Tasracing

Colin McNiff has earned the reputation as the voice of Tasmanian racing through his feats as a race caller and racing commentator.

His ability to paint pictures with his words throughout a race call has earned much praise from punters and radio listeners alike and while the late Bill Collins was the first caller to be dubbed “the accurate one”, Col also has a brilliant record of getting it right in a tight photo finish.

On Sunday, Col will call his 35^th Hobart Cup, and he is just as excited about standing behind the microphone in the caller’s box in Hobart as he was when he was about to call Dark Intruder winning the 1986 edition of the 2400-metre Group 3 event.

Col was born in Victoria and raised in Mitcham in the eastern suburbs, where he enjoyed a normal childhood until he reached his mid-teens.

At the tender age of 15 and unlike anyone else at school, he set his sights on becoming a race caller.

“I found a radio school that had a specialised racing flavour, Lee Murray’s Broadcasting School, and it was there that I started my journey into radio and racing,” Col said.

“I was at the school with the likes of Ron Hawkswell, Rob Tester and Dan Mielicki, all of whom went on to become race callers, and it was that experience that paved the way for me getting a job with TNT in Launceston.”

The role at TNT was primarily as a sports reporter but with a background in race calling the station often called on him to step in to call some feature races including Launceston cups.

Col’s original plan was to come to Tassie and get as much experience as he could and then move on to greener pastures.

But like many before him he fell victim to the Tasmanian lifestyle.

The 2025 Hobart Cup will be the 35th that Colin McNiff has called.

“I gave myself two to three years to learn as much as I could then move on but 45 years later here I am.

“When I first moved to Tassie, I used to go back to Melbourne every two to three months for a weekend and I distinctly remember coming back after one of those short trips sitting on the plane thinking I wasn’t leaving home but I was coming home.

It was a real significant moment in my life. I felt a sense of belonging.”

That was a clear sign Col was in it for the long haul in his adopted state.

In 1985 he moved south to Hobart to take up the role of senior sports reporter and news reader with TVT6 (now Win News) but with established race callers in all regions of the state Col had to bide his time and wait for an opening as a race caller.

The late Milton Pettit was still going strong calling thoroughbred races in Hobart when Col first arrived at TVT6, with Peter Gilligan owning the calling duties in the north and the late Shane Yates covering meetings on the North-West Coast.

Col’s first Hobart Cup call (for TasTV) was in 1986, a call he remembers like it was yesterday.

“Bev Buckingham rode the winner (Dark Intruder) for her dad (the late) Ted Buckingham and it was Bev’s first cup win, so being my first cup call and her first win in the race made it quite memorable.”

Col called another eight Hobart Cups for television until 1999 when Milton Pettit retired and from the start of the new millennium he came into his own as a racing broadcaster.

This will be his 26^th Hobart Cup as the full-time caller at Elwick and there have been many memorable moments along the way.

One of the stand-out Hobart Cups for Col was Geegees Blackflash’s second cup win in 2015.

“Geegees Blackflash was an amazing horse and his second Hobart Cup win was incredible. He wasn’t expected to win but calling the race I could see about the 600-metre mark he was travelling so well with Siggy Carr aboard and I was confident at that point he would win.

“As he neared the finish line, I excitedly said “Geegees Blackflash, you bloody old marvel”, and that conclusion to the race has probably been replayed more than any other in recent times.”

Another calling quip that rang out as one of Col’s pearlers was when the Darren Weir-trained Offenbach saluted in 2008.

When Craig Williams eased the gelding wide to make his charge, he cruised to the lead in the home straight and Col delivered: “Offenbach is off and gone.”

Another stand-out cup win for Col was that of Our Dashing Dane in 2005.

“Our Dashing Dane was an outsider trained by Jason Clifford who was at that time a hobby trainer and the horse was ridden by a relative unknown Victorian jockey Christine Puls.

“I thought Our Dashing Dane had a good chance of winning, so I tried to buy him at the Hobart Cup Calcutta the night before the race, but I missed out.”

Col still loves his job and doesn’t tire of the early morning starts in winter when he faces the elements travelling from Hobart to Devonport or Launceston every other weekend.

“I love getting out of bed on race day mornings no matter where the races are that day.

“I’m responsible for letting everyone know what’s happening at the track and in a race and it is a responsibility I gladly take on board – it’s just part of my job.”

When Paul and Elizabeth Geard’s Gee Gee Horse Stud started to build in numbers Col wasn’t sure how he would handle having three or four horses carrying pretty much the same colours with only varying cap colours to decipher one from the other.

“At first the multiple Gee Gee horses bothered me but what it did was make me concentrate even harder and, in a way, I guess it helped to make me a better caller.”

Col’s preparation for his milestone Ladbrokes Hobart Cup call on Sunday will not alter from the routine he has followed for over three decades.

“I’ll treat Sunday’s cup call as just another race. The plan is to get to the track at least an hour before the first race which gives me plenty of time to get set up and make sure all the equipment is working properly and then it’s business as usual until cup time.”