Nico's commentaries

The 'bollie' him and Molley came up with today, reminds me of some funnies;


Ted Walsh, Horse Racing Commentator: "This is really a lovely horse. I once rode her mother.

"Winning Post's Stewart Machin commentating on jockey Tony McCoy's formidable lead: "Tony has a quick look between his legs and likes what he sees

."A new grandstand at Doncaster race course took Brough Scott's breath away: "My word! Look at that magnificent erection!"

Willie Carson was telling Claire Balding how jockeys prepare for a big race: "They usually have four or five dreams a night about coming from different positions."


LOL. Give the guy a break

I do have a soft spot for him........a bog in Botswana..lol
Jokes aside,the 5th today exemplified the problem...he called the wrong horse 3rd (it wasn't that close) because all he was interested in screaming "and Moon Dragon runs on strongly for 5th" .......cos he has a share......everybody else was interested in who ran 3rd. (Bet he wouldn't have gleefully pointed it out if it had run last!..lol)
The job of a commentator is to give a clear and accurate picture to anybody who is NOT watching the race.He see's himself as some sort of celebrity I'm afraid.

oh how we need smiley moosa(tu)

besides his poor commentaries and his poor attitude when in the studio, i thought Nico was "offside" using his position in racing and tellytrack as a forum to request donations for his medical condition earlier this year...am i the only who feels that way...

FC, to be fair, I don't think Nico ASKED for the donations, it was instituted by his fellow tellytrack presenters....

The man is sick, anyone can see that and it is a life threatening illness. I'm sure in his condition the last thing he feels like doing is calling a race but perhaps he has no choice.By all accounts what he needs to help him with his illness requires a lot of money. My heart goes out to him and his family. Get well Nico. NOTHING ELSE matters.

he can't pay his medical bills, but gambles and owns race horses - and gets "donations"

what a sick bunch

To those who critise the commentators. Have you tried it. Have you not messed up in your job countless times? If you all are so perfect then why dont you apply for the job. Typical arm chair comments. Moan moan moan. Its summer time in SA go out in your garden and prune the roses or mow the lawn. Do something constructive instead of climbing into somebody just because he cocks up now and again.

C&C
Sorry mate , I have to disagree with you.
It is not a question of whether some of us can do the job better or not. I cannot. That is why I am not a race caller.

What posters are saying is that Nico is not even a " B grade caller" let alone an "A grade.
We always moan about unqualified "Black" people put in high profile jobs etc.. This is similiar situation except that Nico is not Black.

The poor guy is sick, the studio is a better place for him.

I agree that Nico has made mistakes while commentating. But to go on and on about it is silly in my opinion. He called it as he saw it, unfortunately he was wrong. The correct result was known 30 seconds later. Every commentator, be it Clyde Basel, Craig/Sheldon Peters, Smiley Moosa, etc have at some point or another called a close finish wrong. How many finishes has Allan Schoeman called wrong recently?

Instead of attacking Nico, the question should be, What exactly is Clyde Basels role? Does he have on too many hats? Get him back to what he is best at - commentating.

And for the guys to keep bringing up his health and the story about the donation requests is below the belt.
We have no idea what he or his family have endured so rather just keep quiet. Trust me, I can understand his desperation because I am in a similar situation.

I'm just going to post this and then NOT return to this topic. Because it can go on forever. But consider the following :

Nico is a PAID professional. And one must assume he APPLIED for the job in full understanding that he was/is going to be in the public eye ( or ear! ). As such he must expect to be judged on his performance by the customer base - ie the viewers or listeners.

Contrary to the spin put out by Tellytrack these viewers do not get Tellytrack 'for free' as you need to have a decoder to obtain the signal and they are not given away for nothing. So despite there being no ADDITIONAL charge for Tellytrack ( unless you are a bookmaker - in which case you pay a substantial monthly fee ) the viewers do, indirectly, pay for Tellytrack as part of their overall bouquet selection. As such they are well within their rights to comment on poor presentation. Furthermore - as it is owned by the operators - they contribute on each and every occasion that they purchase a tote ticket.

It is a indisputable fact that Tellytrack almost habitually inflicts on its viewership 'presenters' with very limited ( possibly even nil ) broadcasting skills. The generally accepted approach appears to be that they can 'learn on the job'. Or not. So apart from swallowing their vowels, shouting (instead of broadcasting), mangling horse names, butchering the English language, sharing unfunny in-house jokes with us and endlessly brown nosing their employers they also turn out to be not very good race callers.

This rather 'customer dismissive' approach - which also appears to carry over into other aspects of racing industry management - is further encouraged by far too many posters adopting an 'it's not that bad' or 'give them a break' response. It gets worse when you cite 'Ag, shame - he's sick.' This enthusiastic condoning of mediocrity has another outcome - its contributes to the following :

Operators who consequently do not take comment/complaint seriously because some are telling them it is OK!

Operators who do not even seem to be addressing huge structural deficiencies because some are saying it is OK. Not good, mind you, but bearable.

So if we return briefly to Tellytrack what do we now have? We have a picture which now boasts legless horse races as more and more of the screen is filled with data during the running of a race. Sometimes this data even obscures the whole race dependent upon camera angle. And we have callers where sub standard is rapidly overtaking the acceptable.

And we have identified one race caller who is all of sick/poor/inaccurate but who should nevertheless be retained.

As they say - you get what you deserve and what you are prepared to put up with. More strength to those prepared to protest because it certainly is NOT world class ( although we are continually being told - on very flimsy evidence - that everything else about this sport is ). The rest of you seem relatively happy..........

Anyone been listening to aussie Jim from Lingfield today? what a dumpling,would swap him for Nico any time!