Awkward Moments

This week saw a couple of awkward moments for interviewers of jockeys.

Ryan Moore celebrated his four-timer at Lingfield on Saturday afternoon with a classically taciturn debrief for Matt Chapman.

The jury that is social media instantly assumed their battle formations with the pro-Moore puritanical pikeman mounting a doughty defence:

'He's gone to Lingfield, smashed the place to bits - done. What I like about Ryan is, he’s Ryan... all of the time. Nothing fake when the cameras start rolling. Long live the king…' bristled a Craig Spittle on Twitter.

With CoVID-19 causing the cancellation of Morning Prayer, Holy Communion and much of the Church of England, Nick Luck’s Racing TV magazine show “Luck on Sunday” is a spiritually nourishing temple for racing's faithful.

This Sunday, however, witnessed a bruising encounter between recovering jockey, Davy Russell, and erstwhile Racing Post editor, Bruce Millington.

Russell was booked to speak about his recovery from a serious neck injury he suffered when falling at Limerick in October and from which he has since been in rehabilitation.

Millington opened the questioning with a largely flattering question praising Russell’s bravery and highlighting his discomfort. To which he, and the Racing TV audience, received the response:

'Yeah, um, I'll tell you Bruce, I’d rather not talk to you. If Nick [Luck] wants to ask me questions, that’s fine. I’ll talk to him all day long and you can write whatever you want to write in the paper, but I’d rather just talk to Nick, if at all possible.'

And it came to pass that Nick Luck did ask the questions from then on.

The Gazette caught up with Rishi Persad, ITV Racing interviewer and current host of the Channel 4’s cricket coverage, to find out about these awkward live TV moments – what is behind them and how he best deals with them.

'I like Ryan' Persad reported. 'Yes, at first I was taken aback, but once you get that he is only interested in talking about racing I really don’t mind.

The Millington/Russell thing is basically a feud that started when Millington wrote a hard-hitting article about Russell punching a misbehaving horse before a race in Ireland.

Millington’s article criticised not only the action that Russell took, but the inaction of the racing authorities [in punishing the jockey in a timely manner] and the perception that this incident may have had in the outside world.

The long and short is that Russell was highly critical of the way the media handled the incident, indeed many equestrian types defended him, and so the argument has rumbled on...'

So much for interviews that go wrong; at its heart the Gazette is an organ of optimism and we like to look at things that go right. In this case, interviews that go to plan – or more so.

'I try to turn the questions to suit the interviewee' reports Persad 'sometimes I don’t need to interview at all, the subject does the lifting for me.'

And now we turn the poacher into the gamekeeper, the hunter into the hunted, to hear Persad’s story of perhaps his greatest scoop: the unexpected announcement by AP McCoy of his impending retirement from race riding.

Persad references McCoy’s winning mount that day at Newbury, Mr. Mole, in such a way that we should all remember that gelding's name, etched in his brain as it is like a first winning Grand National bet or the name of a first kiss.

He had mentioned to producer Carl Hicks, that AP would attain 200 winners for the 10th time (should Mr. Mole oblige) which would be a significant achievement. With Sire de Grugy unseating Jamie Moore and Uxizandre unshipping Barry Geraghty the die was cast and Persad was ready, microphone in hand, at the top of the shoot to call in the winner.

'I was all primed with my "significant achievement" line and when the champ answered: … "and that will be the last time I’m riding 200 winners…" I was dumbstruck. You may see me as a pro working within sport, but in my heart I am just a sports fan like any other and all I thought was “Oh my f**king God” and I fell silent for what felt like an age – until I could hear my producer buzzing in my ear going “just keep going.” In fact, the tell-tale signs were there, and I missed them. Both Chanelle and AP’s agent were trackside to welcome him in. I hadn’t spotted that until after my tongue untied and I opened my eyes…'