Friday at Doncaster was the third day of the prestigious St Leger meeting, where the main attraction was the Doncaster Cup. For me though, it was an experience I won't be forgetting any time soon. Yes the racing was great, but me and my dad had got a behind the scenes day with the Channel 4 racing team.
It started off the previous week when I sent in a preview of the racing on Betfred Sprint Cup day to various members of the team, asking for feedback. Tanya Stevenson got back to me on the Sunday morning afterwards, giving me some great feedback and offering a day with them on one of three different dates, which I obviously couldn't miss.
We got there at 9 in the morning, the earliest I had ever got to a racecourse on a raceday in my life! After meeting Tanya, and getting our badges, we then proceeded upstairs to the production meeting. There, we met all the presenters, Mike Cattermole, who recognised me from when I shadowed him at Nottingham back in April, Emma, Jim, John and Simon, plus all the production team. We all read through the script, and tweaked it if neccesary, for example, changing to interviewing Ed Walker before Sound Of Guns ran in the Flying Childers instead of Michael Bell, because he was a smaller trainer in great form.
After a meeting full of laughs, mainly about how bad 'The Sweeney' was, which a few of the team had seen the previous evening, we then moved to the area no ordinary racegoer can go, which is the production trucks.
Firstly, we saw one of the video editing suites, where the all the walls were covered from head to toe in tapes, dating back eighteen months. As my dad said 'I could have lived in there with a telly to watch them, and not got bored'. We then went to the main nerve centre, the visual and audio truck. In the visual section, there was more TV screens in there than you've ever seen in your life, with various camera angles and hundreds of buttons all with individual roles to help piece together the coverage.
We were then let loose for an hour or so until they got my headset ready for later, so I could listen to all the talkback between the producers and presenters while the programme is going on. In that hour, it was time for a bite to eat, and a placepot session as we tried to pick our way through this high class and tricky card. After the deliberations and grafting through the form book, we went to collect the headset from one of the trucks which Tanya had laid on for us to share.
With headset on, we wandered towards the edge of the paddock, but on route, Jim McGrath saw us and offered us to have a look in the box by the paddock where Jim and John Francome look at the runners. John was on cracking form all day, and told us a great story from the old days at Southwell, where he rode the same horse in different divisions of the novice hurdle, under a different name. He said the marks of the whip could still be seen on his quarters from an hour or so earlier. And when a fellow rider missed out four of the five fences up the straight at Chepstow in the fog, while he jumped them, then he rejoined over the last and caught John for third close home, he was livid at the time!!
Before we knew it, racing was upon us, with Sir Prancealot winning the opener on his return to five furlongs, he could be an Abbaye horse either this year, but probably next year as a better option. Then it was the Mallard Stakes, where I strongly fancied Nanton each way, this dashing ten year old grey is still going strong, and so nearly got up in a finish where eight of them were split by two and a half lengths won by Sir Graham Wade. Caravan Rolls On looked a very unlucky loser in that race, and is one to watch in the rest of the season.
All the while, I was listening away to the production team frantically organising everyone with countdowns and cues to speak, it was fascinating.
It was big race time, the Doncaster Cup, where luckily for us, the perfect result occured. Times Up, a most fitting name for his trainer John Dunlop, who announced his retirement only a day previous. He scored narrowly over arguably a slightly unlucky High Jinx for Graham Lee, who had also just missed out on Nanton half an hour earlier. It was great to see John there as well, who looked a bit emotional afterwards, which is to be expected. Certify won in a great finish to the May Hill Stakes, beating Purr Along by a head, a horse that has gone a little under the radar, probably due to the yard who trains her. Then, half an hour later, in similar style, after being narrowly headed at one stage then winning cosily, Ashdan won for William Buick and John Gosden ahead of another smart horse; who'll be a sprinter I think in time, No Jet Lag, in the Rossington Hall Conditions Stakes. The next handicap was won in good style by Cape Classic, a horse who was very well thought of at the start of the season but hadn't delivered up until now. Diescentric ran an eye catching race and has been dropped two pounds as well, he could be one to watch in big field seven furlong or mile races in the next few weeks (Is entered in 7f Ascot handicap 06/10/12). Finally, my strongest selection of the day, Dick Doughtywylie held on really well to win the Classified Stakes for the Buick and Gosden combination at 7/2.
After dropping my headset back to the truck, we thanked Tanya, who was a brilliant guide and is a real hard-worker, working as Andrew Franklins' PA for fifteen years.
I would like to thank everyone at Channel 4 racing for being so accomadating to us both, and giving me some great advice and insight into the work required to make every broadcast go as smoothly as it can.
Will
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