Among broadcaster Nick Luck’s vast number of duties – which include fronting daily TV racing coverage, hosting a daily podcast, a weekly TV chat show and regular presenting for NBC in the U.S. – is his role as the BBC’s equestrian commentator. And this year that meant covering the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Except that it wasn’t quite as glamorous a job as you might expect, as he explains in part 2 of this Q&A interview with TRC’s George Dudley.
Click here to read part 1
You started the Nick Luck Daily podcast during the pandemic. What was the thought process behind it? What do you think makes it unique in the packed sea of racing podcasts around today?
I was by no means a podcast addict, but I had started to listen to quite a few news and politics podcasts during lockdown. The previous year I had the idea of doing something that was a bit more global than what was out there already. It was not a fully formed idea and never went anywhere.
Then lockdown came and we all had more time on our hands. That said, it was not an idea that was born out of lockdown. It just gave me the time to flesh out the idea.
There wasn’t a news daily offering that could be reasonably brief, so I felt that was the gap in the market for me.
When I started, brevity was my ambition. I thought I could do it in 15 minutes – well stick a couple of interviews in there and it is clearly not enough time. I do try to keep them under half an hour, in fact some of the better ones are when you are not thinking too hard about it and are keen to just get it out there.
That urgency and immediacy are what make it attractive. If I sit at my desk and think about it, it can start to get late, and people want to listen at roughly the same time of day. You shouldn’t worry too much about it because you have got another one the next day.
The reaction has been lovely, really. People have been overwhelmingly complimentary, and it seems that there are enough people enjoying it to make me continue. There are days when I curse having to make it every weekday, but also it keeps my finger on the pulse of what is going on. It helps with everything else that I do.
As the go-to man to present global horseracing, from events such as Royal Ascot, the Breeders’ Cup and the Saudi Cup, as well as bloodstock occasions like Darley’s Open Day and Goffs UK, how do you ensure that you are not an overly ubiquitous presence?
Yes, good question! There is enough variety to mean that I am not being seen by the same people every day of the year. While I do a daily podcast, you can opt in or out of that without missing any live racing, so I doubt anyone lamenting my ubiquity is a regular!
If you have a bit of variety in what you do, then that should keep you fresh. Traveling helps with that, obviously, as you are doing a different thing for a different audience.
In 2017, you became the BBC equestrian commentator taking over from Mike Tucker, you have since covered the Olympia Horse Show, the Badminton Horse Trials, the Burghley Horse Trials and, most recently, the Olympics. How much have you enjoyed covering equestrianism? What do you think your racing background has bought to the table in this sport?
It is clearly a help that you are talking about 4-legged athletes on a regular basis, so that does give you a greater deal of understanding. I do try to stay in my lane when I am working on BBC commentary. I have brilliant summarisers in Ian Stark, Bobby Hayler and Andy Austin, who are all experts in their fields and have competed to an incredibly high level.
Ian was a multiple Olympic medallist, so it is not as though you are trying to be on the same plane in terms of expertise. I enjoy trying to channel their great insight to help convey that to a big audience.
The way that a lot of equestrian sport plays out allows for a fair amount of theatre, particularly in Olympic Games or major championships.
Commentary is a very different skill [from presenting] and one that I am trying to acquire. Part of that skill – as much more experienced callers than me have repeatedly acknowledged – is knowing when not to talk. That is particularly applicable in the dying stages of major championships, but it is not hard to become immersed in it and start to live it.
When the drama is heightened and the tension ratchets up, you need to lose a little bit of yourself in the moment to convey that to your audience – not to become part of it, but to accurately reflect it.
How did you keep the balance of being impartial at the same time as trying to convey the drama to partisan British viewers?
You wouldn’t be doing your job if you didn’t give a share of the limelight to those that deserve it, as well as saying how brilliantly the British team had done.
Yes, between the final two fences when Oliver Townend came down to the final jump, I said, “Bring it home for us, Oliver.” I was probably tiptoeing over the impartiality guidelines. However, sometimes you have to say it as you feel it and you think that the majority of your viewers will be feeling.
There are a lot of armchair pundits, who talk about broadcasters of old who never got too excited about anything. I sort of reject that as an idea, or a great badge of honour. I have talked about not putting yourself in the middle of the story, but you don’t want to come across like there’s no blood in your veins.
Your Olympic experience was different from most broadcasters undertaking that role as you were presenting from Salford, not Tokyo. Can you tell me about this?
I would have been there if it had gone ahead as planned last year. It is, therefore, very difficult to know how different it would have been.
It was initially a little odd because you could be in your booth and the one to the right might be doing the fencing and the commentator in the booth to the left could be doing track and field. [It would be] especially [odd], if you found yourself in between two of the more vocal callers.
To be honest, we did 16 straight days and, by about day 3, it didn’t feel any different.
Do you think that broadcasting remotely during the Olympics will be the new norm and perhaps a way that companies might be able to cut costs?
I don’t know, but I would make the general observation that there is no doubt that some methods used during Covid will stay because broadcasters realise that it will save money.
Even as we are emerging from the Covid chrysalis, I fear that the broadcasters’ wings will never be fully formed again. The temptation to cost-save is just too great. If you can put something on TV that people find acceptable, watchable and mildly enjoyable, they won’t quibble too much with a relative lack of bells and whistles.
Hopefully that doesn’t set us back in terms of vision, quality and technology. It would be a shame if it did.
Expense of international travel aside, why do you think that most fans (and some professionals) are reluctant to embrace the international versions of the sport, which is the same offering with different accents?
Well, the Americans want to come to Royal Ascot and plenty of Brits do want to go to the Breeders’ Cup. However, they are the exceptions that prove the rule.
This goes back to the question of why is racing not a global sport? The international aspect has to be presented with a sufficient degree of investment and enthusiasm in the country that is not the home nation. Where is the incentive for that to happen? There is relatively little because it is not driving betting turnover, advertising revenue or viewing figures.
There is always a challenge in that regard, but that doesn’t mean that those of us who do really enjoy racing in Australia, America or wherever can’t – and shouldn’t – try to communicate that as best we can. That is certainly something that I have tried to do on my podcast. It tends to get a positive response.
Which jurisdictions or major races would you like to visit as a fan or to present coverage of?
The two obvious countries that I would love to visit and broadcast are Australia – whenever they open up again – and Japan. Racing is huge in Japan and is clearly seeking a wider international recognition, which it richly deserves.
A Japanese horse winning the Arc would do so much for the sport globally.
One thing I love about the presentation of racing in Australia, whenever I watch it, is just the sheer enthusiasm for the sport that the local broadcast teams seem to have. They just absolutely love it.
Of your extensive overseas visits, which meets and venues hold a special place in your heart?
I love Santa Anita. Who doesn’t? It hosted the first Breeders’ Cup I attended, in 2003, so has held a special place in my heart ever since. I have had some very good times there, as I have at Saratoga.
In terms of broadcasting on an event, the Kentucky Derby has an intensity and energy to it that I have not witnessed anywhere else. I don’t think that I have ever felt as invigorated, on any other broadcast, as doing the walkover for the Derby or the post-race interviews.
This feature appears in the current issue of Gallop magazine.