RTÉ Racing is often a familiar and comforting experience. Robert Hall’s dulcet tones introduce the action with familiar authority. Again a mention goes to the eventual winner of the big race. Following the opening piece with Robbie Power, nobody will be surprised to see the green and gold in the winners’ enclosure later – well the owner ran seven.

Viewers are bombarded with the term interesting. This runner, the next race, this piece of blatant skullduggery, all “interesting”. “Interesting” is to racing commentary what ironic is to Alanis Morissette. It is used for every situation except one which piques genuine interest.

The irony (sorry Alanis) of this piece on ladies’ day, and indeed the entire broadcast, was that it was presented by men. Tom Lee got parachuted into the fashion role, he almost seemed embarrassed about it. The whole show is men talking to men, often and regularly repeating themselves as they talk in a manly way about horses. This week, in the real world, misogyny and equality have been prominent, RTÉ’s Galway coverage felt oblivious to this reality. The role of women in the broadcast did appear to be as window dressing while the men considered the serious stuff.

STAMINA

Stamina is crucial at Galway, the hill finds out the horses and days of consecutive broadcasting often find out the presenting teams. At The Races using Luke Harvey worked a treat. Gary O’Brien, Kevin Blake and Kevin O’Ryan are excellent broadcasters but on the biggest week of the year having an extra (dab) hand around the place added added zip and crucially, fun to the ATR output this week.

Obviously ATR are a racing broadcaster so to compare them to RTÉ is unfair as they are playing to very different galleries. ATR’s social media performance, in conjunction with their live output however, leaves the state broadcaster in the starting gates. They quickly turnaround content and rarely miss a potentially viral moment.

Perhaps it is the element of fun Harvey adds to ATR, is the one most obviously missing from the RTÉ team. There is a sense of expectation that the fun will come to them rather than the presenting team bringing the fun to the viewers. A slight change in dynamic may just provide a shade more dynamism to the programme. Not sure Tom Lee on fashion is enough, but he does seem under-utilised given his experience.

PUGH THE BEST

Commentating is a tough gig, Richard Pugh is a fine commentator and if ever RTÉ could take a leaf out of ITV Racing’s book, it would be to promote Pugh to number one, as ITV have done with Richard Hoiles.

The decision to ignore Goodwood completely is one far beyond the presenting team. Yes, the week is all about how great Galway and surrounding areas are. The team do not tire of reinforcing this mantra, but it is a long show and some quality flat racing might break up the slightly repetitive nature of the programme at times. More pre-recorded pieces might also make things more “interesting”.

The theme of familiarity extended to the big race with Joseph O’Brien winning a first Galway hurdle 20 years to the day after his father achieved the same feat with Toast The Spreece. If ever a familiar path was apparently being tread, it is the one being taken by O’Brien junior; he seems dynamic and sharp, perhaps RTE racing could learn something from him.