Victoria ‘answers calling’

[Wandering Eyes]

Victoria Shaw is Australia’s only female race caller and the only woman in the world to have broadcast four codes of racing in this country and overseas.

She has co-hosted international racing awards and forums focusing on women’s inclusion within international racing communities including Poland, Morocco, Spain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Victoria has called races on the thoroughbred picnic circuit and at numerous greyhound tracks around the state as well as coursing’s 2020 Waterloo Cup.

“I may have hosted racing awards at some incredible venues but that pales into insignificance, when you start to call races at a track like Healesville with any level of respectability.”

She is fascinated by the incredible efforts of racing animals as well as the people that love and prepare them, no matter where they are in the world.

Victoria achieved a monumental achievement at Sandown Park greyhounds last Sunday, as it was the first time a woman in Australia has broadcast an entire race meeting across any code at a metropolitan track.

As you’ll notice from our Q&A, it was a huge honour personally for Victoria, who is very proud to be able to put greyhound racing into a more progressive space.

Q: Firstly, what were your feelings last Sunday at Sandown Park? You must have felt a sense of immense personal pride?
A: Yes, I did Peter. A lot of people in greyhound racing may not be aware that this has been a 25-year journey for me. And, although I have at times been fortunate enough to work internationally in racing, I have been juggling office jobs with part-time racing work, which can make things a bit tricky to manage and a little tiring. It was exactly 12 months ago that I thought I had finally turned the corner, only to be diagnosed with breast cancer. So, to be able to (hopefully) turn around my health problems and step up to my first metropolitan race meeting as a broadcaster was an amazing feeling.

Q: How did you get your start in racing – initially as a journalist and then as a race caller?
A: I had started to practice calling thoroughbred racing at tracks like Flemington and Caulfield in the latter part of 1997, after recording a few radio advertisements and small television roles. I was then picked up by the TAB before they acquired the NSW tote in 1999. Back then, their marketing was managed out of the TAB’s Bowen Crescent office, off St Kilda Road. I was engaged to represent the Victorian TAB on ‘Good Morning Australia’ on Network 10 and RSN, which was then referred to as Radio Sport 927am.  Essentially, I was delivering an ‘infomercial’ on air, encouraging women to have a bet and promoting big events like the Spring Carnival. It was a bit of fun, some days you would see Bert Newton on set, and I used to have a laugh with people preparing for their ‘live advertisement.’ There was a woman that used to advertise waxing strips, and she would test her ‘hair removal’ techniques on staff in the makeup room, and even on other television guests, which used to get a few laughs and the odd scream. Around this time, I would also fly out to King Island for their race season over the summer, where I called my first race meeting. It was a delight to return to the island for a season just before the pandemic. However, King Island and the Victorian picnic thoroughbred circuit, which I also called many race meetings at, are short-lived racing seasons.  Making the opportunity to build any level of continuity difficult. During the remainder of the year, when I wasn’t calling non-TAB thoroughbred races, I frequently had articles published, which helped me keep up with what was going on.

Q: Was writing on Purebred Arabian horses a turning point in your career? What was life in the UAE like?
A: Sure was, Peter. I was first approached by Arabian horse breeders, Maureen Milburn and Virginia Dodson, here in Australia. With their international contacts, they had arranged sponsorship of two Arabian races by HH Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (Manchester City FC owner) at Moonee Valley in 2012 – the night Black Caviar won the Australia Stakes. I was asked to call the two Arabian races live on course at Moonee Valley, which was also broadcast to the United Arab Emirates. There was an enormous crowd, with Dr Dennis Napthine in attendance, the UAE Ambassador to Australia and many federal politicians. The HH Sheikh Mansour Purebred Arabian Racing Festival then asked me to work on many projects with them, including three additional meetings here in Australia and many times internationally. I provided coverage of the international Arabian Racing circuit with the Australian publication ‘Ladies in Racing’, as well as hosting television for the Abu Dhabi Sports Network, and YAS TV with England’s Derek Thompson (Tommo). Working on the racing tour was a bit like working on a Formula One circuit. You would fly in and out of various venues all over the world, with Abu Dhabi being the base for the Purebred Arabian Racing Festival. I found the UAE’s people keen for progress, and incredibly courteous and hospitable. The race festival’s purpose was to promote opportunities for women in racing, around the globe. Islamic countries like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and the UAE provide a lot more engagement for women in racing, than you may first think.  And now Saudi Arabia has opened up for tourism and their horse racing is open to the world – most countries in the Middle East want social progress for their citizens. The absence of a ‘tote’ in the UAE does provide a fairly calm environment on race day. However, a protest that took place a couple of years ago, with connections of a racehorse protesting a very powerful Sheikh’s horse, took a week for a decision to be made!  You wouldn’t want to have been the chief steward. 

WATCH: A ‘perfect call’ by Victoria at her favourite track – Healesville – on October 23 last year.

Q: You hold passionate viewpoints on women in greyhound racing… Has the ‘glass ceiling’ been broken, or is it still somewhat a male bastion?
A: I don’t think greyhound racing’s ‘glass ceiling’ is as much of a problem, as women not expressing interest in various aspects of the sport, such as race broadcasting. I do find, however, in greyhound racing here in Victoria, there is far less concern about gender or being the first to try something. I believe that is an extension of the fact, that women have been active within the sport, well ahead of the horse racing codes. We have a female chair, female senior executives, stewards, judges, breeders, trainers, the list goes on. The opportunity for me, to broadcast a race meeting at a metropolitan track on Sunday, reinforces the open nature of Victorian greyhound racing as well.

Q: You’re Australia’s only female race caller… Can you see the day when you will have some ‘compatriots’?
A: I hope so, Peter. I fear today a lot of younger women are more concerned about what some unqualified people write on social media platforms than going out and trying something. Life is too short to be held back by people who rubbish others and have no experience with what you are doing. My best advice would be to always face life ‘head-on’. Maybe that’s why I like the track at Healesville so much.

Q: What is your memory of calling for the first time at Hanging Rock back in the late 1990s?
A: Well, I won’t take any fashion tips again from another broadcaster. I think about 12,000 people, on New Year’s Day of 1998, knew what colour my undies were as I climbed the ladder in a sundress. That aside, that was a special day for another reason, as it was exactly 50 years to the day since Pamela Knox-O’Connor had taken over the broadcast at the same venue. Pamela only called once, back on January 1 in 1948, when the race caller wasn’t feeling well. (It was New Year’s Day.) Pamela was familiar with some of the colours of the jockey’s silks, as she rode in the Melbourne Hunt Club with several of the racehorses’ owners. Pamela also rode with my late grandmother – Margaret Selman, who passed away long before I was born. (Her father, Sydney Selman, was the keeper of the hounds.) I got to spend an afternoon at the races in Mt Gambier with Pamela in 2004. Pamela was also the first woman enrolled at Melbourne University to study law. Her father, the late Sir Errol Knox, was the managing director of the Argus & Australasian Ltd Newspaper. Sir Errol was of the firm belief that his daughters could do anything. Pamela also married into the O’Connor racing family, which is synonymous with jumps racing. And I’ll never forget the first set of winning colours that I called – Mick Cerchi’s red silks with white hearts atop his mare, Miss Angelique.

Q: Racing in general has taken you around the world… In what countries have you called races and what was that like?
A: I have called races for YAS TV at Tor Sluzewiec in Warsaw, Poland – an incredible experience and a truly international occasion. With a German television crew and a Polish tote board, I was fortunate to broadcast the HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies World Challenge in 2015 alongside two British race callers. Aboard a beautiful dapple-grey Purebred Arabian named Wasilew, Morocco’s Bouchra Marmoul claimed her first international race victory as a jockey.
I have also called the Australian ‘legs’ of the Ladies World Challenge when the festival toured down under, at Moonee Valley, Caulfield, Sandown and the Gold Coast Turf Club.
As well as co-hosting racing awards for the Abu Dhabi Sports Network at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood several times, with the UK’s Derek Thomspon; and hosting racing forums on live television in Abu Dhabi, Madrid, Warsaw, Rome and Marrakesh. These engagements were a lot of fun but also a lot of research, which was frequently made difficult by language issues. And often television guests would be changed with very little notice, so the ability to prepare adequately was a big problem.

Q: You’ve also called races, thoroughbred and harness races interstate… Are there any special moments and places that spring to mind?
A: There are several, Peter, including Alice Springs in 2007. It was my first full radio race meeting, with the MacDonnell Ranges (that looked every bit of an Albert Namatjira landscape) as a stunning twilight backdrop. Amazing people as well. Calling races in Darwin was also lovely, wearing extraordinarily large pearls from race sponsor – Paspaley. But I had to give them back, sadly. Broadcasting a race with Terry McAuliffe at Oakbank was an amazing experience, and what probably tops those amazing occasions was my first radio call with Peter Gilligan at a Tasmanian Grand National meeting at Deloraine. Beverly Buckingham came third in the race I called, aboard a horse we would later see race successfully in Melbourne, named Allsand. To spend time with Beverly at the track was very special, as she was a superstar jockey, only to end her glorious career in the saddle three weeks later with a horrific race fall.

Q: How would you describe your strong emotional attachment to the Healesville GRC?
A: I love the Ville! It’s crazy but wonderful and the short course straight track can serve up any number of particular issues to deal with, but I don’t think any of us that broadcast there would have it any other way. Cynthia O’Brien has been fantastic in helping me secure opportunities with the club and broadcasting on air, as well as James Van de Maat, who has been incredibly helpful, knowing full well how difficult Healesville can be but also very enjoyable. Both Rob Testa and James Van de Maat have spent an enormous amount of their time, helping me along the way with greyhound broadcasting.  As well as Ron Hawkswell, Paul ‘Happy’ Hammon, Kyle Galley, Brendan Delaney and several more. 

Q: Who are your favourite greyhound regulars at Healesville?
A: Trickity Click, Duncan, Aston Serpens, Slingshot Reaper, Hello George, Nullify and so many more. I also love our great Veteran’s races at Healesville as well. Calling the straight track is incredibly difficult but it has been a major turning point for me. I may have hosted racing awards at some incredible venues, but that pales into insignificance when you start to call races at a track like Healesville with any level of respectability.

Q: You’re a female pioneer in the sport. What has the journey been like and how did your attraction/fascination for greyhound racing originate?
A: I didn’t grow up knowing anything about greyhound racing; however, dogs like Brett Lee and later Fernando Bale really transcended racing codes and made an impression on me. I first contacted Rob Testa in 2015 and I started to turn up to Sandown Park to practice on Sundays. I was able to juggle my office job with flying out to various international Arabian jobs and then I started to train under Rob’s guidance. Later, turning up to Healesville on a Friday with James as well. One of the greatest aspects of my time with greyhound racing is that I have been able to continue to develop and build my experiences unchallenged and without interruption (excluding the pandemic) and that’s the key to achieving a lot of things in life – continuity. If I look back on everything now, I should have started with greyhound coursing, which I have recently enjoyed very much. And, getting to know more participants both four-legged and two, thanks to GRV’s content that I contribute to, has also been an important addition to my racing life. And, apart from the wonderful greyhounds, the other redeeming feature of greyhound racing is its people.  

Greyhound racing in Victoria has allowed me to learn and grow, and now with the many twists and turns that life has delivered, I finally get a sense of being able to achieve something I set out to do a long time ago.

WATCH: Picnic racing from probably the world’s most ‘botanical’ track – Drouin.

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