Originally Posted by Darren Lethem:
“What they getting monitored for mate ?”
Normally there's a maximum of 20 commentators on the racecourse rota but last year there were only 19 when both Graham Goode and Dave Smith were dropped but only David Fitzgerald was added.
This year it's different with 3 newcomers - John Blance, Gary Capewell & Matt Chapman - being given a few meetings each in the first 6 months while Derek Thompson, Jim McGrath, Iain MacKenzie & Darren Owen are all being "monitored".
As you can imagine, this was big news in the Racing Post and racing forums last December - without official confirmation, it seems the aim is to make the rota younger and more chatty with any info for the crowd in between races.
To sum up huge amounts of headlines and forum posts, McGrath & MacKenzie look to be in most danger of being past their sell-by dates, Thompson (despite being in his late-50's or early-60's) has been staunchly defended by several racecourses for already doing exactly the chatty style that's seemingly wanted (notably at Newmarket's Friday nights) and no-one has a clue how Owen (mid to late 40's) has ended up in any risk at all !