JOSH FLEMING will be back doing what he does best – calling the annual two-day Birdsville Cup Carnival for a national audience today (Friday) and tomorrow.
Whether they had to be dragged kicking and screaming, loyal supporters of Fleming demanded that SKY reinstate him for the Carnival after they used callers back in the studio last year.
It was a disgraceful slight on one of the most popular callers in the land who SKY dumped as Queensland’s No 1 broadcaster of racing in April 2025.
For over two decades, Fleming’s voice had been heard calling the races across Queensland. Out of the blue Josh and some of SKY’s most established callers were surprisingly shown the door. At the time a SKY spokesperson said the changes reflected “a simpler and more efficient broadcasting model” which “forms part of a broader modernization of the network”.
To Fleming’s fans – and there were a legion of them – that sounded like a load a crap. But it was taken a step further when SKY decided they would not even allow him the one-off opportunity to call Birdsville where he started his career at just 14 years of ago. The club stood by him on-course while two SKY callers struggled their way through the card from studios in the big smoke.
For some bitter, twisted, political reason even clubs who used Josh while their regular callers were on holidays were being encouraged by big brother at SKY not to do so.
Fortunately Fleming was not lost to the racing industry following SKY’s ‘low act’. The Toowoomba Turf Club threw him a life-line to work in a promotional and administrative role where he has proved a great success story.
Josh will line up for what must be close to his 20th call of the Birdsville Cup this year and this is one decision that SKY has made which has been welcomed by punters, the racing public and those who will simply be watching the two days of Birdsville at clubs, pubs and in their homes across the country.
