Alastair Down - an appreciation of a master of his craft!
"It was a surprise to hear of the passing of Alastair Down a few days ago, not that we didn't know he was ill, rather the fact he'd seemed in decent form at Cheltenham last weekend, when the Press Room was named after him.
As an avid reader on many topics; I always found Alastair's articles, initially in the Sporting Life and then in the Racing Post to be wonderful exposes of our Sport. He had a rare talent with words in that you did not need to be there to imagine the scene or the expectation as the written article would take you there, not unlike a JK Rowling scene in Harry Potter or Cormorant Strike.
That Alastair Down could also transfer his written word though to the spoken word and oratory was equally commendable and wonderful. His opening and closing comments at big Meetings and his presentational skills before ITV destroyed what was an outstanding TV Horse Racing Team at Channel 4 were top notch. In my opinion he was up there in his field in the way David Attenborough is with all things he does, John Pilger was in his prime in terms of Global Affairs, Eddie Butler was in his wonderful oration about Rugby Union and Peter Alliss in Golf and Richie Benaud in Cricket. A rare colossus of his trade, fantastic wordsmiths!.
It is well documented that he had his demons,with a more than swift libation on occasions. What may be less well known is the tragedy he endured in latter years when one of his cherished daughters was killed in a terrorist attack in 2019, something he never really recovered from and exacerbated from his gradual removal from the public eye following the switch on terrestrial TV from Channel 4 to ITV.
Few of his generation remain to entertain us with the written word and spoken word and we should cherish the likes of Marten Julian and especially David Ashforth whilst we still have them. The Open Meeting at Cheltenham in 2 weeks time quite simply won't be the same without him.
(IJ)