AFTER watching the Network Seven coverage at the weekend one could be forgiven for thinking that horse racing has been introduced as a sport for the Commonwealth Games in Scotland.
The Seven team of hosts and reporters includes the great Bruce McAvaney, Jason ‘Noddy’ Richardson, the marvellous Emma Freedman and ‘believe it or not’ Lizzy ‘what do I know about sport’ Jelfs.
Now we can understand McAvaney being a must on any Seven team. His knowledge of athletics and horse racing is second to none and he has been a great favorite of Aussie TV audiences for decades.
Emma, daughter of Melbourne Cup winning trainer Lee Freedman, has achieved plenty in her short career. Wikipedia describes her as an Australian television and radio personality, currently working as a host, presenter and roving reporter across Seven Sport for the last five years. Her knowledge is by no means restricted to horse racing.
Richardson, who hosts racing and sporting shows on radio and television, gets a mixed reception from followers largely because his attempts at comedy fall flat and some believe he ‘sucks up’ too much to those who count wherever he is involved in coverage, especially horse racing.
But Seven loves the 1993 Stawell Gift winner with LGHR wishing that he had crossed the finishing line, run out the gate and down the Western Highway near Stawell and we had never heard of him again, especially when it comes to Get On.
Then along comes the lovely Lizzy Jelfs who has made a meteoric rise riding on the coat-tails of Richardson and has now bobbed up in the Seven Commonwealth Games coverage with many questioning what the hell she knows about sport other than horse racing.
For the record then known by her Maiden name, Elizabeth Coulson, Lizzie won the girls’ doubles title at Wimbledon in 1994 alongside playing partner Nannie de Villiers from South Africa. At one stage Britain’s top ranked player, she qualified for a Wimbledon wildcard in 1995 but was beaten in the first round (attached photo credited to GETTY IMAGES).
She studied sports science and got involved in racing through her love of horses and started in England with a trainer called Charlie Edgerton. When she wanted to come to Australia, he was very good friends with the Hayes family. She subsequently spent 15 years working for that leading Australian stable where she rode trackwork before heading into broadcasting.
That led to one of the parts of her racing career that she doesn’t seem to talk much about. Riding on the coat-tails of then ‘bestie’ Sally Snow, a former Tabcorp employee, who an inquiry was told had a $500 interest in a bet placed with her own company on a major race featuring Winx as part of a betting scam involving her husband.
Snow, who quit her high-profile role in 2019 as the ASX-listed company’s thoroughbred senior trading manager after an investigation into betting activities, was accused of relaying inside information about future market fluctuations to husband Nathan, a professional punter.
Jelfs has made her mark in racing (at one-time flogging tips, now heavily involved in syndication) – and has obviously impressed the right people – moving up the ranks from racing.com to Seven Network coverage alongside ‘Richo’ whose coat-tails she has ridden into the Commonwealth Games team at Glasgow.
One wonders how the Network Seven coverage of racing will survive without Bruce, ‘Noddy’ and little Lizzie. Well there’s always Jmac’s handbag former jockey Katie Mallyon to keep the show on the road.
As for Lizzie there’s no tennis on the card at the Commonwealth Games. So her expertise in that field will have to wait for the Olympic coverage if Seven is the host in Paris or Brisbane in 2032 (if they ever get the facilities completed).
