06 February 2019 | Alan Parker
The Western Australian Racing Industry Hall of Fame those who have made major contributions to the racing industry in Western Australia and John Hunt is regarded by most as the doyen of this State’s race-callers.
John Hunt was Western Australia’s top-ranked tennis player as a teenager before a debilitating back injury put an end to a competitive tennis career.
A self-confessed hater of school John had a passion for sport, in particular horse racing and a love for words.
After practising calling phantom races from fields in the newspaper his mother took John to Ascot racecourse where he saw then leading caller Trevor Jenkins and went and introduced himself and asked what he needed to do to become a race-caller.
Jenkins suggested that Hunt contact those in charge at Gloucester Park, Richmond Raceway and Cannington Central to arrange access to their spare broadcast boxes so that he could practice calling. For months John Hunt’s weekends saw his practice calling from Gloucester Park on Friday night, Ascot races on Saturday and Cannington Central on Saturday nights.
Not only did John develop the skill required to accurately call the race but he undertook the meticulous research that was to become his trademark years later in his video productions and books. He became a storyteller and he had the ability to wax lyrical over anything from a humble maiden to a Group One winner.
In June 1976 the on-course caller at Ascot, racing legend Max Simmonds, told Hunt that he could fill-in for him at race-meetings in the North West and in July 1976 Hunt called his first meeting at Port Hedland. It was non-TAB and only those present on-course heard that first ever call.
In September 1976 Trevor Jenkins advised Hunt that he would become the back-up caller for Stuart Shenton at 6IX for the Cannington Greyhounds and that he would accompany Jenkins to country gallops meetings as his assistant
Later in November that year Hunt received a call from Bruce Walker at Channel Nine who was looking for a caller to call both trots and races for replay in the Saturday night news and a Sunday sports programme that was planned.
It was that summer of 1976 that John Hunt went from being a race-caller to a lover of the horse itself and it was the likes of gallopers Burgess Queen and Family Of Man and the pacer Pure Steel that ignited the flame that is still burning brightly some 42 years later.
When John called his first WA Pacing Cup in January 1977 he was still a regular attendee at the other metro venues and trials practising his craft and calling thoroughbred meetings in the North West. In April 1977, Hunt joined the new TAB station 6PR as greyhound caller and assistant to Trevor Jenkins while retaining the gig as caller for the Channel Nine news and then beginning to work in the TAB studios during the week.
In 1978 Hunt began a Friday night show on 6PR which ran between 5:30pm and midnight and in addition to covering Gloucester Park trots it incorporated coverage of all sports happening in and around Perth. The Friday All Sports programme began to air another of John Hunt’s broadcast innovations “The History of Racing” which Hunt had written to fill tin time on the programme.
Friday All Sports became the highest rating programme on 6PR and number one in its timeslot. The History of Racing ran for six years and was syndicated nationally and when Hunt began to host the station’s Saturday night programme from the studio Stuart Lowe took over from Hunt as the Saturday caller at Cannington Central.
In 1981 Hunt became the chief trot caller for 6PR as Stuart Shenton left the station for a job in Kalgoorlie and the Friday All Sports programme ceased to exist.
As the chief trot caller Hunt’s focus shifted to harness and in 1982 he received the first of 14 Harness Racing Australia awards for his work for a piece entitled Greatest Inter Dominion winners featuring Logan Derby, Captain Sandy, Caduceus, Cardigan Bay, Binshaw and Hondo Grattan.
The six part series was recorded on cassette and became part of a collector’s port set. That same year Hunt also wrote the San Simeon Story and was awarded a second national Joseph Coulter Award for that piece.
After calling the 1981 Inter Dominion Grand Final at Gloucester Park Damian Readler asked Hunt if he would be interested in being the Australian caller at that year’s World Cup at The Meadowlands where Western Australian Inter Dominion winners San Simeon and Rhett’s Law were competing.
The coverage was put together by 6PR who then on-sold it to other stations around Australia and the WA TAB bet on the races even though it was being run in the early hours of the morning Perth time.
In addition to calling the World Cup back to Australia Hunt also called several other races at The Meadowlands on-course.
In 1982 Hunt was asked to host a new show on 6PR – Sportstalk ran from 3:00pm to 5:00pm on weekdays replacing what at the time was the traditional drive-time format of music.
In mid-1984 Hunt quit his job at 6PR after failing to see eye-to-eye with management and Stuart Shenton became senior gallops caller and Darren McAullay took over as trot caller.
In October 1986 Hunt took on the role of Sky Channel’s first race-caller and chief on-air host and early in 1987 Sky Channel began to cover Perth races and Brisbane and Sydney meetings followed soon after with the new technology of satellite coverage. In July 1987 Sky Channel was bought by Kerry Packer and its operations moved from, Perth to Sydney.
After the win of Rocket Racer in the Perth Cup Hunt was given permission to make his first visual documentary which was entitled Ascot – A summer to remember which was aired on Channel Nine.
In 1989, after the retirement of George Grljusich John Hunt took over as on-course commentator at Gloucester Park and on ABC regional radio.
With the support of WATA President Mick Lombardo and Chief Executive Rob Bovell, Hunt developed a complete broadcast package for ABC regional radio on Friday nights incorporating pre-recorded pre-race interviews, stories, prizes and the like with the assistance of ABC radio presenters Ian Haselby, Pat Harding and Jim Shaw. The WATA employed an assistant in the on-course box to handle the mundane matters of dividends and on-course announcements they required.
The Friday night regional coverage on Abc radio was awarded Joseph Coulter Media Awards by Harness Racing Australia on more than one occasion and Hunt’s only regret was that the programme wasn’t broadcast in the Metropolitan area.
Hunt also pursued his passion for documentaries with the first video documentary that he made for the WATA was called Life At Full Pace which was a 30 minute history of the WA Pacing Cup which was later shown on Channel Nine during a lunch-break in the station’s cricket telecast of a Test Match.
That was followed by A Tribute to Willie which was completed as the champion Village Kid approached the $2 million mark in earnings. Both these documentaries won National Joseph Coulter Media Awards. At the 1990 World Trotting Conference in Paris, John’s “A Tribute to Willie, the Village Kid Story” was awarded the International Racing Video of the Year.
While working as the on-course caller at Gloucester Park, John continued to call Perth racing for Sky Channel on Saturday afternoons but the Sky Channel gig came to an abrupt end when it was pointed out to Sky Channel that every other State just took the call from one of the existing callers used by the radio stations and Perth was the only place that employed a specialist Sky caller.
The 1992 WA Pacing Cup was won by the Vic Frost trained Westburn Grant less than a fortnight after the death of Frost’s son in a tragic accident while on his way to Perth. The death of Gary Frost and the clash between Westburn Grant and Franco Ice was later the subject of another award winning John Hunt documentary entitled The Summer of Frost and Ice.
At the conclusion of the 1992/93 season Hunt produced the first of seven annual Seasons of Glory videos which documented the feature races and other happenings in Perth of the harness racing season. Again a Joseph Coulter Award was the result.
John Hunt’s call of Village Kid’s 1993 fund-raising Time Trial for the Make A Wish Foundation was awarded a Joseph Coulter Award for race-call of the year which Hunt still finds amusing in that it was a time-trial and not an actual race.
While his major focus was on trots and Gloucester Park John was employed to make a documentary on the history of WA racing entitled A Triumph of Spiritand in 1994 Hunt was contracted to create the film history of Top End racing called The Grandstand. Hunt was also doing an on-camera wrap for Sky Channel’s In The Gig programme each week.
In 1997 John realised a long-held ambition of hosting a general sporting show when he convinced the management of Mandurah AM radio station 6MM to give Sports Saturday a trial run of 12 months. It was a major leap of faith for the station as it had no sports coverage at all at the time.
The three-hour programme ran for ten years until John Hunt began to wind down and look at retirement and it covered all forms of local sport with plenty of time for non-local sporting news and interviews as well. In 2003 the John was voted runner-up in the category of Best Country Sports Presenter in the commercial Radio Australia national broadcasting awards.
In 1998 Hunt’s broadcasting CV added another line as he became an Australian Rules commentator on 6MM for WAFL newcomer Peel Thunder games for a season before the workload became too much. Earlier that year the Australasian Breeders Crown had ceased to broadcast Gloucester Park on a Friday night as it claimed the void it filled could be filled by Racing Radio.
John was presented with a National Meritorious Service Award from the Australian Harness Racing Council in 2006 and the Western Australian Trotting Association’s James Brennan Award in 2008 for his service to the industry. The Award was presented on the night of John Hunt’s retirement as Gloucester Park course commentator.
John is the author of two books in “Princess, The Miss Andretti Story” and the autobiographical “The View From The Clouds”
Enquiries about tickets to the 2019 WA Racing Industry Hall of Fame Induction night on 28th February should be directed to Hall of Fame Coordinator Suzy Jackson on (08) 9445 5371 or suzy.jackson@rwwa.com.au
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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