The Big Saturday

[Pete Lane 892]

Featuring Marc Cookson. 

Words fail me.

[Pete Lane 892]

Big plus to see Erin Leighton joining the team. 

[mr_gee 440]

1 hour ago, Pete Lane said:

Featuring Marc Cookson. 

Words fail me.

he does way better than other clowns 

[Pete Lane 892]

7 minutes ago, mr_gee said:

he does way better than other clowns 

You're entitled to your opinion but he's always annoyed the shit out of me.

Instant mute.

[mr_gee 440]

2 minutes ago, Pete Lane said:

You're entitled to your opinion but he's always annoyed the shit out of me.

Instant mute.

but  you can stand the rest of them

[Zakhu 529]

1 hour ago, Pete Lane said:

Featuring Marc Cookson. 

Words fail me.

Pretty sure it was meant to be Greg O Connor joining Aidan but he had a cough infection last night so Marc was a late replacement. 

At least he can string a sentence together, not stringing it out.

[Zakhu 529]

50 minutes ago, Pete Lane said:

Big plus to see Erin Leighton joining the team. 

Just gave us the winner of Riccarton in race 4. And to add a bonus she didn't like the favourite.

[Pete Lane 892]

6 minutes ago, mr_gee said:

but  you can stand the rest of them

Not at all. He's just the worst.

Only my opinion anyway. It'd be boring if we all thought the same.

[scooby3051 11,745]

Agree Pete...none of them would get a job on any racing channel across the ditch...teeerrriiibbbllleee...LOL

[Palliser 987]

It's almost like they are trying to hard, all with big false smiles looking like they have just won lotto. Sweeney looks the most ridiculous in that respect. Reminds me of Australian game show hosts trying sooo hard to make it exciting and fun. Rodley gets so wound up and excited he starts talking at a million miles an hour. Then he starts with the errr and arrrr stammering. Great to see some new initiatives, but the delivery is cringeworthy, try and be natural and not so false. Had to giggle at Erin, she was just doing a job and didn't look that comfortable with the 2 nutters with her lols.

Pip does a pretty good job presenting along with Emily, but again I think they have been told to force some excitement into their presenting.

 

[mckenzie 624]

The coverage is much improved, however I'm not a fan of the "Big Saturday" logo that seems to dominate the screen on every cross to the studio.

 

[Ohokaman 6,106]

23 hours ago, Palliser said:

It's almost like they are trying to hard, all with big false smiles looking like they have just won lotto. Sweeney looks the most ridiculous in that respect. Reminds me of Australian game show hosts trying sooo hard to make it exciting and fun. Rodley gets so wound up and excited he starts talking at a million miles an hour. Then he starts with the errr and arrrr stammering. Great to see some new initiatives, but the delivery is cringeworthy, try and be natural and not so false. Had to giggle at Erin, she was just doing a job and didn't look that comfortable with the 2 nutters with her lols.

Pip does a pretty good job presenting along with Emily, but again I think they have been told to force some excitement into their presenting.

 

Certainly tarted them up…Emily trying the vamp approach yesterday and Pip just keeps getting details wrong.

Smiles are one thing, competence quite another if you want credibility.

[Alf Riston 1,806]

Happened to flick across and see the new look. I don't normally bother due to what get's served up, so thought I'd try it out for ten minutes. 

At that point, for a reasonable amount of time, it was just Emily and Pip doing a reasonable enough job with not 1 on-course muppet in sight.

I thought 'this could work', but oh no, next thing we cross to the team on-course and downhill it went. No value added whatsoever.

Then we cross live to the TAB who runs us through all the 'movements'. More talking about movements than at shift handover in an old persons home and about as useful 

Does anyone truly GIVE A SHIT ABOUT MARKET MOVERS? If you did you could clearly see it on the screen so again, what value add is there in this.

Keep the 2 ladies going as they are, put somebody decent on course to do interviews only, kick the Market Mover Man out and would could be starting to develop something watchable.

Unnecessary noise reduction recommended.

[Idolmite 2,816]

On 8/3/2024 at 5:25 PM, mckenzie said:

The coverage is much improved, however I'm not a fan of the "Big Saturday" logo that seems to dominate the screen on every cross to the studio.

 

It'll get worse as we get into the Spring and Summer racing, as it will become "Bigger Saturday" and "Biggest Saturday" 

[Pak Star 870]

13 hours ago, Alf Riston said:

Does anyone truly GIVE A SHIT ABOUT MARKET MOVERS? If you did you could clearly see it on the screen so again, what value add is there in this.

Those who REALLY care about market movements are already one step ahead of trackside anyway.  They're not waiting for Thad to be brought in to the broadcast to hear it from him.  

[TurnyTom 1,633]

1 hour ago, Pak Star said:

Those who REALLY care about market movements are already one step ahead of trackside anyway.  They're not waiting for Thad to be brought in to the broadcast to hear it from him.  

well said, not sue what market, if any, they are aiming to as the young ones go sport

[THE TORCH 746]

A ridiculous marketing move. Splattering exaggerated comments and bold graphics at us doesnt make me want to bet more - it does the opposite. Its fake, its cheap, and it actually cheapens the product. How can every single Saturday be made out to be the greatest day of the season??!! Tacky stuff.

If they want to boost the game start pouring more time and attention into the jumping game - that has been outstanding this winter. But what happens? Bruce Sharrock sends out a document lambasting our jumpers, jumping trainers, and jocks! Two options apparently: 1. keep the current system in progress, or 2. slow things down until they cease to exist. 

So sticking to option 1 (whereby theyre not putting more resources into stakes, incentives, or facilities for our jumpers and jumping owners/trainers/jocks) will naturally allow them to achieve option 2, which is what they are truly after. 

I wonder if these strategies would be operating if brother Allan was still training jumpers. 

[scooby3051 11,745]

I dont agree it seems the single most important driver to them is turn over and if people dont want to bet no matter what happens it will be gone...the market mover stuff the do is a waste of time and just irritating.

[THE TORCH 746]

8 minutes ago, scooby3051 said:

I dont agree it seems the single most important driver to them is turn over and if people dont want to bet no matter what happens it will be gone...the market mover stuff the do is a waste of time and just irritating.

So we are going to see more money thrown at R65 or less races in the middle of winter? Tell me how those types of races compare to the two epic races this Saturday....West Coast vs The Cossack, and Berry The Cash vs Nedwin. These are the best match-ups we have seen all winter and going by the Bruce and Co. twisted and manipulated figures we wont see them ever again in the near future. 

Have they thought about the ripple effect it will have on their flat racing? I mean how many of those amateur riders work for jumping trainers? Theyll be gone from the game. How does an owner look to make money when his/her horse is too slow for a maiden race at New Plymouth in June or July? Theyll be losing out. 

They should have put in a clause when they sold the Ellerslie hill.....1% of that should have gone back into the jumping game around NZ. After all every top jumper went there for decades and made Ellerslie world famous.

[THE TORCH 746]

On 8/3/2024 at 12:08 PM, Pete Lane said:

Big plus to see Erin Leighton joining the team. 

How did she get to join the team? I thought she offered zilch.

[Pete Lane 892]

10 minutes ago, THE TORCH said:

How did she get to join the team? I thought she offered zilch.

Give her some time.

[chevy86 2,789]

1 hour ago, THE TORCH said:

How did she get to join the team? I thought she offered zilch.

Well in spite of her causing some bad interference to one of my neddies at Cambridge a couple of years ago I'm prepared to give her a chance as she has suffered plenty of interference in her own life.

Seems to have borrowed some of Leith's hair dye for her first appearance on the Big Saturday!

[gubellini 4,309]

All about churn. Would rather the cameras showed more of the horses in the birdcage, preliminaries and behind the starting stalls. I am more interested in a horses mental state rather than the presenters tipping favourites.

[THE TORCH 746]

32 minutes ago, gubellini said:

All about churn. Would rather the cameras showed more of the horses in the birdcage, preliminaries and behind the starting stalls. I am more interested in a horses mental state rather than the presenters tipping favourites.

So true.

Ive got nothing against Erin, but another untrained media presenter is not what the channel needs. It actually needs culling. One in the studio, two maximum on course. Let the pictures tell the story. What happened to the interviews out on the course like Tommy Hazlett used to do? Those were excellent. Where has Jane Ivil gone? Did one meeting on her return to NZ and has now gone AWOL. Perhaps she couldnt cope with those around her.

[Pete Lane 892]

Jane Ivil is going to be a regular with Sweeney on Saturday CD meetings.