MY CALL: THE TESTING ART OF RACECALLING

By David Fowler | Tuesday, December 10, 2019

David Fowler is the principal thoroughbred caller for Radio TAB. David, who is a keen form student and punter, has enjoyed a lifetime involvement in the racing media. His personal blog, ‘My Call’, appears exclusively on HRO.

The art of racecalling never ceases to amaze me.

The latest episode of this certainly didn’t cover me in any glory at Doomben at the weekend.

A mistake was corrected in the nick of time but the damage had been done to spoil an otherwise competent day of broadcasting.

I confused eventual winner She’s Furline for Astro Boy Toy near the 100 metres. Both raced in the Aquis colors with varying levels of ownership interest.

The differentiation was the caps with Michael Hellyer (She’s Furline) wearing the aqua and black checked cap while Astro Boy Toy’s jockey Ryan Maloney sporting a black cap.

Cap changes are a common occurrence and anyone who saw or heard the race would know I identified both correctly in running until things went pear-shaped in the run to the finish.

So, what the hell happened?

Every caller will always question himself after such an episode, particularly, in my case, because it wasn’t an error that began right from the get go.

You can appreciate the higher up the racecalling totem pole, the tougher you are on yourself. And you have to be.

You are well paid to produce a high standard and maintain that high standard.

The presence of social media applies the blowtorch to many facets of life … and racecaller “stuff-ups” is but one of them.

While not a fan of the medium, there’s no point red ragging it because it’s not going away.

And while the “everyone can make a mistake” line is well meaning from those sympathetic, it’s cold comfort to be honest.

Racecalling mistakes are unavoidable when dealing with things you can’t control, like fog or storms or lack of light.

But mine was a mistake of the mind that I needed to solve before the next race in half an hour.

I put it down to two human senses, expectation and concentration.

When I spotted an Aquis owned horse sprinting to the lead I EXPECTED it to be the hot favorite Astro Boy Toy and not the longshot She’s Furline which I gave no hope from a form point of view.

Expectation took precedence over my concentration level, obviously lacking in that five seconds, until it shot back to the required level when the field drove to the finish line.

This is not meant to be any sort of defence. Far from it. A stuff-up was made at a vital stage of the race.

But you have to resolve how the stuff-up occurred to achieve some peace of mind.

And analysing your mind is not the easiest exercise in the world.

David Fowler