Mark Claydon is one of the hosts of the Saturday racing shows on SENZ“Our show is going to provide cutting edge punting and racing information from all of the key industry participants that you need to hear from on a Saturday morning.”
New dedicated sport and racing radio station SENZ officially launched on Monday, and while the weekday shows’ focus will primarily be on sport, Saturdays will be largely racing-dominated.
Saturday mornings will kick off with ‘The Mail Run’, a two-hour racing show hosted by Louis Herman-Watt and Michael Guerin.
“I feel quite honoured to be involved,” says Herman-Watt.
“There’s been such a void on the radio for racing and sports lovers in this country for so long, and it was always going to come back at some stage, but I didn’t know that it was going to come back so strongly on such a genuine platform to cover the best races and sportspeople.
“Our show is going to provide cutting edge punting and racing information from all of the key industry participants that you need to hear from on a Saturday morning. You’ll want to tune into Mick (Guerin) and I to get the lay of the land for the day ahead.
“Mick is great. He’s an authority on racing in New Zealand; there’s no one who understands all the codes as in-depth as he does, so his extensive knowledge is a huge weapon for us. There’s not much he doesn’t know, and I’m learning a lot working with him.”
Herman-Watt is also the executive producer of the weekday breakfast show, ‘Baz & Izzy for Breakfast’, hosted by Brendon McCullum and Israel Dagg.
“Monday to Friday, I’m wrangling Baz and Izzy. I’m mainly the executive producer, but I’m also on the show helping to drive it – not that those two need me, they’re pros!
“I’m so excited about Saturday. I wanted to do a racing show so badly, I just love it.
“Punting and racing is my passion and it’s what I’d be doing on a Saturday anyway, so to be able to talk about it and speak to the key participants doesn’t even feel like work,” says Herman-Watt, who previously spent five years working between Radio Sport and Newstalk ZB.
Popular racing identity Mark Claydon will also be back on the airwaves this week, as he takes up the role of host of ‘The Good Oil’ on SENZ.
“I’m absolutely stoked to get back in there,” Claydon told RaceForm earlier this week.
“We’ve had a couple of rehearsals over the past couple of weeks and we are really getting into the groove. Teina Walters is going to be a regular on the show, and our guest this week is going to be Steve Davis, who will light the place up.”
‘The Good Oil’ will air between 1pm and 5pm on Saturday afternoons, and while it will be entirely racing-focused, listeners should be aware that it won’t resemble anything like Trackside Radio.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” says Claydon. “It’s going to be like three mates sitting in the pub, watching the races, giving their opinions, running a punters’ club, throwing a bit of stick at each other and having a good time on a Saturday afternoon.”
Claydon has more than 30 years of involvement in racing broadcasting, from filming races in the judiciary tower to acting as floor manager on racedays to hosting Trackside Radio.
Last year, he was one of the victims of the TAB NZ mass redundancies.
“It was actually the second time I’d been made redundant by the TAB – the first time was back in 2009. Last year, I sort of knew it was coming so I was a bit more prepared, but it’s still never a good feeling.”
Over the past year, Claydon has been making weekly appearances on SENTrack (from the same family as SENZ) in Australia to provide New Zealand racing updates on Saturday afternoons. He quickly gained a name for himself across the ditch as an outstanding tipster, and his happy-go-lucky personality endeared him to the Australian punting public.
“I’ve had a lot of fun doing that show,” says Claydon.
“I spend a lot of Saturday afternoons listening to SENTrack, because it’s just like listening to your mates talking about racing and giving each other a serve, and that’s what our show on SENZ is going to be a lot like.
“Over in Australia, they don’t have the licences for racing commentaries on SENTrack, but on our show, we will be playing all of the New Zealand racing commentaries between 1pm and 5pm, and we’ll be bringing you the results and details of the earlier races and Australian races too.”
For more information on SENZ and their frequencies, head to: https://www.sen.com.au/nz
