It’s an age old subject that everyone enjoys having their two cents worth on, but given the landscape has changed a little in the last six months or so I thought I’d fire it up again.
Being a race caller isn’t an easy job by any stretch of the imagination – trying to remember names, colours and numbers and spit them all out as eloquently as possible, while maintaining an element of ‘light and shade’ in your delivery.
In the back of your mind you have to be conscious of the big dollars invested on every race – meaning the tiniest of slip-ups earns you the wrath of the unforgiving punter. It’s a pressure only a select few have the ability to handle, and do well.
There’s a few important prerequisites in determining a good caller in my opinion. Obviously a good, clear voice is essential, accuracy is most important and an element of flair is a must have quality.
For the sake of this exercise I have purely decided to concentrate on rating the top metropolitan callers in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. By all means, please contribute your thoughts on any other callers in all parts of the country and indeed the world.
Alan Thomas
My pick as the best caller in Australia. He has the clear, booming voice, the passion, the knowledge of betting and more than a touch of the knockabout personality which endears himself to the viewer/listener. He’s very accurate and you always know where every horse is in the run.
Darren McAuley
A short half-head behind Thomas and probably never gets the credit he deserves, being from the west. But I really like his smooth delivery and ability to make every race sound just as exciting as the last. I could listen to him call races all day and often have.
Greg Miles
Probably a bit stiff to finish in third place given he has produced some of the most memorable calls in recent times, including Makybe Diva’s third Melbourne Cup win: “when a champion becomes a legend.” In recent years his accuracy has dropped and he has become a bit gun shy in tight finishes.
Darren Flindell
It’s not that he has a bad voice but there’s just something in his delivery that doesn’t work for me – whether he takes too many breathes or uses too many clichés, I’m not sure. The jury is out. It may take him a little longer to adapt to ‘the Sydney way’ after spending many years plying his trade in Hong Kong. He really struggles in trying to pick a winner in a close finish.
Terry McAuliffe
I know he’s a veteran of the game but he just doesn’t seem to have the next level in terms of excitement. He does a competent job but I always feel a little underwhelmed. Having said that he’s a definite improvement on Hilton Donaldson, who was way over the top and you knew which horse he’d backed in every race.
Just to finish off I’d like to give honourable mentions to Steve Hawkins and Josh Fleming. Hawkins has the same qualities as Thomas and I really enjoy his work from the Gold Coast. Fleming is a talent on the rise and it’s only a matter of time before he bursts out of the New South Wales provincial and country scene and gets his chance in the ‘big smoke’.
No matter who you rate or who you hate Australia does produce the some of the best race callers in the world.
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