Me, schoolmistress Clare — and why the head of BBC sport should be jailed!
AS TV RACING HEADS FOR A REVOLUTION, WILLIE CARSON GETS READY TO JUMP OFF HIS BOX FOR THE LAST TIME
TWO racing heavyweights bow out at Ascot on Saturday. When Frankel gallops past the post in the £1.3million Qipco Champion Stakes, his future will be as a pampered, millions-earning stallion.
Willie Carson will pick up his box — the one that ensures he can look BBC racing anchor Clare Balding in the eye — and walk away from the small screen as the credits roll on the BBC’s final Flat racing broadcast.
The winner of 3,828 races, 17 British Classics and five jockey championships, who became one of TV’s faces of racing, will still have his highly successful stud in Gloucestershire, own his racehorses and support the efforts of his Newmarket trainer son Tony and grandson jockey William. But it will be the end of an era. For many, Carson, 70 next month, represents a link to a golden age of jockeyship — of Lester Piggott, Pat Eddery, Joe Mercer and Steve Cauthen.
A Question of Sport captain with England rugby union captain Bill Beaumont in the early 1980s, Carson crossed over into the wider world.
As BBC’s Flat- racing team prepare for their final run, Carson can’t hide his disappointment that racing chose a £15m, four-year deal with Channel 4 which will see the sport disappear completely from the national broadcaster after it screens the Welsh National on December 27.
‘The head of BBC sport and the racing fraternity should both get their hands rapped over this. The two of them should have been put in jail,’ he joked this week as he showed his yearlings to potential clients at the Newmarket sales — wearing the same hat as when he tackled those bushtucker trials on I’m a Celebrity.
‘I don’t think the BBC will ever come back. Racing should have thought of that and not just gone for the extra quid.
‘They should have thought of the long-term future of horseracing. I don’t think they took that on board. Channel 4 is a very good racing programme, but it is for a minority. BBC went to a bigger audience and would get more people involved in racing than Channel 4 ever will.
‘ Those annoying bookmaker adverts every 10 minutes put people off. The rhythm of the programme gets absolutely crucified. They kill the whole programme.’
Not everyone has warmed to Carson, but his rapport with Balding, the post- Olympics darling of British sports broadcasting, created a memorable double act. Especially when the impher ish, occasionally wayward former jockey is brought back into line with a raised Balding eyebrow or a metaphorical slap around the head.
‘It seems to be a little team that works,’ said Carson. ‘There is quite a bit of entertainment going on. It is not just enlightening the people about horses — there is a little bit of tongue in cheek. Things are not done on purpose but we don’t mind a little bit of laughter.
‘ Clare is unbelievable. Many years ago, I said she should be running the BBC and I still think she might even get there yet.
‘She is a very intelligent girl. She is good at her job and has learned trade. She is basically running the show. Years ago, we used to take the mick out of her — it was, “Do this, do that” in the meetings. Now we just shut up and get on with it. There was no point putting in much input because her input was always better than ours.’
But you can’t ignore Carson’s input when it comes to horses and his view on Frankel.
The man who won the Derby four times, including on the outstanding Nashwan in 1989, and was carried faster than most jockeys can dream of on jet-propelled sprinter Dayjur, is emphatic where Frankel stands in racing history.
‘Nashwan would need a tow rope (to keep up) and, make no mistake, Nashwan was a very good horse,’ he said. ‘We’ve always had horses which create impressions like Nijinsky and Brigadier Gerard.
‘They are all great horses in their time but I just get the feeling this is the best there has ever been.
‘He walks well and he’s strong, powerful and athletic. But there is nothing to look at and say, “That is why he’s good.” We’ll have to wait until he dies to find out what makes him such a great horse.
‘He must have fantastic lungs and a big heart. He canters when other horses are flat out. I don’t expect to see one as good again.’
However, the prospect of copious rain to turn the Ascot going heavy does concern Carson, with a potent opponent in Frenchtrained 2011 Champion Stakes winner Cirrus Des Aigles.
‘The round course at Ascot does get tremendously slow. Sometimes it becomes a test of attrition, not so much the best horse.
‘Frankel is a very heavy horse and I would not have thought — and I am making excuses before the race — that he would love heavy ground. Normally, those sort of horses have to work so much harder to lift that weight over the ground but we are talking about a phenomenon.’ A bit like Carson. The new generation of broadcasters may be slicker than him but also blander. And what of his famous box? ‘Clare is the schoolmistress. She is telling me what to do and keeps saying to get it on eBay. I’ll try to make some money for charity.
‘It is made out of metal with a nice grille on the top so that I don’t slip. The inscription underneath it is “Here is the extra seven inches you asked for”.’
He may only be five feet tall, racing weight 7st 10lb, but Carson will always be a giant of the racing world.
m.townend@dailymail.co.uk