Julie dumped

racing has been delayed till Tuesday. Now there's plenty of time to sit around a table & patch things up. Julie obviously resigned as a quick knee jerk reaction.
There are so FEW women involved in S.A. racing & it so happens that Julie is the ONLY woman presenter on our racing channel in P country.

Sit down sort it out - let the days presenting be shared equally by Darryl, Molly, Cecil, Shaheen, Julie & Nick ? - from Cape town, my mind has gone blank now.
I'm not sure which poor sod has drawn TELLTRACK DUTY for Tuesday !

Charl P resigned off telly tack about 4 months back - but I see he's back in the chair on a SAT morning. It's taken JULIE years to get where she is today. Obviously she's a lot more " polished " presenter than she was 5 years ago, but that applies to ALL profesions - one gets better with time .

DON'T THROW THIS ALL AWAY P - sit down & sort out this sh!t....... it can be sorted out by TUESDAY that's for sure.

And yes we do need emotion in racing, thats what it's all about.

People with vested interests, connections to yards or stud farms can become extremely irritating when they keep on punting their connections.

However, Julia Alexander's connection to a horse like Pierre Jourdan is a completely different thing. She has fluked a connection to the current champ and is entitled to fly the flag during their 15 minutes of fame.

Everyone of us has one connection or another, and this is more like hitting the lottery than a vested interest in the Alexander yard. When it happens, you are entitled to go bonkers. It is not a regular event.

what was the name of Alexanders last " big " horse, I think it started with a J ?

Er, james jaguar I think...

I have to side with Oscar and perhaps P to a greater or lesser degree dependant on their reasoning and motive, for the following reasons:

1. One of the last interviews on the last day PJ won was conducted by Dave Mollett and Julie. Dave asked Julie whether she had been upstairs celebrating the win with a few drinks. Julie admitted that she was a bit on. For me this shows a total lack of professionalism. Any management worth their salt would not allow their channel of communication with their paying public to become a play pen. I understand the excitement of the day, but this was a bad reflection on T/Track. Consider those who are watching for the first time and don't understand the connection. Some may think its ok and adds to the excitement. It does not it shows a lack of proffesionalism.

2. I understand talking up a champ but if I were one of the connections of the other runners in the race, I would hate to have the constant gushing post race rubbed in my face especially if it came from a stable insider. We all now this is a game of poor losers and this type of thing just pisses some people off.

You can shoot this post down if you like but I bet none of you who own businesses or run them would condone a staff member of yours dealing with your clients with a few dops in.

Racing in general is a mom and pop show as far as I am concerned. Too much time spent slapping eachother on the back and not enough time running the business. Julie does bring a badly needed feminine touch to TTrack which we probably need more of and I hope that she can find her way back. Management needs to set the ground rules up front and not on a as and when basis.There seems to be one or two knee jerk reactions and perhaps there has been failure on the part of management. Decent management would have been able to convey their reasoning in a way that would have the staff member buy in.

Good point alcaponee, If she was asked to stand down because she had a drink just after the race and if P are strict with there staff about drinking on the job( which I think they should be) Then there must be a couple of scared presenters around.

Yar especially Molly:)o:)

If rules were maintained this would not have happened........In the early days of IGN,now tellytrack,there were a few incidents where presenters represented a stable,failed to tip their horses,and they then won.
It then became a procedure that no presenter could handle a race where they had a interest.....if that had been maintained,Julie would not have handled any of PJ's races and the situation would be clear,with no surprises.She would have not expected to be handling the derby,so no problem!

SO HOW FAR DO YOU TAKE IT?everytime gary alexander has a runner then she isnt allowed to do a preview,..when james maree has a runner then darryl cant do the tipping and when joe soma has a runner neil pretorious cant do the preview....it goes on and on

Who in racing wouldnt be excited about being linked to PJ @ moment?He's being compared to H C, and a formality to win the Triple Crown!

Personally i think the whole debacle started after the Classic, when Julie had her brothers accompany her in studio for a UK night meeting.It was very entertaining tho.

This topic has been flogged to death, but let me add a few cracks; I think common sense needs to prevail and I agree with some of the previous posts that emotion is good and I don't see anything wrong in Julie presenting/previewing/interviewing the Derby (this is a one-off and not to be compared to the general 'insiders' punting their wares); I also believe that there is a difference between appearing before the public totally sloshed against after having a celebratory glass of bubbly.

Even if she was the worst presenter ever (which I don't think she is) I think P handled the whole thing pretty poorly and needs to apologise to her and offer her the job back, or apply the 'rule' equally iro all presenters (and that may take away the human element which makes for interesting TV)

Just my opinion.

mickeyblue Wrote:

---

>>
> Julie is top class, but I noticed that she tends
> to get very excitable and after one of PJ's races
> could hardly speak as her voice was gone as a
> result of her screaming PJ home. It cant happen..
> I cant recall CLare Balding ever coming across
> like that when interviewing her brother or even
> Will buick when he rode Bucellatti at Epsom last
> year. Not a trace of subjectivity.
>
I beg to differ as the following passage from a book called Classic Horse-Racing Quotes written by Graham Sharpe illustrates:

'"Dad can you speak? Neither can I." Not a dry eye in the house as Clare Balding attempts to interview her emotional Dad, Ian, after brother Andrew's 2003 Oaks victory with Casual Look.'