Spotlight On: Ger Hannon

Spotlight On: Ger Hannon

Role: Commentator

Area: Newmarket-On-Fergus

This week we caught up with Ger Hannon, who has been a point-to-point commentator for over ten years, he tells us about how he got involved in commentating, his role as a commentator and the change he has noticed in point-to-points over the last number of years.

How did you get involved in point-to-pointing?

I have always been very involved in the committee of my local point-to-point at Quakerstown, so that’s how my involvement in point-to-points originally started, that and my family connection. 

How did you get into commentating?

The Quakerstown point-to-point happened to be stuck for a commentator and Richard Pugh sent Bernard Condron down to commentate and I said I’d throw my hand at it that same year. Bernard commentated on five races and I commentated on the last race of the card.

Did your involvement in commentating just progress from there then?

Jerry Hannon, who is actually no relation of mine, has been very good to me. After I commentated on that one race, he rang me up the following Monday or Tuesday and asked me if I would be interested in commentating at Kilmallock point-to-point the following Sunday and it all kind of began from there.

After that I’d go point-to-pointing every Sunday with Jerry, he did the majority of the races on the card, but I always ended up doing one or two races for him, so I eased myself into it that way.

I also remember Richard Pugh getting me to commentate in Necarne point-to-point up in the North in the spring with him, so I had the best of commentators helping me and the following season then I went out on my own and commentated on every race of the fixture.

How long have you been commentating?

I have been commentating now for over ten years. I actually started off the same time as Eogháin Ward interestingly enough, I think maybe I could have been a season before him. I remember we ended up commentating a fixture in Killashee, Co. Longford together and let’s just say we were very green! It wasn’t our finest hour, but we’ve come on a long way since then!

In your role as commentator how you would prepare for a point-to-point?

When entries come out on a Tuesday, I go onto the P2P website and have a look at them to see who has entered up at the fixture I’d be commentating at. Sarah Ann Madden from Irish Point-To-Point services sends me out the race card and when I get that on a Thursday, I’d take another look again to become familiar with the entries.

As I buy and sell store horses myself, the interest is there, so I am already very familiar with the horses before they have run and would know what they cost as a store as I would have come across them during sales season and I find that’s a huge advantage to me in my role as commentator.

On Saturday night, I might spend another half-an-hour just going over the entries again to refresh my memory for the next day. It’s hard to really study it too much though as there can often be many entries, especially in the younger maidens.

On the day of the point-to-point, what do you do?

I try to be there at least an hour before the fixture starts and the first thing, I do is I go to the weight tent to get the declarations.

I am blessed really as I have always had a really good memory, which is a huge advantage to me, so it comes to me pretty easy remembering the horses, that and obviously the interest I have in the horses from a young age.

After that then it’s just a case of getting up there and calling the race.

Any tips on what’s the best way to commentate?

The two best tips I remember getting off Richard and Jerry when I was starting off and that have stuck with me are:

1.  The voice is very important, your accent shouldn’t be coming through, your voice should be more mellow tone and neutral.

2.  Always remember to slow down during your commentary, not to be going too fast as people won’t be able to understand you. This can often be difficult towards the end of a race, as you can end up getting a bit too excited!

Where did your interest in commentating come from?

From the age of about ten, I remember watching racing on the TV and I used to commentate on the racing in the background myself.

I also remember when I was younger my father bred a horse called Fair Craic and he sold it, afterward it went on to win the Goff’s Millions in 1991 and he received a breeder’s prize when he won that race.

At the time it was like winning the All Ireland in Clare and that race was played 500 million times in the house, every person that visited, the race was put on, but when the race was played, the sound was always turned down and I did the commentary for it!

So, the interest was definitely always there from a young age.

What is the biggest change you have noticed point-to-pointing?

I have definitely noticed the biggest change in the four-year-old market, to use an example that stands out to me, it would have to be the Big Breakaway horse that won his four-year-old maiden at Quakerstown in April 2019. I was stabled beside him when he was selling as a store at the Tattersalls Derby sale and he made €55,000 at that sale.

I called him home at Quakerstown when he won and the following week, he went on to make €360,000 at the Goff’s Punchestown Festival sale. He is now strongly fancied at the Cheltenham Festival where he holds entries in the Ballymore novices’ hurdle and Albert Bartlett novices’ hurdle and that’s all in the space of such a short time. The four-year-old market is phenomenal.

The effort hunt committees are making to hold a crowd is brilliant, especially the Clare hunt, it creates a bit of a buzz at the point-to-point when you attract a crowd to the fixture. Each year we try and make it a family day out, which attracts people to stay around at the point-to-point for the day, rather than heading home after the four-and-five-year-old races. 
 
What might readers be surprised to know about you?

I am a qualified auctioneer and auctioneer at cattle marts. I used to do that three or four days a week, but I have cut it back in recent years as I am more involved in the farm at home.

To be honest with you I would chance anything that involves a microphone, I am not shy that’s for sure!

What do you do outside of racing?

I am a farmer; we have beef cattle and sheep on the farm at home. I also keep about 15 national hunt store horses on the farm which works well with the point-to-pointing as your keeping an eye on pedigrees and your finger is on the pulse with what’s happening in the industry.

I also have a huge interest in GAA, I used to play club hurling with my local team up until about a year ago.