Race Form Analyst | Journalist
Mick Bennett joined the Racing and Sports ('RAS') team in 2011. Racing has always been a big part of Mick's life. He is from a family of punters and fondly recalls most Friday nights during his youth spent at Harold Park trots with his father and uncle. The cauldron-like atmosphere under lights and the huge, vocal crowds in the 70s and 80s had him hooked. He still maintains the best horse he has seen, thoroughbred or standardbred, was the mighty Popular Alm who he had the pleasure of seeing race a few times at the Glebe track.
Gradually Mick was drawn to the thoroughbreds. He spent more time studying The Sportsman than textbooks during his senior years at school. In fact, his fondest memory of Marist Brothers education was running Melbourne Cup books from 1979-1982 with the blessing of the teachers, who were among his best clients – hard to imagine today.
Mick moved his family from Sydney to the far south coast of NSW in 2003. He became an accredited judge with Racing NSW in 2007, and to this day officiates at around 35 meetings per year, primarily at Queanbeyan, Moruya and the Sapphire Coast.
It was when judging at Queanbeyan he met his RAS colleague Alex Steedman. In 2011, Alex asked Mick if he was interested in a couple of hours work a week for RAS as a freelancer. He jumped at the opportunity, and in the ensuing years the work grew from a couple of hours a week to full-time employment at the beginning of 2018, ending a 35-year career in legal administration.
Mick has had a variety of roles with RAS. Coverage of Japanese racing was a big addition to the RAS portfolio in early 2020 and he has been instrumental in the provision of market assessments and form previews for its clients in that jurisdiction.
Working with RAS has provided Mick with his dream job – he counts himself incredibly lucky to do something he loves for a living from his home on the NSW Sapphire Coast.
Outside of racing, Mick is a dyed-in-the-wool West Ham United supporter. He loves 70's music and enjoys nothing more than sipping a good single malt while listening to some ELO.
