John McCririck has died (RIP)

John McCririck, the garrulous racing pundit who became a household name as the flamboyantly attired face of British racing coverage, has died at the age of 79.

Read on

 

Sorry, Just noticed it has been reported in the daily thread by Oddy

 

I was at Ascot once with Amanda and he was walking past so I asked for his autograph and he happily oblige by signing the race card. As I recall he was treated very badly by the ITV. RIP

 

RIP John Mccririck. I liked him..he was a character and added to the racing program even if he was rather opinionated. It did amuse me his often sexist views - in this day and age no place for that on TV or anywhere else for that matter even if light hearted.

 

I remember an open ended late night chat show around the early days of Channel Four where John McCririck appeared as one of about six guests lounging around on sofas in a darkly lit studio. I will always recall two of his contributions:

1. He advised a guy who was a compulsive gambler who stated that he had wagered a fairly substantial amount on which raindrop would reach the bottom of the outside of a train window to get a hold of himself and straighten himself out.

2. He stated that the people of Liverpool should be happy that rich a-holes from other parts of the UK were visiting their city, pissing in their gardens and entrances to their homes as the visitors brought needed wealth into their city.

These two inane, ignorant and stupid comments stayed with me as his fame grew.

All an act say his former friends and colleagues; my arse says I.

Still sorry another human being has passed away though.

 

I was sad to see the passing of John McCririck on Friday when I first saw it on the headlines of the Daily Telegraph website. I guess it is a sign of getting old myself that my first thought was that he did not seem that old at 79! According to his widow Jenny in one of the Saturday tabloids, he had lung cancer.

This article by Marcus ‘Mr Frisk’ Armytage is readable and the anecdote at the end says plenty about Big Mac’s persona: Farewell John McCririck - unique, eccentric and a man I will miss

McCririck was a divisive character and people either loved him or hated him. Nobody would deny that he was recognisable to a whole generation of viewers who may have had only a passing interest in racing or even none at all. We remember him as a loud arm-waving buffoon long before Boris Johnson ever came along!

Although his own foray into the bookmaking business was not particularly successful, in front of the camera he was very much the champion of the punter. When ‘The Morning Line’ started, it was McCririck that would lambast the bookies when they would not honour the prices in their Racing Post adverts in the days when betting shops did not open until 10am – remember the cleaners had always had the prices. It was also McCririck that highlighted the sharp practises of the big High Street chains when the small punter was getting a raw deal. It is probably because of him that many of the firms payout nowadays on disqualified winners or refund horses that refuse to race even though they are not obligated to do so.

It does seem amazing to me that McCririck first appeared in front on the Channel 4 Racing cameras more than 30 years ago, gesticulating the tic-tac and familiarising all of us with the terms that the bookies used like ‘chin’, ‘up the arm’, ‘earhole’ and the slang like Burlington Bertie (100/30). I cannot remember him from the previous ITV era.

Sadly his high-profile career was a victim of political correctness and he unwisely turned to the courts and brought a case against Channel 4 for age discrimination (as female BBC presenter Miriam O’Reilly had successfully done). He surely must have known that Channel 4’s real reason for releasing him was his continual references to his wife Jenny as “The Booby”, calling Alice Plunkett “Saucy Minx” and his betting ring colleague “The Female” Tanya Stevenson all sorts of non-PC things. TV racing coverage now is so bland and characterless, like most mainstream TV.

My personal memories of McCririck largely revolve around two or three occasions.

I had the (mis)fortune to share a taxi to Longchamp racecourse with Big Mac back in 2011 when our Eurostar was late into Paris so I had to get a taxi rather than the (very much) cheaper Metro and tram. I recounted that at the time here.

I saw him a couple of times subsequently at the races back in the UK and said “hello” and he responded perfectly civilly, although I suspect he had no idea who I was or any recollection of us sharing an expensive taxi.

I did take photos of him on a couple of occasions at the races and this seemed the most appropriate one to dig out (and the easiest to find!), from the day that Zafonic won the Guineas and McCririck bowed down before owner Khalid Abdullah.

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Somewhere I do have a posed one of him front on with his arms spread wide holding a racecard as most people would recognise him. It will be difficult to find as I cannot remember which course it was at or which year; and thirty odd years of photos is a lot to search.

 

there are tributes and then there is this from Alastair Down. Wow.
https://www.racingpost.com/news/joh...ll-a-passionate-defender-of-the-punter/389293

 

A very nicely written piece written by the main man himself Alastair Down...