Jamie Pi back to The Valley to call the ACJC 888 Sprint

Sports broadcaster and avid racing fan Jamie Pi will make his return to The Valley this Friday for Lunar New Year racing, where he will call the ACJC 888 Sprint run over the specialist distance of 888 metres, the lucky number of the Chinese community.&nbsp; Jamie has been calling on Lunar New Year night since 2017, after answering to a Twitter post by the club that explored an opportunity for a race caller to call a race in mandarin on the night.“They put out an ad on Twitter 7 or 8 years ago looking for a mandarin caller, and I put my name down after a few people tagged me and suggested I had a look.” Pi told us. “I then went in an had a bit of an audition, I’m not sure how many people auditioned, but I was lucky enough to get the job. “It was a little bit daunting. I remember Alastair (Dwyer) just showed me a race, and I didn’t know the result, and he just said see how you go with that. I think he wanted to see the tempo and the gusto in my voice, and whether I was up to scratch. It all went well which was good.” Born in China, Pi made his move to Australia with his parents in 1993 as a thirteen-year-old, and has been fully bilingual from the age of fifteen. His knowledge and experience in the Australian sports industry also stems from his teenage years, and he has since qualified to become an accredited AFL player agent.&nbsp; “I’ve had a lot to do with AFL and football, and the expansion of the game into the Chinese community. “It would have started in ’06 or ’07, and I was then involved in the first broadcast of an AFL game in China, where I called the 2010 clash between Brisbane and Melbourne in mandarin. “I also called Rugby 7s in matches played all around the world. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to travel for that gig, and did all these matches remotely, but it worked in well with my study.” Pi will call the ACJC 888 Sprint on Friday night, scheduled as Race 5 on the program, and he explained to us his likening to call the saddle cloth numbers during the run, rather than the horse names themselves. “The horse names don’t really make much sense to the Chinese punters, which is the audience I’m speaking to when I’m calling. “The reasoning for that is the horse names aren’t translated. All your form guides and betting slips are still in English, so for me to just mumble through the English names really doesn’t give you much. “The Asian racing scene, a lot of importance is placed on the numbers. It’s also a little bit easier to rumble off as well, given it’s such a short race, and as they say, it’s all in the delivery.” All of Pi’s current commentary gigs are called in mandarin, but he is also open to opportunities in English if they arise. &nbsp;

Jamie Pi back to The Valley to call the ACJC 888 Sprint | The Valley