Bruce McAvaney to call Melbourne Cup for the last time
LEGENDARY Adelaide sports commentator Bruce McAvaney will cover the race that stops the nation for the final time today.
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LEGENDARY Adelaide sports commentator Bruce McAvaney will cover the race that stops the nation for the final time today.
Channel 7 will hand over the broadcasting rights to the four-day Melbourne Cup Carnival to Network Ten in 2019 but it won’t be goodbye to racing for McAvaney.
“This will be my last Melbourne Cup,’’ McAvaney said.
“But I honestly haven’t had a chance to think about it. There is so much work involved, the form, I do a lot of work on the historical significance of the Cup runners and we also have the dynamic of the broadcast to prepare for.
“It’s not on my mind, I’m going there truthfully thinking it’s another great day at the Melbourne Cup.”
McAvaney, who joined Channel 7 in 2002, said that may well change at the end of the four-day carnival this weekend.
“At the end of Stakes Day on Saturday and I’m leaving Flemington, I might have a chance to think to myself – that’s it,’’ McAvaney said.
“But it’s not like I’m cutting from horse racing.
“We will still be doing all the other major meetings during the spring, the big races in Sydney during the autumn and I am still really keen to be involved in the Adelaide carnival with racing.com again.
“I’ve still got AFL football, the Olympic Games and now the cricket,’’ he said.
McAvaney said racing remained his favourite sport after it consumed him in Adelaide from a young age.
“Racing and the Melbourne Cup is near and dear, it’s my favourite thing since I was as a kid,’’ he said.
“I’ve been pretty fortunate, I’ve called a few, I’ve hosted a lot and seen so many.
“I’ll continue to have a huge interest in the race, it will just be privately and not publicly.
“When I think about the next decade, I’m a member of the VRC, I might be sitting at home watching and relaxing, I might be getting in the car and going down and watching the Cup at Morphettville, just experiencing in the way I haven’t for a few years.
“I’ll move to a different part of my Melbourne Cup life, but it’s certainly not the end of my broadcasting career,’’ he said.
McAvaney, who called three Cups, said hosting the coverage was living out a childhood dream.
“I dreamt about being a broadcaster or a Melbourne Cup caller, I love the fact I’ve had that opportunity.
“For me the Melbourne Cup is a life changer, it’s something that I look forward to every year knowing all of Australia collectively have an interest in the race, it’s something we get a lot of joy out of.
“It’s beautiful to have a public voice on a day like that,’’ he added.
McAvaney said the race had provided some of Australian sport’s greatest moments.
“Damien (Oliver) and Media Puzzle, when Makybe Diva won a third and there was Michelle Payne, that was remarkable,’’ he said.
“And we had an amazing era of Adelaide horses in the 60s, it was phenomenal,’’ he said.
Originally published as Bruce McAvaney to call Melbourne Cup for the last time