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The horse racing and media worlds are tonight mourning the passing of an industry icon, Mr Graham McNeice who was fondly known by all as ‘Shadow’.

“Graham McNeice was not only a legend in media but a giant in the racing industry,” said Mr Peter V’landys AM, Racing NSW’s Chief Executive.

“However, even with all his contributions and achievements, the memory I have is of a beautiful human being – the racing and media families have lost one its most popular members.”

The late Mr Graham McNeice

Graham grew up as one of six children in Croydon Park and became a greyhound caller firstly under the wing of mentor Frank Kennedy.

Graham was later appointed full-time understudy at Radio 2UE to racecaller Des Hoysted and would do the odd race meeting at midweeks whenever Des was unavailable.

Graham eventually moved into television and had a long association with Channel 10 as a producer.

That led to Graham becoming one of the pioneers of satellite sports television in Australia as the founding Executive Producer at Club Super Station which later evolved into Sky Channel.

Sky Channel was initially under the ownership of Alan Bond when it started in Perth and McNeice played a huge part in having the operation moved to Sydney.

From there Sky Channel started beaming into pubs and clubs with McNeice as the main host.

It was an historic day in 1998 when the races were first broadcast into homes and McNeice served 12 years as host of the popular Sunday morning program, Racing Retro.

And six years ago, both Graham and great friend John Tapp were honoured by being inaugural inductees into Sky Racing’s Hall of Fame.

Graham then moved into the production of many outstanding sports and crime documentaries courtesy of his company Shadow Productions.

Mr Graham McNeice will be missed by a multitude of family, friends and colleagues from the racing and media industries.