JR – One of the best

Racecaller John Russell, who passed away this week aged 93, was prominent among a cohort of legendary racing commentators who were the eyes and ears of millions of punters throughout Australia.

JR, as he was affectionately known, began calling races in the 1960’s, when regular televised racing was almost non-existent.

In pubs and clubs, in TAB’s  and in the kitchens and living rooms, the mantel radio or transistor were the link between punters and racecourses around the nation, and it was the descriptive commentaries of Russell and his colleagues, the likes of Bill Collins, Bert Bryant and Joe Brown, to name a few, that kept them entertained and informed.

All of these men lived and breathed racing, none more so than JR, whose affability and good humour endeared him to the racing fraternity, and in particular those who joined he and his daughter, Sue, on the tours they organized to race meetings around the world, in particular the annual trip to the Darwin Cup.

Russell began his radio career calling football for Warrnambool station 3YB, before moving to 3UZ in Melbourne to work as second caller to Bryant, eventually stepping up to number one in 1977. In the ensuing years he worked at 2UE in Sydney, and was the principle caller on Sky Channel when it started televising races in the late 1980’s.

He called 20 Melbourne Cups, the last of them in 1997, when Might And Power just held off Doriemus in a thrilling finish. A degenerative eye disease caused Russell to retire in 2003.

JR was very quick witted, and this trait was never more evident than one day at Werribee, when he inadvertently lost track of time while in the press room, and missed the start of a staying race.

Alerted to it having started, the drumming of hooves as the field raced up the straight the first time, JR leapt out of the press room window, sprinted across the betting ring, jumped the fence into the public enclosure, and charged up the hill to the broadcasting tower.

The silence was deafening as he began the long climb up three flights of stairs, whereby the punters had begun murmuring and looking skywards, puzzled by the absence of commentary.

Finally JR reached the callers’ box and disappeared through the door. Seconds later the loudspeakers burst forth with a loud tapping noise. “Is the power back on?” tap, tap, “Have we got the power back on? Ah, there we go, and as they run past 800 it’s Radish in front, a length to.......”

Sheer genius. Typical JR. He’ll long be remembered.