Amid the wash of the Royal Randwick’s slippery slide on Saturday, John Tapp and Ian Craig, so long racing’s resounding voices, walked tall.
Perhaps the Tapp-Craig, a race named in their honour, was run on a surface that rates with the most grotesque at headquarters but their presence rekindled echoes of past greatness.
Only one in a million can call a horse race, the coordination of brain and tongue, rattling off a description of an equine charge, and only one in 10 million did or it as well as Tapp and Craig.
Prior to television, broadcasters like Ken Howard and Bert Bryant had the biggest audience on radio. No doubt great entertainers, they didn’t require the same accuracy that eventuated with television and the Tapp-Craig era.
Some of the most dynamic radio and television hotshots described races. Consider Ray Hadley, Bruce McAvaney, Ray Warren and Greg Radley, but from the broadcasting viewpoint, Randwick on Saturday wasn’t as difficult as horses and jockeys treading horrendous conditions brought about by Sydney’s wettest winter.
Questions abounded whether the Australian Turf Club should have done it better.
John Tapp and Ian Craig.Credit:Fairfax Media
Are four consecutive Randwick Saturdays too many? Yes, particularly with the jewel in the Sydney turf crown, The Everest, on the third meeting. The richest race in Australia should be run on the best possible ground.
Should racing two weekends ago have been at Rosehill? Yes.
With such a gloomy forecast should Randwick have gone ahead? Yes, but that’s a photo finish decision. Many meetings have progressed favourably despite adverse weather forecasts.
Has there ever been a more biased racing surface with the rail on fire? Probably not.
Are the Sydney surfaces being tortured by too much racing? Yes, according to Darren Beadman, the former champion jockey. “The Highways and Midways should be dropped from Saturdays to Midweeks,” he said about taking the main program back to eight events and much less trampling. Alas the turnover god must be appeased.
But as the rain fell, horses blundered and racegoers ducked for cover, Tapp and Craig strode on better going. Moving through the tunnel with the ATC’s Brett Devine, they passed trainer David Payne.
“Matey, he’s the one,” Craig decreed regarding his most successful system – back the horses of the first trainer you spot at the races. Payne won the next event with Navajo Peak.
Both Craig and Tapp had hands-on experience with horses. After quitting race calling Tapp was a successful trotting trainer and owner of thoroughbreds. Bill Whittaker, my former colleague and highly regarded in both areas, had horses with him and maintained he was exceptional.
Music man … Johnny Tapp with his axe.Credit:Fairfax
Craig, though, had more demands, enduring me for more than two decades on 2KY’s Turf Time over which we never had a dispute due to his patience and expertise.
Tapp could handle a wayward pacer. Craig was deft with a headstrong offsider.
Prior to race calling Tapp was singer of note. A White Sports Coat and a Pink Carnation was his signature tune. At a farewell in 1998 to race calling it was given a rendition by Greg Radley. Not the Marty Robbins’ version, but that of Tapp’s colleague, Ken Callander.
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