Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

And away they go

This year’s Vodacom Durban July will see Craig Peters commentating his 26th July and his son Sheldon doing his ninth.

Sheldon will be the On-course and Tellytrack commentator and Craig will be on SABC TV and the radio.

Both Craig and Sheldon said that pre-race nerves were forgotten as soon as the starting stalls opened as the adrenalin then kicked in.

Craig believes it is important to involve the crowd in the race.

“But you have to remember to lower your tone once you do so,” he said, “else you can end up screaming yourself into an inaudible pitch. We usually raise our tone for a moment at the 1400m, the 800m and as they turn for home.”

Craig was known as “Eagle Eye” in the days of audio-only off-course commentaries due to his incredible strike rate in calling the winner in very close finishes.

In the two closest July finishes of the last decade he correctly called El Picha the winner of the 2000 July and before a dead-heat was declared in 2008 he announced that he could not separate Pocket Power and Dancer's Daughter.

“I remember running upstairs to Sheldon's box in 2008 to see what he thought and he also couldn't separate them.”

In the audio-only days Craig was also known for his uncanny ability to spot the winner and emphasize its name 200m or more from home.

He feels it is important to emphasize a horse that is travelling like a winner but added modestly, “Horses can sometimes make fools of you.”

Craig rated his most memorable commentary as Illustrador's win in 1990 due to the Millard one-two-three while Sheldon rated Dynasty in 2003 and Eyeofthetiger in 2006 as the commentaries that he had delivered best.

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