Friday, September 27, 2019

Scott Weston, in charge of Sky Racing Broadcast Operations, was at Tara Raceway on Thursday to oversee the first trial of remote race calling for the time-graded meeting.

With 100 greyhound meetings conducted annually at Tara Raceway, cost implications are obviously significant when it comes to race calling, Mount Gambier one of the most difficult areas to access in a convenient and affordable manner.

Tabcorp’s trial yesterday saw Jim Jacques call the first five races at the track before Matt Jackson took over the calling from Sky Racing headquarters at Frenchs Forest in NSW.

For Weston, who will be back at Tara Raceway for Sunday’s meeting, as will a back-up caller from Adelaide, it was a busy day.

“This is our first venture into remote race calling and there is still more testing to do. But the remote call sounded pretty good on Sky,” he said.

And from an on-course perspective, by the time race 12 came around those in attendance could have been excused for thinking that Jackson had been calling at Tara Raceway and not 1200 kilometres away at Frenchs Forest.

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