Bryan Martin, well known race caller, was guest speaker appropriately just prior to the Melbourne Cup. Neither he nor David Rush chairman/support speaker left us with any worthy tip for the race. They did however give an entertaining and interesting insight into the “journey of a race commentator” and an unique perspective of past race horse greats.
Bryan could remember as a 6 year old listening to the Melbourne Cup on radio. This was the catalyst to a wonderful career in radio racing calling which took him all over the world and an iconic presence on Melbourne radio for decades. A cynic might say that this evolved because he had the winning horse “Evening Peel” in a sweep and won “two bob”, but not so. His fascination with that call persisted to shape his life.
First, he and his brother as youngsters would regularly conduct mock races complete with colours for the jockeys and call them. At the age of 14 years Bryan took serious steps by attending Radio School in Melbourne. This touched on aspects of voice production and projection and in his case practice race calling. Success on the radio show “Radio Editions” (three gongs! ) with a mock race call was noticed so began a career in radio first as a mail boy. Always keen to learn Bryan sought and got from old hands comments on tape recordings he had made of his practice calls.
A move to Adelaide led to his first professional race-call in 1970. He got twenty dollars for the day. Bryan recalled fond memories as a young lad of this day at Mindarie-Halidon a remote SA town in the Murray-Mallee region. This exposure lead to an offer as an understudy at a Melbourne Radio Station and natural progression to lead roles at that and other competitor stations.
The audience was then treated to a number of film clips with fascinating race calls of some memorable races. The role of the commentator in providing an accurate description but an interesting and most entertaining occasion came through.
Bryan commented on some of the top horses which he had seen. It was a list of past well known racehorse names. When asked that deft question of how does one compare today’s best, say “Winx” , with past champions, Bryan reiterated a common view that one cannot as conditions and times change. When however he did note that probably the four best Australian performed horses in the past twenty years were mares, audience conjecture discussed weight advantages and hormone generation capacity!
It was an entertaining and informative talk enjoyed by all, and a special delight to those with horse racing awareness.