TV coverage

Yes he said something about the bookies arguing that although they're only offering 1/5 the odds, they're offering better prices. This is rubbish and should have been challenged. You rarely get the cowboy bookies (any that don't offer at least the same as the high street) offering better prices. A lot of the time they don't even offer as good prices. It was one of the reasons I stopped going to the courses. I got fed up scouting up and down the lines for the best price only to walk into the on-course bookies and see longer odds available at board prices.
 
Racing in Cork yesterday I missed the show.
However during the handicap chase I was in the stand with Mick The Jiver connections.
During the race the horse made mistakes at the same fences over the circuit and a half as the heavy ground was quite patchy and horse approached those fences with ears back rather than pricked.
I was explaining this to my audience ,predicting which fences he would jump well and not so well and it was "news " to more than one of them.
Which got me wondering why racing coverage does not do this to educate its' audience every now and again.
The winner Sumos Novios ran an excellent Thyestes Chase trial by the way and needs heavy going to show his best.
 
I tuned into ITV yesterday, in the hope of seeing some drone footage from Sandown, and was disappointed that there wasn't any. Otherwise, the coverage was fine, but probably no better than that, I'd say.

To be honest, I have low expectations of presenting teams (not a critical part of my enjoyment), and as long as they go with people who are not obviously complete ar*seholes, I don't really care.

PS. Drone footage should be pushed as ITV Racing's Unique Selling Point - the thing they do that no-one has done before. If they made that footage available online, it could be a really useful tool, in terms of analysing how a race was run.
 
Another thing that happened more than once and I hope is addressed in due course is the synchronising between the paddock commentary and the pictures. More than once yesterday they were talking about one horse and showing pictures of another. Mick Fitz was able to see this and put viewers straight but maybe a more knowledgeable producer would avoid the mistake in the first place. Even I knew the horse in the picture wasn't the one they were talking about.

It did happen occasionally on C4 and the BBC but the presenters were quicker to point it out.
 
Better this week but any purist will still watch RUK . Thought they hit a better median between newbies and pros and thats their aim so I think they're doing well . The Opening Show was good with Ollie Bell , Good popular features and nice paper review if light on race analysis Nice explainer on grackle noseband without being patronising . They went wrong lat week in explaining that a mare was a female horse and that £4 staked at 11-4 returned £11 plus stake . They seem to have learnt . Happy to give them a chance . Positive overall any maybe they'll get through to a new audience .
 
Both the Opening Show and the live racing are a huge improvement on what went berfore on C4 and the BBC.

A few rough edges to sort out, but it's great to see such enthusiasm for our sport coming across the airwaves.
 
Saturday's viewing figures a harsh wake-up call on the challenge they face with the ITV4 shows though.

Around half of the number of viewers that "watched" the initial New Year's day program tuned in and it received less viewers than the C4 equivalent a year ago.
 
It baffles me - considering the utter crap on ITV on a Saturday afternoon why the racing is on ITV 4 rather than ITV 1 ?
 
Too many ex -jockeys . I can see an argument for Harvey or Fitzgerald but not both of them . Channel 4 went amiss by having two non jockey racing experts in Cunningham and McGrath in a studio . ITV could do with one - which is I suspect why Francome and McGrath worked on the old C4 . I don't really understand the sacking of McGrath and Holt- more than a touch of change for change's sake .
 
People seem to feel that Holt is missed. For me, Hoiles has been the best commentator for about a decade. Holt (maybe instructed to do so) would intersperse his calls with some education for the very casual viewer. Mick Fitz will be the weak link in whatever line up he is in. Wonder if his friendship with Sir AP was important in getting both on the programme. Can't believe he has impressed with his C4/ATR work.
 
Back when he was a jockey Mick was widely applauded for his gift of communication both in interviews and features.
He is eating out on that still imo.
To be fair he has the knowledge just to get it out of him; his glib answers "A horse needs to travel around this track " is not fully explored as to what features any particular track has.
RUK did a few wonderful track features and ITV would be well advised to follow that route now they are revisiting tracks for the first time in over thirty years.
Two minutes at the start of every programme, using their drone would be very informative to casual and educated viewer methinks.
 
edgt said:
Back when he was a jockey Mick was widely applauded for his gift of communication both in interviews and features.
He is eating out on that still imo.
To be fair he has the knowledge just to get it out of him; his glib answers "A horse needs to travel around this track " is not fully explored as to what features any particular track has.
RUK did a few wonderful track features and ITV would be well advised to follow that route now they are revisiting tracks for the first time in over thirty years.
Two minutes at the start of every programme, using their drone would be very informative to casual and educated viewer methinks.
Click to expand...
I must say I think this is a great idea edgt. When reading form you get a brief description of its undulating or galloping etc. but I'd love more details on this from the drone, which could potentially be an exceptional feature imo.
 
edgt said:
Back when he was a jockey Mick was widely applauded for his gift of communication both in interviews and features.
He is eating out on that still imo.
To be fair he has the knowledge just to get it out of him; his glib answers "A horse needs to travel around this track " is not fully explored as to what features any particular track has.
RUK did a few wonderful track features and ITV would be well advised to follow that route now they are revisiting tracks for the first time in over thirty years.
Two minutes at the start of every programme, using their drone would be very informative to casual and educated viewer methinks.
Click to expand...


I have often said something similar - his interview after winning the National did him a lot of favours.
 
I enjoyed the opening show and watched most of the afternoon edition to see what it was like, even though I have RUK and ATR. It was good but it felt a lot like watching C4 just with different presenters.

It would be nice to see some real innovation. What about "the red button" to have different views ?.

1. an Oddschecker type feature - which surely wouldn't be hard to do though maybe Hills wouldn't be too happy as the program's sponsor, 2. The paddock pre-race and winners enclosure post-race. Even better, picture in picture to show both.

If they can do it for golf then surely they can do it for horse racing and it's not like they'd need a load of cameras as there would be limited options.
 
I think some of the things that make golf, snooker and athletics attractive to the casual viewer are the explanations to the general public.

In golf, I think Ken Brown's analysis of the lie of the green is compulsive viewing and in snooker the super-imposed angles BEFORE a shot is hit tells the viewer that the studio pundits are real experts. In athletics they can analyse how fast sprinters leave the blocks or highlight where hurdlers lost a race with a mistake or where a relay changeover won/lost a race.

I'm not sure what the equivalents in racing would be but I do feel there isn't enough technical analysis. The progamme's producers will tell us that won't appeal to the casual viewer but I think they are duty bound to make it appeal [if they want it to succeed] rather than rely on the sport itself.

I would like to see more analysis of a race, especially afterwards. A "where did your money go" section, like they do after the National but condensed a bit. And that would be where you get the 'sexy' camera work. I still want to see a more panoramic camera angle at finishes to get a visual perspective on finishing positions.
 
I have to hold my hands up in advance, I have seen very little of ITV's coverage

They should capitalise on the drone footage - it's something that gives them an edge and it hsould provide for some enlightening coverage in post race analysis

Unlike the subscription channels which have a race every 5 mins, terrestrial tv should have room for proper analysis like DO said - use the aerial footage to show us when the pace increased, when a jock made his move etc
 
It's also a golden opportunity to introduce sectional timing as part of the analysis, along with the explain-as-you-go approach.

I've never forgotten the post-race analysis of Kelly Holmes's olympic win when she appeared to find extra in the final 100m to overtake those in front, yet either Brendan Foster or Steve Cram were soon explaining in layman's language that she had simply judged the pace better than everybody and was finishing the last section at the same pace as the previous one while those round about her were weakening. It was utterly invaluable analysis and one that got me interested in trying to decipher finishing efforts from race comments. Then along came people like EC1 and Prufrock to shed real light on how races unfold. It's priceless stuff and much more understandable to Joe and Jane Punter than the likes of the fascinating yet much less tangible dosage analysis.
 
It's not that different to watching C4 of an afternoon for me.

I saw the morning show and thought it was alright, but nothing more. Particularly the feature with Wylie - why not ask him how he got into racing, how he ended up with WPM, what he thinks about the state of the game... rather than just asking for 4 (obvious) horses to follow.
 
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