25 March 2024 , 13:29
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A top racing commentator has apologised for inaccurately describing the final stages of a race after suffering a “medical incident”.
Mike Catttermole, who works for Sky Sports Racing, was commentating on the eight-race card at Doncaster on Sunday.
The meeting had passed without incident until the fifth race, a 6f sprint handicap up the Doncaster straight.
Cattermole completed the call for the race, which was won by Knebworth, without any apparent problem but back in his booth he was in a lot of difficulty.
Some punters picked him up on social media for naming the wrong second horse and mentioning another that was involved in the finish which actually was second to last.
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But the tone on X changed when Cattermole explained he was a Type 1 diabetic and had had a “medical incident”, a sudden drop in blood sugar known as a diabetic hypo, during the race.
“It was the feature race on the card, and there was a cracking finish, so I wanted to tell people what had happened,” said Cattermole.
“I got away with it for 90 percent of the race but to be honest I was struggling from the moment they went into the stalls.
“The colours weren’t imprinting on my mind, I wasn’t feeling good and it was only afterwards I realised what was going on. In the last half furlong I didn’t have an idea which two horses were in front.
“It’s a horrible feeling. You get disorientated and you can’t concentrate on anything.”
Cattermole explained he usually wears a special sensor fitted to his arm which alerts him when his sugars get too low, but it had gone faulty the day before.
“There was a little bit of a bubble on Twitter about my commentary and that’s when I thought it was worth an explanation about what had happened,” he said.
“If the sensor had been working I would have been alerted to the fact my sugars were going low and I would have done something about it.
“The hypos can creep up on you. Right after the race I was stuffing my face with jelly babies and jelly beans.”
He added: “I am my own worst critic and the incident was annoying more than anything. But anyone who is an insulin dependent diabetic like I am will know that if your blood sugars get too low you can pass out or too high you can collapse into a coma.
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