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Andrew Le Jeune talks with the sport's biggest names to discuss the one race that stands out in their memory. Jockeys, trainers, owners, broadcasters and officials all take a turn at recalling the stories behind their biggest racing moments on 'The Race'.
Whilst it's the trainers, jockeys and horses that quite rightly take top billing as far as the world's races are concerned, it's quite often the race calls or the race callers who shape our memories of those great races. A great horse, a great race deserves a great call to go with it. They race towards the turn in the arc and the leaders are a long way clear, set sail and also on the outside the other one, Granducal.
They're about five in front now of Stas Alita. He's getting up on the inside, I see the stars. He's got six or seven legs to make up. He'll have to be a champion. Stas Alita races into the lead now. Two in front, he is a champion I reckon. He's got the run now in the centre. He's out after the leader. He picks up Stas Alita. He powers clear. See the stars racing away. Perfection in equine form. A horse of a lifetime.
He's just going to go on and win the arc by two legs. Tight second. Cavalryman, Jum Zane conduit out wide. him, Darae Mies, Dasalita. Further back then is Fame and Glory. See the stars was naturally one of those great horses and the Arc de Triomphe is of course one of the world's great races and that was a fitting finale to his perfect three-year-old season and near perfect career as well.
I'm Andrew Lejeune. This is the Raceport UI Idle Horse. I'm very pleased to say that joining us today is the unmistakable voice who described that race for us, that is Jim McGrath. Jim, thanks for joining us today. So many great races you could have chosen from, but see the stars and that 2009 ARC stands out for you. Yes, thanks, Andrew. I think that you put it correctly there. The race caller has a very important role to play, I think, and you're always conscious of this.
You're not the star, you're never the star, and you shouldn't be the star. The stars are the horses and the jockeys, as we know. However, our memories of races are quite often the commentaries that go with them. you feel that when there's a very, very good horse, you really want to do him justice. to do him justice as a commentator, you have to deliver an accurate and a good call and a that actually paints the picture and actually an interprets what's happening in front of you. It's very, very important that that's the case. And, you know, I think with See the Stars, I was very conscious before that arc of just how important that was to everybody because he's a horse, as you said, he had an unblemished three-year-old career. He'd actually won, leading into the arc, he'd won five consecutive Group One races as a three-year-old.
won the 2000 Guineas with a really great display over a mile, 1600 meters. He'd won the Derby over 2400 meters. He'd come back to 2000 meters to win the Eclipse. Still at 2000 meters or 2100 meters for the Judmont at York. And then he went to the Irish Champion Stakes at Lepestown and that was over the same trip. Then he's stepping back up to the mile and a half, the 2400 for the the arc at Longchamp.
So a lot riding on it. He was a horse who captured headlines during that year. He was an absolute superstar. But I think that like all superstars, no matter what sport it is, there has to be one memory that actually comes to you and sort of illustrates just why he was a champion. And quite often those champions have to get up off the floor and they have to...
produce an extraordinary performance to actually win. And that's exactly what Cedar Stars did at Longchamp that day. He was in all sorts of trouble. Mick Conant was the jockey, great rider, one of the greatest riders of his time. And he had a lot of trouble settling the horse early. He was very keen. And eventually he did anchor him back on the inside. But coming into the home straight, he was lying in about eighth position on the inside with a wall of horses in front of him.
He looked like he had really, he would have to be extraordinary to actually win that race. And I think in the call I said he'd have to be a champion to win from there. And of course, know, 50, 60, 70 yards later I said, I reckon he is a champion because he just somehow extricated himself from that pocket on the inside, got an opening, dashed through it, and then was able to finish with a real flourish.
It was the mark of a champion, what he had to do and what he actually delivered. It was a very, very extraordinary performance and it capped the most wonderful career. As you say, almost perfect career. He won eight of his nine races and he was an outstanding horse. Just a little bit about that year. I really did have a window or a sort of a, just a hint of what might be to come because
I was in Dubai in the winter and Mick Canann, a good friend for many, many years, my wife Anita and I had dinner with Catherine and Mick Canann. I forget which hotel it was, but it was a very lovely hotel on the beach there in Dubai, down at Jumeirah. he said to me that
He had put himself through an exercise or a fitness regime that winter in Dubai because he wanted to be fit for this horse. He said, and he was, didn't say it was his last year, but the way he was talking, he knew that was going to be last season riding. And this was a special horse and he wanted to be totally 110 % fit to actually do the horse justice.
And he said about doing lots of all sorts of running and all sorts of physical activity, which he would not normally do because, you know, riding horses in the morning, truck work and, you know, riding gallops and riding races is usually enough for those at that level. But he went that extra yard and he got himself ultra fit. So I knew then how much this meant. So that sort of set the scene for me.
knowing exactly what the season ahead was possibly going to hold. And as it turned out, that day at Longchamp in Paris, it's something I'll always remember, the race and the performance of both horse and rider. You mentioned this season that the Guineas, the Derby, the Eclipse, then York and then Ireland for the champion stakes.
As far as I know there's a Triple Crown that might be discussion for another time which is rarely taken on these days in the UK. I mean it is just about the perfect as far as an English or Irish trained horse that is just about the perfect season that those six consecutive wins over six months as well it was one run a month all the way through to October. Exactly it was it was extraordinary and also obviously the horse was a great horse. Also have to pay credit to John Ox the trainer who you know he was
He just did a superb job. I'd say there's been so many great trainers in Ireland, as we know, in the last, well, forever. They've always had great trainers. you know, you'd pity being a young trainer starting off there because the competition is so great. Well, John Oxford was forever at the top, you know, for 25, 30 years. And of course, this was his crowning achievement as well.
It all came together on a glorious day at Longchamp. yeah, as you say, six consecutive months, six group ones, the most prized and the premier group ones in Europe. And he did it all. And he went from a mile to a mile and a half, all those distances. And also he traveled. this is, you should never compare horses. But I think in time,
people who look at records and they look back at the thing, and particularly people who are not there, they look back and they'll say, well, Franco was a great horse. Franco was a fantastic horse, 14 out of 14, never beaten. But he never went outside England and he never went beyond 2,100 meters, 10 and a half. And they'll analyze that and they'll say, why didn't he? What was the Well, we all know that the genius of Henry Cecil was responsible.
for actually bringing the very best out of an absolutely brilliant horse racehorse. But a horse who was in the wrong hands may not have achieved the heights that he did, simply because of his brilliance, his explosive brilliance, as we saw in the guineas. You'll never see a classic one like that. You'll never see a 2000 guineas one like that. To be 15 lengths clear and halfway,
and then go on and win the classic. It was just stunning. It just was completely incredible. you know, it's as I go going back to see the stars, he did it in three countries. He did it from over a variety of distances and he was superb. do you approach a race like that in terms of the build up the morning of the race? Because
Most of the horses would be very familiar with and familiar with the form as well. We should probably point out it was a very good lineup that year. Caveryman finished second. was a group, sorry, Humes came finished second for any old place getter, of course, when he finished second in three arcs. But a group won winner. Caveryman was a group one winner. Femm and Gloride won the Irish Derby that season. Dar-Re-Mi, Conduitt had won the Lencher in the British Cup turf the season before. It was a really, really good line up. A lot of the horses you'd know, you know, straight away. But how much do you do the morning of the race or is all the work done?
in the build up to the Sunday? Well, you're always gathering information and the more you read, it's going in here. It should be going in there. But it's a funny thing, the ARC is one of those races where you get there, a bit like the national, you've got to be aware of color changes and that sort of stuff. Now, was like Cavalryman, Now, from memory, that race is very light colors that day. think, think, Godolphin, had
They had beige colors, to sort of complement their royal blue colors that they also have. And I think for a while there in France, they used to race in the beige. But anyway, so you're aware of that. So in your mind, you've got a covering man, you know, and then you get there and it's different. So you've got to be very aware of that. The other thing with the arc in particular is you get overseas runners, you get Germans, you get
you get the occasional sort of European that you might get an odd Italian or you know and of course some years you're getting the Japanese and you wouldn't be you wouldn't be as you say you should know all those things but you don't you know and so you've got to look at the the card beforehand and look at the Paris turf I used to use over there and also the racing post when it was available because when you're in Paris
very hard to get a racing post when you want to get one. They're available these days on the course, but going back a few years, they weren't as readily available. So you've got to be a bit agile mentally and be aware of what's going on, but be very, very careful of those overseas. I'm not going to be disrespectful to call them nondescript.
But they're horses that haven't entered your psyche. They're not in there. They're not in there like the conduits, the dar-ay-me's, the fame and glories, the sea, the stars. They're all there. But the others, you need to really brush up on them and just refresh your memory about who they are and what the colors are and what distinguishing features that they have. yeah, a bit more work goes into it than you think. And also the other thing is the volume of runners.
So I think that year there were quite a few horses, I mean up to 20 horses. But when I first started doing them, there were 25 plus. And the Aga Khan would invariably have three. And over there, they don't have the skintenguishing caps, they have a flimsy sash which they wear. And you can't see it, you just can't see them. But they're basically the same colors with this very flimsy sash that's sort of pinned on.
anymore than that. And race callers do rely heavily on the colors. That's your number one point of reference. But there's also distinguishing markings, there's head gear, there's jockey styles, all that sort of stuff. If you get a white bridle, terrific. You know, all those sort of little details sort of come into it. And you've got to be aware of it. And as they go in the post, see if you can see them and just...
make sure you can remember them. It's funny you mentioned I went down a bit of a rabbit hole looking at old after truants and I was watching Carnegie's and I think it was Graham Good was calling the race and he makes mention as they cross the line about I don't want to misquote him but he says something like all we've got to identify is that ridiculous blue sash in this day of international racing which he had obviously been playing on his mind.
the fact the horse, well he did, the call was perfect, but it was obviously something sitting there in the back of his mind that he wanted to make a point of. Yeah, well you're very aware of it, you know, also that arc, the Sea of Stars arc, there were two pacemakers there and they went so far clear, one of them, so I'm calling them through, right, and when they go to the, what they call the Petit Bois, just from the stands you can't see them, but you can on the
on the TV, on the video, on your monitor. So of course when they cross to them, the actual one that's actually right out in front is not in the screen. So the one I'm calling actually leading at that particular point was actually running second and he had one in front of him. He was about three or four lengths in front of him but even the cameraman had missed him. He was so far in front. And those two horses.
I think one was Sea Surf or something like that and Grand Ducal. That pair, they went about 10m clear of the rest. So it was difficult in that way. When you've got Tearaway leaders, it really is difficult. You're expecting them to come back, obviously. But as we know recently, they don't always come back. No, very true. Your heart must have skipped a beat though when it did appear in shot again. I know, I know. But you just have to carry on.
You mentioned before that you said in the call he's going to have to be a champion from there, which he was. Have you ever fallen into the trap of someone can't win, he can't win from there, which is the of the famous, I suppose, death call that you can come back and leave you a lot of egg on your face. Well, it's funny you should mention that. I'm always very aware of that. so I would always sort of go, it's almost impossible, you know.
or you'd have to be far left to win from there or Nijinsky or whatever, wherever you are. Well, the famous call that everyone refers to in Australia, as you know, is Bill Collins' call of Kingston Town in the Cox Plate. And Bill was the best, in my opinion, the best race call I've ever heard anywhere. And that's with great respect and great admiration of many, many other great callers, you know.
that we've seen and heard over the years. But Bill, he was the superstar and always will be in my mind. he said, well, Kingstown Town can't win. And of course, at that point, if there had have been bet fair, betting and running, he would have been, he would have been 100, you know, he would have been, he would have been 999, you know, he was going backwards, he was on the fence and he could not possibly win.
And he didn't like the Melbourne way of going in Kingston town. If you look at him, he should have won a Melbourne Cup and he should have won probably a Caulfield Cup, he used to go much better on his other leg, going the Sydney way. And yeah, Bill was right. He couldn't win, but he did. And it was a bit like see the stars. You'd need a miracle. So I was lucky in saying that he'd need to be a champion.
rather than say he couldn't win. But in my mind I'm thinking, gee, you would have to be a champion to win from there. And that final line of perfection in equine form, false modesty aside, you must have been very happy with the way that last 50 metres half a furlong went and the way that ultimately framed the end of the race. Yeah, I was very happy and very happy also that he's these two lengths in front when you're able to use that phrase.
It was Greg Miles who said to me, I think it was, he said that before the Colby Divas third cup, Melbourne Cup, the night before he saw Bruce McAvaney, the great sports broadcaster and also a Melbourne Cup caller himself. And he said, so you've got a line, have you? You got a line for tomorrow, you know, three Melbourne Cups? And Greg said, no, I haven't really. And he said he went home and he thought, gee.
Bruce is right. He said, I've got to have a line, you know, and so he did have a line and and what was it? was a was it something that becomes a legend? was it? What was the phrase? And he came up with a very, very good line. And and and of course, it makes that it makes the call. Right. It puts the it puts the cherry on top, you know, and that was a great call. You know, although I would always say that
the greatest call and bravest call was viewed winning the Melbourne Cup. He won by the width of half a cigarette paper. He's won by the width of that. And he's called him right on the line. Well, I don't know how he was feeling in the minute or so or two minutes or so before the judge put the number up.
he would have been a very relieved man when it went up. It was a very, very good call. Fantastic. And that's the call I'll always remember. But going back to what you're saying, you've got to have a line. I did have a line lined up. And as you know, it can be a very, very, very big mistake to rehearse or to prepare or practice or thinking, you know, things are going to happen because they don't always happen. that finish could easily have been a short head, a bobber, head bobber.
Well, you wouldn't have been using any lines like that. You can only use those lines when you've got enough space and enough time to do it. And of course, he burst two links, three links in front. So you did have time to use it. And I'm very happy, as you say, it ends up making it look a good call. And also, it's, you know, I think for once I was able to do the horse a great horse justice, you know. You mentioned before the Grand National in passing, I suppose, one of the great things about
working in the UK for as long as you have is you get this variety of calling the classics in the UK races like the Arc de Triomphe and the Grand National as well. And you called one of the most remarkable in living memory in Red Marauder. Yeah, Red Marauder was just an extraordinary race. It was so wet. Many people thought and there was a lot of criticism later. think Alistair Down was very critical in the sporting life or was it the post then?
No, it would have been the post. He was very critical, the racing post, very critical that they actually ran the race and he thought there was a bad spectacle and it reflected badly on jump racing and racing in general. And a lot of people took that view. I didn't take that view. I thought that what we saw was a remarkable performance by a very, very courageous horse and also a great exhibition of horsemanship by Richard Guest.
on Red Marauder. Red Marauder, if you watch the race, he didn't jump very well at all. He even made a mistake not that far from home and allowed Smarty, the other horse who was left with him, allowed him a three-length, four-length break, and yet he was able to come back from that. It was an extraordinary performance and he was absolutely legless. But Richard Guest, who we both know is a great horseman, and
was able to get him around, not only get him around, but get him around in front. From a contrary point of view, it was one of those unusual Grand Nationals, because you start off with 40 runners. So you never ever think you're going to be in a position where you're going to be short of things to say, or there's going to be unusual circumstances whereby you're groping for another line or whatever. Everything's happening so fast, you haven't got time to get the words out.
In this case, there 40 runners lining up, very, very wet day, muddy conditions, and there three commentators. There's myself at the grandstand, John Hanmer, who's located in the middle of the course, and he's calling them over fences one, two, three, four, up to about five, then he crosses over to Tony O'Hare. It was to be at Beaches. Tony called the Grand National TV for many years.
And then it would come back to John and then come back to me in the grandstand, take them up the straight and then we'd do it all again. Five minutes before the race, Malcolm Kemp, the director came on to talk back. He said, I'm sorry, Kiwi, he said, sorry, boys. He said, sounds gone down. Sorry, can't get Tony. John, you're going to have to do the race. You're going to have to do the race out in the country. Well, this is at five minutes notice. So John took them out, called him.
most of the race off a TV monitor are probably about eight or nine inches wide. He called them and there was a huge pile up at the canal turn, I think it was. There was about 10 horses just ran into the back of each other. They just funneled into the inside and they couldn't go anywhere. were horses and riders everywhere and he bravely got through all that. It was an heroic performance, one of the most heroic.
John had a great guy and a great friend, a first-class commentator and a man who called 32 nationals. And so, yeah, he got through that. So I had enough time to actually go back through, had a media guide that they give and they give unusual facts in this media guide. I'm going back, so John's calling the race and I've got the
director in my ear as well, right? And I'm thumbing through this media guide looking for this, there's a horse called Tipperary Tim, which I think in 1928 had beaten one other runner, so there were only two left. And so I was able to pluck this fact out of what people would think, gee, it must have an enormous, know, cyclopedic memory. No, no, no, no.
had a very, good media guide and I had enough time to actually thumb through it and find the reference to it. So yeah, I was able to refer to Tipperary Tim and the two runners. As it turns out, there were four finishes because blowing wind Tony McCoy and Papillon Ruby Walsh, they remounted after both those horses refused a long way from home. They remounted. These days that would not be possible under the rules of racing. You cannot remount.
in steeplechases or any jump races in the UK. yeah, so it was an unusual set of circumstances, a great performance by a great horse and a great rider and an heroic race call by my colleague John Hammer. Visibility was appalling that day as well with the race, which makes it even. Yeah, and then the thing about the Grand National, for any race caller will tell you it's the biggest challenge, it's the biggest thrill.
It's the biggest event in your race calling season and the one you most look forward to. You look forward to it with anxiety, with excitement, trepidation and great interest. Everything about Aintree was just something special. I always used to make a point of walking the course on the Thursday or the Friday just to reacquaint myself with the fences and
you know, it's just to remind yourself also about just how ferocious those fences are and how challenging they are for horse and rider. Because you hear, you know, the old timers, I remember Josh Gifford and Terry Biddlecombe and those guys, the nationals not what it was, right? mean, you know, the fences are just so easy, right? Well, if you walk around, even today, when they have modified them enormously.
And they had to, because to just move with modern times, you've got to be socially acceptable. They're still very big. wouldn't fancy, I know you're a rider yourself, you've actually beaten Willie Carson in a race. You wouldn't fancy that, you wouldn't fancy them. No way, no way.
You didn't need Excitopedia knowledge to come up with that statue. Speaking of guesses, I actually worked with a long time ago when I was at Toby Baldings. He'd be a good one to have on because he'd have some good stories about about Red Marauder and Beech Road who won a champion hurdle too. I did want to move on though, Jim, to there's obviously a great race from the UK, great race for France, arguably Australia's greatest race, the Melbourne Cup, which turned out to be your Fiorentes. The Melbourne Cup turned out to be your, that was your very last race call, was it? It was my very last race call and the Melbourne Cup
Obviously being a Melbourne boy, born in Melbourne, it's always been in my heart and always on my mind and it was what I grew up with. And to actually get the opportunity to call the Melbourne Cup, my first Melbourne Cup was 1994, Jeanne Hamden-Almachtoum, trained by David Hayes and written.
by Wayne Harris. I remember that night I went down and a few drinks with a great friend of mine, Robin Park, the late Robin Park from Hong Kong. I remember we were in Silver's nightclub in Turak at the Tok H and I said to Robin, I said, I have now fulfilled my ambition. When I started as a race crawler, I have fulfilled my ambition today.
I wanted to call an Melbourne Cup and I managed to do it. Happily, I went on and called another 19, called 20 and all for BBC Radio. And it was actually, I convinced them that it was a very, very good thing to do. And it fitted well because it was four o'clock in the morning. there was a, I think you actually, the year that my fear into was my very last race call. I think that next year you shared the commentary with John Hunt.
BBC Radio and it really did fit in well in their program because they had a program called Up All Night which people who were listening obviously were up all night and there's a guy called Rod Sharp and he's a very good broadcaster and he many many years several years he was in Washington covering the the elections the US elections for the president and he
He would be in Washington and I'd in Flemington and having a two way. it was a very unusual program and all sorts of people coming on the program and it worked well. So I was lucky to call 20 of those for BBC radio. And, you know, obviously it was very, very special to me. And as it turned out, I retired from race calling in 2013 in September here in the UK, my last race call at Ascot.
but I still had this commitment for the BBC in November. I was very looking forward to it. And as it turned out, it was Fiorente, Gay Waterhouse, Damien Oliver, and it was a memorable win. And also I had known well here previously when he was trained over here by Michael Stout. So it was a big day and meant a lot to me. And it was just a...
for me it was a really good day and a good way to end. We share something common then because I retired my race calling career came to an end after protectionist won the Melbourne Cup as well that was my one and only. Is that right? that right? The next year, the very next year. Just on the Melbourne Cup because the place getters that year I think the next four or five places were all Europe, yeah Red Cordeaux another perennial place getter finished second
Idol Horse (31:22.926)
who has got Mathos in the race, Simeon and Dandina, they filled the next four places. It always crops up around Melbourne Cup time of year about the internationals, should they be limited in their numbers. Do you have a particular view on that or a stance in terms of where the direction of the race has gone? I have a very strong view and the view is you should never bring in restrictions or caps. The race sorts itself out.
It's a race that has evolved, right? And you can never ever get away from the fact that Australian racing is no point people turning around and lamenting that we have no stairs. You know, it's if you're going to breed for speed, it's inevitable, right? That the that that you're not going to have stairs. And the world is such a small place now.
that horses can move from one part of the world to another quite easily compared to years before. And don't forget that before 1992, 1993, the quarantine laws were so restrictive in Australia. They'd been drawn up to actually cater for thoroughbred racehorses. They were really catering for stallions. So you had to do three months quarantine.
before you could come to Australia. And that was to fit in with horses that had been standing as stallions in the late 40s, the 50s, and the 60s. There was no need to change those quarantine laws. They were draconian, but they were protecting the livestock of Australia, and they were protecting everyone. And nobody was inconvenienced at all, because those horses were standing as stallions. They had plenty of time to recover and take up their stallion duties, their job.
Then of course it all changed. Travel became, for horses became a lot easier, or still tough though, but a lot easier. And quarantine after a lot of lobbying and a lot of paperwork and a lot of approaches by the VRC in Melbourne to the authorities, AQUIS, the Australian Quarantine Authorities, a lot of work went into getting those quarantine laws changed. And it was that that paved the way for
vintage drop and drum taps as we know in 1993 to come out and run. They were the first European trained horses or overseas trained horses to actually come to Australia and run in the Cup. There had been previous imports but they weren't trained in the Northern Hemisphere. They were landed and then they were trained by Australian trainers previously. So quarantine laws were changed and they allowed them to come. And of course,
The imbalance, as we know, the Australian stayers and the European stayers was so great that, of course, more and more people could see the way it was going, the owners bought European horses, shipped them in, and they ran them, and they become part of the fabric, the home fabric. They're bred in Europe, but they're racing in Australia, and that's the way it evolved. Now, it's a funny thing, the way things happen.
Then we have two quite catastrophic occurrences in the cup. We have Cliffs of Moher breaking a shoulder in the cup. We also have, I think that was in Cross Countless Cup in 2018. And then we have, and this was the headline maker and the straw that really did break the back. It was Anthony Van Dyke, an Epsom Derby winner, a Derby winner.
first derby winner to run in the cup and he broke down on the turn and had to be put down. Now that was the turning point. That was when officials said, this is our showcase race. We cannot afford to have this, the race where we showcase what we're doing to the whole of Australia, to the whole of the world. We cannot have these catastrophic injuries. And if they're preventable,
if we can eliminate the risk, some risk, there's not all risk but some risk, well then we should take it. And they brought in very, very stiff veterinary measures, the standards that have to be met and they were needed because we can't have that. Anyway, so I do have a strong view and of course that is inevitably that has sorted it out. So now instead of having a dozen
European trained runners or overseas trained runners, you're now having probably three or four, which is about 16 % of your field. And that's probably acceptable to everybody. I think that in a way it's moved in a curious way how we've arrived at that, but that has sorted it out. So no longer can we have people complaining that they're coming over and snatching our prize money because now, as I said previously,
Australian owners are buying those European horses anyway and they're bringing them in and they're shipping them down to trainers like Chris Waller and Kieran Ma, all the great trainers down there and they're running as Australian horses. So it sorts itself out. As I say, I would not put caps on the number because then you're into the realms of having an invitation. Very, very bad.
let anyone enter if they want to enter if they can qualify they can satisfy the the qualifications for the cup and get a reasonable rating well so be it i think that's the way it should be
I like to ask the Jockeys, Jim, when I'm talking to them about, we should always talk about that, you one of the races that stands out as a career highlight for them. But another one may be that, you I see something just hasn't quite gone to plan, a race that like over and James Doyle interestingly sort of ties in with See the Stars because his one that he'd like again was see a class behind a naval in the Arc de Triomphe. Just didn't happen for a horse stepped out in front of him and.
race was gone, essentially. But just to reframe it slightly for you, is there a race that you'd like to have called over the years, maybe in a different jurisdiction, the US, South Africa, South America, wherever it might be that you didn't get the chance to do that you would like to go back and have a crack at maybe? Well, I think that I was very fortunate to call in about 14 or 15 different countries. And I only once called in America, and that was at the Golden Jumps meeting.
half the Chumps meeting at a place called Percy Warner Park in Nashville, Tennessee. And it was, it's quite a, it's quite a novelty. They don't have betting. I think it's banned in Nashville or Tennessee. And drinking is also very, there's no public bar. There is a bar if you want to get the hospitality, if you want to buy your...
your place at a table and you you can get alcohol or liquor as they say but they're into tailgating which is for us is having a picnic out of the boot of your car and so masses of cars these huge utes with you know people with a huge fridges at the back and they're having parties and that's tailgating and they're
having great, plenty of drink out of the cup. But no public bar and no betting. So it's very different. It's like a point to point with no bookies. And yeah, it was very unusual. And I called about three or four races there. So that was Percy Warner Park, which was great. I always wish I could have called at one of the tracks, maybe done a little summer season or a winter season somewhere.
didn't come to anything. If there was one race I wanted to call there it would be the Kentucky Derby. I've only been to one that was Justifies Derby. And it was a memorable winner. Of course he went on and became a Triple Crown winner. And I thought it was an outstanding performance what he turned in that day. And as it turns out he seems to have been one of years making his mark as a stadium as we know.
One feature of the day was that it's the only time I've ever been to a Kentucky Derby. I've been to Churchill Downs many times, but not so derby. This was the first time, and only time. And it started raining at 10 in the morning, and it didn't stop. Even at 10 at night, when we went outside after we'd been in a restaurant in Louisville, we went outside, it was still raining. And we were just unlucky. We absolutely got drowned. And the next day,
It was the most glorious, beautiful day you've ever seen. so it was just, it was just bad luck, but it was good to be there for justify. So if there was one race I'd love to call, it would be, wish I had called it be the Kentucky Derby. Well, you picked a good year. All the same, great memories, Jim, great to chat. One final question for you. Could you make a suggestion for me for a future guest, whether it's someone from your own field or a trainer, a jockey, that you make a...
We have some good stories to tell us down the track. Well, I think that while we're in the commentary sort of in the commentators box, the race callers box, a guy that I always found to be a great character and would have many tales to tell is Tom Durkin, the great American race caller of yesteryear. He's had so many say he's got a lot of energy to put.
Tom Durkin calls on YouTube, you're going to come up with some spectacular and very colorful calls and with a very, very colorful man, very colorful character with some great stories. So I nominate Tom Durkin. Excellent. Yeah, you could go definitely down a rabbit hole as well, looking for the some very memorable ones. I think that the Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do one is one that's got a lot of airplay at the time. Yeah.
and R. Great stuff Jim, we'll track down Tom. An absolute pleasure to chat with you and we could have gone for a lot longer as well and talked about a lot more horses, a lot more races as well but... And we didn't even go down to Hong Kong. We didn't, no we'll have to save that for another time but it may well be ironically that might be the next time I see you of course unless you're down for a spring carnival or something like that that we might catch up when we get to Hong Kong next time.
I look forward to it. Thank you for your company as well. Don't forget to like, share and subscribe to make sure you never miss an episode and leave us your suggestions as well as potential future guests. That's it for now though. We'll see you next time on The Race.