Racing veteran Terry Bailey has revealed he is shattered by what he considers a forced retirement, with the popular broadcaster saying he will walk away from horse racing forever.
In a final interview before his final on-air shift for racing.com on Tuesday, Bailey reflects on his life in racing, rates the legends on and off the track, talks about his love of punting and how today’s racing compares to years gone.
He was recently told by racing.com that he would no longer be receiving shifts, bringing to an end to a calling and media career that spans more than 40 years.
Betsy sat down with Bailey last week, better known to punters as TB, who openly admits he is shattered to be losing a job he loves.
”What am I going to do? What can I do? Do a podcast? I love calling races. I love being in a studio and doing the Tuesday program,” he said.
”I love it. And if you’ve got something that you love and someone that you don’t have any respect for just pulls it out, pulls your heart out of your soul and throws it in the garbage bin,’’ he said.
”Mate, I’ll do everything. I’ve done everything. I am never going to have any regrets and I am never going to walk. I am just pissed off. I’m just pissed off that people that have limited ability can sack me.”
In a lengthy interview about his career, Bailey said:
- He was forced out from racing.com because he had opinions that clashed with Racing Victoria, who own the station
- That the last-minute intervention from racing powerbroker Jonathan Munz saved him from the sack in 2025
- Damien Oliver and Darren Beadman are the best jockeys he has ever seen
- He rates Bart Cummings as the best trainer
- While Sunline is the best horse he called, Winx was the best he has ever seen
- Racing needs to find its fun again, saying the sport is too ‘’odds obsessed’’
- Revealed his greatest punting tale
- And that his shattering exit from racing.com will force him to walk away from racing and concentrate on training greyhounds full time
‘Why else would I lose my job’
As Bailey spoke about the origins of his career and the fact it was coming to an end, the discussion around his exit from racing.com brings two sides of the broadcaster.
He is at pains to say he is at peace with the end of his career, but also admits to his anger about how it is happening.
Bailey is adamant it is his opinions and free speech that have seem him removed from racing.com.
‘’Why else would I lose my job when you got the most popular program on racing.com with the Tuesday program and the outcry from people?’’ Bailey said.
‘’And I don’t do any social media. But I have so many people ringing me, pulling me up in the street, at the dogs [greyhounds]. Everyone says, and the theme is always the same, and this is not blowing my own trumpet. They all say the same thing: “We all watch the Tuesday program. We even record it”, some of them tell me so they can watch it. They don’t want to miss it. It’s the only reason we tune into racing.com.”
”I’ve had major breeders, I’ve had major trainers, I’ve had a lot of people tell me this, so I am not making it up.’’
‘They don’t want a person like me’
Racing Victoria made Bailey redundant in 2025 from his race calling duties, another decision he said he didn’t agree with.
He told Betsy the only reason that he remained on the screens of racing.com for another year was the intervention of friend and arguably racing’s most powerful figure, Jonathan Munz.
‘’The only reason I am still doing Tuesdays is because Jonathan Munz, who I am friends with, stepped in and he said, I couldn’t save your main job … but you still got your Tuesday job and that they’ll look after you there.”
‘’And once the twelve months was up in the contract, it came [as] no surprise to me, they’d get me out of the house as fast as possible.”
‘’They don’t want a person like me who’s prepared to have integrity, prepared and ask questions. They don’t want to be interrogated. They don’t want anyone to say, “Hey, what’s this all about? Why are you doing this?’’
Bailey said relations with Racing Victoria seriously deteriorated in 2025 when he criticised Victoria’s apprentices and he feared he would be sacked.
‘’It’s ridiculous, really. It’s childish because I remember when I said something about the apprentices, and all I said was the apprentices are an ordinary bunch this time compared to the apprentices we’ve had before,’’ he said.
”That’s like saying a football team is like St George and not the football team they were X amount of years ago. So what?”
”And then [Racing Victoria] Jamie McGuinness was running around like a chook with his head cut off … I rang him four times, left three messages. He never got back to me. He doesn’t get back to anyone in the media because he’s untouchable.”
‘’RV don’t talk to me. No one at RV’s ever spoken to me. The only person to speak to me was from HR when I said the jockeys thing. And they were all furious. And I am going ‘oh, but I said nothing’.”
‘’Every trainer said to me [they agreed] … just that they don’t go out and say it publicly. I do’’
Go and do whatever you want with it
When Bailey was overlooked to be Victoria’s number 1 race caller – a move he even admits was the right call given Matt Hill was the recipient – TB was told Tuesdays on racing.com was his to do with what he wanted.
He said that it was during the transition from TVN to racing.com that he enjoyed some of the best years of his career, and even strong relationships with his bosses.
‘’Mate, I started with TVN under Peter Sweeney and Gary Miller. Then I worked under Racing Victoria under Bernard Saundry, and they were good,’’ he said.
‘’They were good, and then Andrew Catterall came along at racing.com, and he was a breath of fresh air.”
‘’You could have an argument with Andrew, and he would not hold it against you; he would fight back. He would say, ‘No, you’re wrong, and you can’t do this and you can’t do that.’ If you got into trouble, he would always have your back. He’s the best boss I’ve ever had in racing.”
‘’And Wayne Wilson, tough boss, but you always respected him because he knew when he told you something, he knew more than you knew. And Cats [Catterall] always had your back; always protected you. But then once he protected you, take you outside and say, ‘Don’t do that again,’ and give a kick up the arse.’’
Catterall, Bailey said, gave him the freedom to do Tuesdays with Terry racing, some of the best years of his career.
Do we race too much?
Leigh Jordon shares his thoughts 🗣️ #TuesdaysWithTerry pic.twitter.com/a7trvZG5Wn
— Racing.com (@Racing) February 13, 2024
‘When I didn’t get the number one calling job, and that’s probably the best decision Racing Victoria’s made in a long time. They gave it to one of the best broadcasters in my time [Matt Hill],’’ he said.
‘’And Cats said, ‘I am giving you a Tuesday program to do. Go and do whatever you want with it, and he just gave me free rein’.
We’re flashing back to 2019 when Terry sat down for a chat with the great Peter Mertens ❤️ #TuesdaysWithTerry pic.twitter.com/aOSEtkrRJo
— Racing.com (@Racing) June 27, 2023
‘So let’s have a bit of fun’
Have fun he did.
As far as racing media goes, he pushed the boundaries with a range of guests from prominent trainers, jockeys, breeders and figures associated with the sport. His segments were often great television.
But it was the everyday racing folk that arguably delivered his greatest on-air moments. There were a few, too, where Bailey missed the mark.
“Anybody home, Terry?” 🤣
Wake up, TB! #TuesdaysWithTerry pic.twitter.com/vV85F8Pkp9
— Racing.com (@Racing) June 18, 2024
He said his philosophy behind his TV work is simple, mostly.
‘’I always say in racing we take ourselves so seriously: training horses, riding horses, getting up to do the stables in the morning, punting. It’s a bloody hard job. So let’s have a bit of fun. Let’s have a little bit of fun,’’ he said.
‘’So I try to make it a bit of fun. And I could be a smart ass, and I can have a crack. Like when I work with Hutch [Clint Hutchison], I’ve called him a moron, an imbecile, and every name under the sun. But we’re best mates. I love him. We disagree but we don’t all agree.’’
“I was definitely in the zone.”
Dan Mielicki relives his first Melbourne Cup call in 1989 🏆 #TuesdaysWithTerry pic.twitter.com/SbiuMwd7fW
— Racing.com (@Racing) October 29, 2024
And he admits to trying to occasionally create debate for the benefit of making good television, including giving his fellow tipsters a hard time.
‘’I hate sitting down watching two blokes, sitting there patting each other on the back, how well they’ve done. You’ve tipped the dollar eighty winner. Good on ya mate,’’ he said.
”Like a lot of tipsters I’ve worked with over the years. They say, tipped that last winner Terry, give me a plug.”
‘’I am not gonna give you a plug. That’s your job. You’re paid to come and tip.’’
View this post on Instagram
‘What am I going to do?’
In talking to Betsy, Bailey is clearly emotional at the realisation his long, at times celebrated, career in racing appears over.
He said he will not chase more work and concentrate on his greyhound training business, which he says is growing healthily.
‘’What am I going to do? What can I do? Do a podcast. I love calling races.”
”I love being in a studio and doing the Tuesday program. I love it. And if you’ve got something that you love and someone that you don’t have any respect for just pulls it out, pulls your heart out of your soul and throws it in the garbage bin,’’ he said.
‘’So I am going on with the greyhounds and I’ve got over a hundred at the moment. I’ve got thirty-two in work. I’ve got some really good dogs at home. I’ve got great people helping me. I’ve got a great life ahead.”
‘’I say this to people all the time and my kids: You have one life.”
”Why do you want to lie on your bed when you are about to die and say, ‘I wish I’d done that’?
”Mate, I’ll do everything. I’ve done everything. I am never going to have any regrets and I am never going to walk. I am just pissed off. I’m just pissed off that people that have limited ability can sack me.”
Bailey’s racing journey started as a young child growing up in a racing family, with one of his earliest memories was landing his first big win as punter when only five years old.
He was a regular across Queensland’s race tracks, and from an early age, had his mind set on being a race caller.
But it was the sport’s ability to bring people from all walks of life together for an afternoon that made him fall in love with the industry.
‘’Across the board, you could be talking to a mafia figure one minute and a Prime Minister the next,’’ he said.
‘’Racing brought everyone together in one melting pot that was so much fun, and you’d … have sixty-seven bookmakers … it was amazing, and you’d be running up and down trying to get the right price. And it was just so much fun.’’
On track, Bailey said his ability to appreciate greatness in sport allowed him to recognise the champions when they emerged.
”I love to see the great champions. It’s like in sport when you see a Jonathan Thurston playing in the NRL. You look at him and you go, ‘How good’s this? I am watching a legend’,’’ he said.
‘’I’ve been able to watch Kingston Town and all the great champions. Rough Habit coming to Queensland when I started working with Wayne Wilson.”
‘’And it was great; it was personalities. I love the punt. I’ve been a punter. I had my first bet as a five-year-old and I won, probably a bad thing. And now day and age, please gamble responsibly and all that bullshit.”
‘’Seeing Mick Dittman up against Jimmy Cassidy when Rory’s Jester won the Golden Slipper that year, I went and watched.”
‘’Watching the great riders like seeing Ollie in the nineties and Darren Beadman who I love. Just unbelievable. It’s just magic to watch a great sports person.’’
Bailey openly admits he doesn’t fit in with how modern racing operates, openly criticising aspects of today’s game.
‘’It’s not like it used to be. It’s a different audience nowadays. Old fuddy wuddies like me, I find it more bland now,’’ he said.
‘’It’s all about betting odds, shoved down your throat. You know you’re getting bad percentages.”
‘’[Racing’s] changed. There is less people at the track, stricter rules, social media.”
‘’There is so much bullshit put into racing now. It doesn’t have that beautiful feel that it used to in the old days where everything was pretty much open, and it was a lot of fun.’’
“You can be a good judge but that doesn’t parlay into you being a good punter.”
Take a look back at the day Deane Lester discussed the art of form analysis on #TuesdaysWithTerry 🙏 pic.twitter.com/k74O577pjX
— Racing.com (@Racing) February 16, 2023
Bart Cummings ‘just had that little ten percent extra’
When you have been working in racing for nearly half a century, you are qualified to answer who Australia’s greatest trainer has been.
‘’I think Bart,’’ he said without hesitation.
‘’I think Bart is totally different to TJ [Tommy J Smith].”
‘’TJ … he had Percy Sykes there as well, but Bart had the sprinkle of magic. He just had that little ten percent extra.’’
Bailey revealed his first encounter with Cummings was a disaster when working on-air for Sky.
‘’I remember when I met Bart at Randwick for the first time when I went to Sydney in 1998,” he recalls.
‘’I went up to Bart, who won a race, I think it was a midweek race at Randwick, and I said ‘you must have been pleased with that’.”
‘’He said yes.”
‘’I went shoot, I am in trouble here, and then [asked] ‘where do you think he can go next time?'”
‘’’Probably back to the races’, he replied.”
‘’He gave me nothing. And then years later, I was in the committee room at Darwin, where I used to go up every year and Bart was there. He said, “Come over here, Terry. Come over here.”
And he said, “Mate, I am shocked that they let you go at Sky Channel. You are a great race caller’.
”And he gave me a rap. We stood there and talked for ages. It was just fascinating when you meet these great champions.”
‘The best just have a killer instinct’
Bailey’s eyes light up when asked about the greatest jockeys he has seen over a long career.
‘’Damien Oliver and Darren Beadman,’’ he said.
‘’You watch Ollie in the big races, the Melbourne Cup. It’s just unbelievable. He’s always in control of the race. He’s always got everything under control, and he’s got the killer instinct him and Beadman. Darren, the same killer instinct.”
‘’I’d go to the races at Canterbury every Thursday night and punt up, and you just back Darren. And he just would, he’d stand over the other jockeys. He had the killer instinct.”
‘’They had that real mongrel where they get down in the dirt and fight. And I remember Ollie in the nineties, just sitting back watching him in a race. You go, this is all over eight hundred out. All over. He’s got them covered. It was just unbelievable. Just killer instinct.’’
Winx is the best
‘’She had a motor. She would give a start away and had a motor,’’ he said.
‘’To continue winning races like she did, I would have loved to have seen her go overseas. I don’t know why they didn’t. I think she would have tested herself right up there with the elite, similar to Strawberry Road and the horses that we’ve had go overseas. Kingston Town was my first favourite horse with Dulcify.”
Hugh Bowman returns to the mounting yard aboard Winx after winning the Ladbrokes Cox Plate at Moonee Valley Racecourse on October 27, 2018 in Moonee Ponds, Australia. (Reg Ryan/Racing Photos)
Best horse he called?
‘’Sunline when she first came to Sydney, I saw her in the mounting yard and went, ‘This is Serena Williams up against the little girls,’’ he said.
‘’And she just bolted in and I called her in all of her Sydney wins. And she was special.’’
”She gave me my pay after race number four. She never saw me again”
In an era where admitting you’re a keen punter is not as common as it once was, Bailey admits he has always loved to bet and always will.
Despite his grumblings about taxes on gambling and non-competitive markets, Bailey said it remains a passion.
His first big win?
‘’I backed Dulcify in the Derby and backed him, I think it was [in] the George Adams,’’ he said.
‘’And I had thousands of dollars at the time. I was working for my auntie, actually, up in the kitchen at the races at Grafton, and I was doing the dishes and cleaning up. And I said, “I am just going to pop out.” That’s when she gave me my pay packet after race number four, which was a bad move. She never saw me again.’’
But he admits, as most punters will, to ‘’lapses in judgment’’.
‘’I’ll tell you how stupid I am. I am driving to Ballarat and Julia Gillard’s challenging Kevin Rudd to take over as prime minister,’’ he said.
‘’And I am listening to all the reports on one channel, then back to the ABC … [and I am thinking] there is money to be made here.”
‘’So I had ten thousand dollars on Julia Gillard at about $1.22 or something like that. I missed the dollar thirty five. And I am driving all the way to Ballarat, and I get to the box, and I go, ‘Terry, you are an idiot. Why would you put ten thousand dollars on a $1.22?’
And then there was the time his wife gave him a $50 note for the day, which turned into much, much more.
‘’The first time I met my wife and I was going out. She had to work that day; it was a Saturday. And she said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘Go up to the pub and have a few bets.’
”So she gave me fifty dollars. I thought this girl doesn’t know me very well does she?,’’ he laughed.
‘’So after the pub, I won about ten thousand, eleven thousand dollars.”
‘’I came home and she said, “How was your day?” I said, “Oh, could have been better.” How was yours? She said, “Oh, very busy.” I said, “Come into the bedroom, darling.”
‘’And she looks at me. In we go, and I pull out my pockets and throw the cash on the bed. And here’s all this money going everywhere, you know?”
”And she’s just unbelievable. “You’re a freak!” So she dives on the bed, grabs all the money, gives me a hundred dollars and said, “I am putting it in the bank.”
”The only bank I knew was the river bank. What’s a bank? What’s a bank? So I learned a lesson there very early in life.’’
‘I came in with no applause, nothing. I want to go out the same way’
Bailey said he has made it clear he wants no farewell.
‘’When I called my last race, I had a tear. I was very emotional because I didn’t want to stop. I still thought I had another four years in me. That’s all I wanted: four years and then I was going to pull the pin,’’ he said.
‘’So yeah, something I’ve worked all my life for and dreamt of as a kid. Everyone told me it was impossible: ‘You won’t do it.’ Had one race caller once say: ‘You’re never going to make it as a race caller Terry, but you’re going to be a great administrator.’ Can you believe that?”
‘’I came in with no applause, nothing. I want to go out the same way.”
‘’And go, that’s me done and dusted. I don’t want any cake, I don’t want anything. I just want to be left in peace and handle it the best I can my way.’’
RV was approached for comment.
Terry Bailey’s final appearance for racing.com will be on Tuesday, June 30
