Legendary broadcaster Robert Hall's silks back on a racecourse for the first time in more than 30 years

Legendary RTE Racing broadcaster Robert Hall's silks will be seen on a racecourse for the first time in more than 30 years when the Richard O'Brien-trained Frogman lines up in the concluding 2m bumper (3.40) at Naas on Sunday.

Hall, who started out at RTE with a radio commentary of the 1982 Irish 2,000 Guineas, began to appear on the television screen for the national broadcaster in the early 1990s as a paddock judge. He subsequently went on to lead the channel's racing coverage, building a spectacular rapport with his former colleague Ted Walsh, the duo establishing themselves as a cornerstone of Irish racing.

Many eyes would have been drawn to Hall's name beside Frogman when declarations were revealed for the ten-runner bumper, and he explained it was the pedigree which attracted him to the Ol' Man River gelding along with a yearning to return to the "cutting edge" of the game.

Hall said: "I went to the sale not intending to buy a horse, but that had been the same situation when I bought my previous best horse, who turned out to be the dam of Indigenous, who went on to become Horse Of The Year in Hong Kong. 

"I went to the sale and was looking at the catalogue, as I do some work with Tattersalls Ireland, and I noticed the pedigree went back to a mare called Mumtaz Mahal, who was a remarkable racemare and progenitor of wonderful racehorses. He got knocked down to Gerry Hogan and he said he was for Richard O’Brien.

"I thought to myself, I’m not getting any younger and need to be kept on the cutting edge of this game as I love it, so I said to Gerry that if Richard hasn’t got anyone for him then I’d keep him with him, and by the end of the day I owned him. 

"I sent him to Joanne Quirke to break and she did a brilliant job. We look at him as a horse for tomorrow rather than today and we love what we know about him, but he hasn’t been asked any questions."

Hall and Ted Walsh, pictured with Jane Mangan, were a hugely popular partnership for RTECredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Hall also explained the origins of the long-absent red and black colours that Eoin O'Brien will don on board Frogman.

He said: "The colours are Stablemate Racing which was a company I put together in 1988 with Denny Cordell. We had horses with a lot of different trainers.

"It was around the time that premium rate telephone lines had come into the UK and we realised they were coming into Ireland. We went to Telecom Eireann and said we can split the proceeds off the telephone line with you and we reckoned we could get most of the training fees paid off with that. We did well out of it as the horses all won with the exception of one. We had them with the likes of Michael Cunningham, Richard Lyster, Denny himself, Willie Mullins and Dermot Weld. 

"These are the same colours and I actually rode a winner in them for Willie at Fairyhouse. In 1993 we disbanded the company and everyone got a dividend, and the members gave me a present of the racing colours for life, so they haven’t been seen on a racecourse since 1993.

"It’ll be fun to see the colours on the racecourse again. I gave Richard the woolly ones and the silks so I’m not sure what Eoin will put on, but I love the woolly jersey, you don’t see too many of them anymore."

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