Studio calling for races
Dornauf has chance with McNiff’s break
THE coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we live with the safety measures and protocols put in place to help keep us safe likely to remain a part of our social fabric for years to come.
COVID-19 has forced changes in the workplace with many employees spending more time working from home than in an office.
Racing has changed in that patronage is limited and in Victoria the stage 4 lockdown has again turned racecourses into ghost towns.
One change creeping into racing is meetings being called from a studio instead of trackside.
From Monday, brilliant Tasmanian caller Colin
McNiff will be replaced by Terry Spargo, who will call the Launceston greyhound meeting from a studio in Brisbane (Radio TAB).
McNiff has accrued too much annual leave and long service leave, so he has been asked to work only two days a week for the next 10 weeks to absorb the owed leave.
He will only call Hobart greyhound and all thoroughbred meetings until early November.
Duncan Dornauf has been given the opportunity to prove himself by calling the Devonport greyhounds on Tuesdays.
Dornauf has been on the radar, calling thoroughbred trials at Devonport and Longford as a way of gaining much-needed experience.
He also has spent time working behind the camera for Tasracing TV, primarily delivering commentary on harness meetings but he has also worked with the other two codes.
“Having Launceston greyhound meetings called remotely is not a permanent thing,” Radio TAB general manager Tony Clements said.
“The company saw owed leave as a liability, so we were all asked to whittle down any outstanding annual leave and time owed.
“It has, however, given Duncan [Dornauf] an opportunity to further advance his chances of becoming a filltime caller.”
Calls of some NSW harness meetings are delivered from a studio which, in some cases, defrays big costs.
Instead of sending a caller to a country region that involves travel costs and, in some cases, accommodation and meal expenses, what was an $800 outlay is reduced to a modest hourly rate in a studio in Brisbane or Sydney.
While Clements is adamant the remote calling of some race meetings is temporary, once the number crunchers see the savings made by calling races remotely, it could very quickly become the norm.
Dornauf starts his 10-week stint calling the Devonport dish lickers next Tuesday. THE annual thoroughbred awards event set down for Elwick on September 11 is filling fast, so anyone interested in attending the code’s night of nights should contact Tasracing to make a booking.
Announced on the night will be the winner of the horse of the year as well as the top two-year-old and three-yearold.
The other highlight will be the inductions into the Tasmanian Racing Hall of Fame with a former Melbourne Cup winner expected to join the elite club.