaheen is the best they got in the tt studio - he is a pleasure to listen to.
If memory serves me right, didn't Martin Locke train the racing T.V. presenters of years gone by, such as Cecil, James Mpiri & others.

Magic, I think Cocky Locky lives in your part of the world ( probably near the Oyster Box ) get him out of retirement !

Sounds like you guys have presenters similar to us in the uk Robert Cooper and Luke Harvey,Claire Balding,Willie Carson and many more that the mute button takes care of.

Im with Garrik...the only ones I like are the commentators Clyde, Shaheen and Nico..also Grant , Paul and Mark Nesius

Please man get some new blood in there!

It's all about dough.You get what you pay for.

I would pay to have a racing channel that shows the horses in the canter past,a scroll showing the change in weights going back 5 runs,and up to date betting(although even that is available online).Not quite sure what more one needs than that.If punters need presenters to tip they shouldn't be punting!