Racing identity Ted Ryan, who had a 40 year broadcasting career has died.
Racing identity Ted Ryan, who had a 40 year broadcasting career has died, aged 83.
He passed away on Monday after long illnesses.
Ryan was a noted race-caller of both greyhounds and racehorses, calling over 15 Melbourne Cups for national television and radio.
He worked for all the major networks in Melbourne and Sydney, as well as the two Melbourne Racing radio stations.
He later became Racing Editor for The Melbourne Observer. On Facebook, Editor-in-Chief Ash Long said, “I first met Ted at Channel 9 around 1975. he was doing a greyhounds segment on The Bob Maumill Show. He first gained an interest in then neddies when he was still at school, wagging some days to attend bush meetings (by train). He worked on radio, TV and in the press. He loved his work.”
Brendan McKenna recalled, “Ted was a legendary figure in racing circles … gallops, trots, greyhounds. A key figure of the Ch.10 Melb. Cup coverage where he managed to get those ‘insider’ tips at the early morning track gallops. Also named, irreverently by his many friends at 10, as “back-of-the-head-Ted” because Ted pioneered the, now standard, ‘grabs’ from each Melb Cup jockey as they got off the scales. Back then, there were no ‘edits’ and the hoops weren’t told they had to line-up for the media. The viewers saw the reaction of each jock, but the only view of the interviewer was ‘back-of-the-head- Ted’. But the jockeys obliged because they had such respect for Ted Ryan. R.I.P.
Additional source: Instagram