Jim McGrath (Australian commentator)
- Jim McGrath (Australian commentator)
::"For other people with the same name, see James McGrath (disambiguation)"
Jim McGrath (born circa 1952) is the BBC's senior horse racing commentator, having previously been deputy race commentator, and sometimes a paddock commentator, since making his BBC debut at Ascot on November 21, 1992. Prior to that, he had commentated in his native Australia, the now defunct Phoenix Park in Dublin, and in Hong Kong, and had worked as a racecourse commentator in Britain since the 1980s. McGrath was previously the BBC's Becher's Brook commentator in the Grand National; his performances caught the eye at the BBC in the 1997 National when the course was evacuated and he was the only person for the BBC who was able to provide commentary on the evacuation as his commentary position was furthest away from the stands.
He succeeded Sir Peter O'Sullevan as senior race commentator in December 1997, and his first meeting in this position was at Chepstow in early December. At this point, having commentated at all 59 British racecourses, he gave up racecourse commentary. Since then he has commentated on all the BBC's major meetings including the Derby and the Oaks since 2001, Royal Ascot, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, the Irish Derby, the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup until 2001, Glorious Goodwood until 2006, the Welsh National and of course the Grand National. He was rated by Channel 4's senior race commentator Simon Holt as the 'best Aussie race caller of his time'.
However in recent years due to the BBC's declining racing coverage McGrath has not been heard on the BBC as much, and in 2006 he became a presenter on At The Races, but in 2007 with the BBC losing coverage of Goodwood to Channel 4, McGrath has returned to racecourse commentary, and has been heard commentating at Sandown Park and Southwell among other courses. However he does continue to be the BBC's main racing commentator. He has also been a journalist for The Daily Telegraph for many years.
He is not to be confused with his namesake, who works for Channel 4 Racing and Timeform.
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