Greg Miles ready to hang up the mic on Easter Saturday
AUSTRALIAN racing will bid farewell to one of its most iconic figures this weekend when legendary caller Greg Miles mans the microphone for the last time.
The Easter Saturday meet at Caulfield will mark the end of a distinguished broadcasting career that has spanned the better part of four decades.
In an interview with ABC News, the 57-year-old Victorian revealed that it was a vocation that appealed to him from a young age.
“I fell in love with racing listening to it on the radio, listening to Bert Bryant and Bill Collins, and couldn’t believe the amount of information and the urgency and the vibrancy coming out of the radio,” Miles said.
“When I went to the track and the sights and the smells and the feel of being at the races and hearing Joe Brown on the course PA, I was sold. I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”
Since his maiden call for the ABC in 1979, Miles has guided the nation through 36 Melbourne Cups – a record unmatched by any other race commentator.
Yet his career could so easily have come undone at the starting gate, but for the backing of a keen-eared colleague.
Recalling Miles’ debut radio gig on Boxing Day 1979, former ABC staffer Peter Booth said: “He seemed to get them away OK … but when they were coming down the side with about 800 metres to go, I knew Greg was in trouble.
“He was describing like a scattergun, just naming horses, it just didn’t make sense.
“Coming around the turn, obviously something happened, he composed himself … and the last 300 metres was fantastic.”
You won't want to miss this weekend's Easter Saturday meeting at @Caulfield, Greg Miles' last behind the binoculars. pic.twitter.com/dXC61df4XY
— Racing.com (@Racing) April 11, 2017
With the support of Booth’s recommendation, Miles stepped into the seat vacated by the long-serving Joe Brown and called his first Melbourne Cup in 1981.
Since then, he has witnessed and narrated some of the most memorable moments in Australian racing history.
“I’ve been very, very fortunate,” he said.
“I started with Kingston Town and Manikato at the height of their careers, and right through so many other great champions like Might and Power and Northerly and Bonecrusher, and the recent superstars like Sunline and Makybe Diva, and probably the ultimate one is Black Caviar.”
Yet Miles also stressed that calling a major event such as the Melbourne Cup was not necessarily the glamour job some might make it out to be.
So how does one alleviate the enormous pressure and overwhelming sense of responsibility that comes with calling one of the world’s biggest races?
“You go into a cocoon of concentration and don’t let anybody else into that cocoon,” Miles said.
“And there’s only one thing that matters in the time before the Melbourne Cup and that’s the horses and the riders, the names of the horses, and just keeping a sense of calmness over you.
“If you get that right, you’ve got half a chance.”
According to Booth, his old colleague’s ability to deliver on the big occasions is what sets him apart from his peers.
“You can call well all through the year, in those winter meetings, through the rain and the slush and do all the hard yards,” he said.
“But people judge you on that last furlong of the Melbourne Cup, and Greg’s done it right so many times.”
Miles announced his retirement in November 2016 just weeks after calling his 36th Melbourne Cup, much to the shock of many in the racing industry.
He said at the time that he would “rather leave two years early than two years late”, and he sticks by that ethos today.
“I’ve always wanted to go when I was calling well, and I know I’m calling as well as I ever have right now, so I didn’t want to wait for the tap on the shoulder,” Miles said, although he admitted his departure would not come without a tinge of sadness.
“I’ll miss telling the story, I think,” he added.
“I love doing the form and understanding each race and what it means in the landscape of racing and putting it in its right place.
“I’ll miss being part of that tapestry.”