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Racing pundit McCririck loses age discrimination case

Don't think there will be much sympathy for him. Bloke's a pr1ck

Comments

  • ".....a massive set back for people from their 30s the their 70s" ?

    Daft old bastard!
  • He should be pinching himself that he managed to blag a TV career for 29 yrs................
  • He's 73 and minted, the best thing he could do is make space for someone else to earn some money.
  • edited November 2013
    Channel 4 Racing is stunningly bland and tedious since they dumped Big Mac and Thommo.
    They've always spent too much time brown-tonguing the big trainers but at least with Big Mac there was some entertainment.
    If you want serious racing punditry, Racing UK is far superior.

    PS He is/was the only racing broadcaster with the integrity and balls to say that if a jockey breaks the whip rules it is cheating and the horse should be disqualified - if crossing the line first, therefore it should lose the race.
  • Total prat, but I bet he has more money than me. His wife must be something special to wake up every morning and see him there still.
  • It's as if smoking a big cigar and being a flamboyantly dressed eccentric has gone out of fashion. Maybe he should tout himself around the beeb.
  • Couldn't stand Big Mac on Ch4, but was a massive mistake to get rid of Thommo and Francome.

  • It's as if smoking a big cigar and being a flamboyantly dressed eccentric has gone out of fashion. Maybe he should tout himself around the beeb.

    office lol
  • Channel 4 Racing is stunningly bland and tedious since they dumped Big Mac and Thommo.
    They've always spent too much time brown-tonguing the big trainers but at least with Big Mac there was some entertainment.
    If you want serious racing punditry, Racing UK is far superior.

    PS He is/was the only racing broadcaster with the integrity and balls to say that if a jockey breaks the whip rules it is cheating and the horse should be disqualified - if crossing the line first, therefore it should lose the race.

    Agree entirely.Channel 4 racing is very poor now with those bland arse lickers.
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  • Channel 4 Racing is stunningly bland and tedious since they dumped Big Mac and Thommo.
    They've always spent too much time brown-tonguing the big trainers but at least with Big Mac there was some entertainment.
    If you want serious racing punditry, Racing UK is far superior.

    PS He is/was the only racing broadcaster with the integrity and balls to say that if a jockey breaks the whip rules it is cheating and the horse should be disqualified - if crossing the line first, therefore it should lose the race.

    Personally, I did not go for BigM's shtick, however as you say Peanuts, he had the integrity to be critical of certain aspects of what is a very 'luvvie' industry not given to over self criticism. Perhaps he would have been taken more seriously had he dropped the jester persona. There again, it was always the court jester who got away with telling the king a few unpalatable facts, whereas other courtiers would have been dragged off to the Tower.
    McCririck was interviewed on Radio5 this morning. He's claiming that all his 'act' on racing, big brother etc was at the behest of C4 bosses who encouraged his 'pantomime' acting. It was suggested that it was not he but his act which had gone stale and outdated. Surprisingly, he did not argue against that too vociferously. Oh, by the way, no mention of his old sidekick, the 'Romford fog'orn', Barry Dennis, another racing industry dinosaur.
  • Totally accept that he wasn't everyone's cup of tea. As a person he can be/is remarkably unpleasant (I met him once and wouldn't care to again) but that didn't preclude him from making a worthwhile and entertaining contribution to C4 Racing, so far as I was concerned. Judging by the huge amount of stick he's got on racing forums, I'm in a small minority.
    It's just a shame that, following the lead of dumbed-down news bulletins, Channel 4 racing (which was once very watchable and informative) has become so vacuous. Still, there's worse things in life.
  • Stig said:

    He's 73 and minted, the best thing he could do is make space for someone else to earn some money.

    Er, he WAS quite wealthy but m'learned friends will be relieving him of those funds very shortly - they don't work for free!

    He had to re-mortgage his house to fund the case - and now he has lost the case anyway.
  • edited November 2013
    Sat next to him on a plane a few years ago - random seat allocation. Absolute obnoxious wanker.
  • I have no doubt he'll earn a few bob in pantomime as Widow Twankies obnoxious Dad or something like that.
  • Bloke I work with said his old man (a course bookie from way back in the day) always thought he was a c*** - and he was a mild mannered man not given to hyperbole. This is thirty years ago, mind - before he was well-known to the public at large.
  • The man is a dinosaur and i just feel sorry for his wife who he treats like shit and who he has waiting on him hand a foot.

    He's a vile pig.
  • Bloke I work with said his old man (a course bookie from way back in the day) always thought he was a c*** - and he was a mild mannered man not given to hyperbole. This is thirty years ago, mind - before he was well-known to the public at large.

    I think he was warned off all racecourses in the UK due to gambling debts, I think he was bailed out by Racing Post or Channel 4.

  • The trouble is that now, after the court case, he has become a caricature of himself. If he had any sense he'd shave those silly whiskers off, burn those ridiculous clothes, lean how to talk properly and stop shouting all the time, and maybe, just maybe he could try and reinvent himself a serious racing journo.

    Won't happen, just a thought like.
  • Channel 4 Racing is stunningly bland and tedious since they dumped Big Mac and Thommo.
    They've always spent too much time brown-tonguing the big trainers but at least with Big Mac there was some entertainment.
    If you want serious racing punditry, Racing UK is far superior.

    PS He is/was the only racing broadcaster with the integrity and balls to say that if a jockey breaks the whip rules it is cheating and the horse should be disqualified - if crossing the line first, therefore it should lose the race.

    Completely agree Peanuts...caught some of The Morning Line when I was back in London in the summer and a once unmissable show was incredibly dull. They have literally sucked the life out if it with the presenting changes and format.

    Does Nick Luck still present at all on C4 racing? (He wasn't on that day so wasn't sure if he had gone too)

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  • edited November 2013
    I think Luck's still on it but TBH I always watch Racing UK or Attheraces - I can't stand C4's cheesy style.
    IMO it's a parallel to the "we must broaden the audience for the sport" crap spouted by people at the top of horseracing (it's that thinking that ruined county cricket IMO).
    Dumbing down the main terrestrial broadcasts is particularly stupid because viewers with a marginal interest in horse racing are not going to start regularly watching the Morning Line at 8am and established viewers are going to be pissed off at the new patronising style.
    .....................nothing like an early morning rant to blow away the hangover.
    Can you get access to coverage of British horseracing over there Dan? Some interesting races at Cheltenham this afternoon to help plug the 3pm gap.
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