The perils of using a ghost writer for a ‘celebrity’ Twitter account were highlighted last week by the @plumptonraceday account. Following a normal raceday the account which had a photo of Simon Holt, Channel 4 and Plumpton racing commentator tweeted, ‘Oh and by the way, I want your hot body tonight babe. xxxxx.’ Not the usual type of horse racing content its followers were used to receiving and as it turned out a mixup between texting and tweeting.
Following a number of tweets to @simonholt3 and @plumptonraces and numerous retweets and accompanying LOLs the racecourse admitted that the account which was named Simon Holt, was in fact run by Jason Hall who writes the racing column for the Sussex Express. So embarrassment on two counts; the content of the tweet and revelation of the ghost writing.
On the former the racecourse and Jason Hall were quick of the mark to respond quickly and transparently. It appears that the lack of transparency regarding authorship of the Twitter account is being addresses to with Simon Holt’s profile picture being replaced with a photo of the racecourse and his name with Plumpton Raceday. However, the bio still reads Simon Holt brings you the inside track and all the info from the course on Plumpton racedays’.