Fat Al. The perfect man for the job. Or, when she comes back, lovely Alice Plunkett.

Whilst both are excellent, neither have a particular love of flat racing.
So couldn't do the whole year

On the subject of Channel 4 pundits, does anyone here find Jim McGrath extremely monotone and very bland with seemingly very little personality?

He never seems to get over excited about anything, yes he has the knowledge but for the viewer he dosent seem to come across with any warmth or character.

Found it most odd that the likes of Francome and Thompson got dropped but this guy stayed on, he really does nothing for me to make me switch on and listen to him.

Maybe, probably is, just me but just cant warm to him

Francome didn't get dropped, he chose to leave I understand.

I much prefer Jimbo to Cunningham but I wonder now they have Mick Fitz and AP if his role will be reduced now.

Thanks Darren, as for AP its just a case for a big name to come in on its jumps racing much like Dettori on the flat and off course Hayley Turner going to ATR.

Seems like in any sport now if your a big name you have a career on TV ready made for you maybe even at some regular's expense.

But who is the man in the bookies going to want to listen to more ? A man who has ridden over 4000 and 16 times champion jockey, or Graham Cunningham

You could say the same about Fitzgerald. There is nothing wrong with horses for courses so why not have some different presenters for the flat and jump seasons.

As Darren says Francombe choose to leave as he didn't agree with C4's changes, I always thought he and McGrath made a good pairing.

I've no idea why any coverage needs two jockeys to give viewers a jockey's perspective, so AP or Fitzgerald but not both and I'd choose AP.

I thought AP was really good on Saturday, for what it's worth. Really insightful and a lot better than I was expecting. A lot more relaxed than we're used to seeing him, and seemed to enjoy it.

The Morning Line needs a complete overhaul though with a lot more time devoted to race previews than is currently the case. They haven't got enough time to be dwelling too much on racing news or past races.

Clashing meetings never used to be a problem on ATR when they had Royal Ascot; no other ATR tracks were shown during the daytime of the Royal meeting.


The addition of Ascot to the RUK roster has made this worse. Two examples; the Saturday of the Royal meeting (RUK also cover Ayr, Newmarket and Redcar) and "that Saturday" in July, where it's shown alongside Newmarket (July Cup), York (John Smiths Cup) and Chester.


John Francome did not wish to be considered for the new C4 racing team from 2013 out of loyalty to the outgoing C4 racing producers, Highflyer Productions.

Down is great when doing special segments, but I don't think he's the right person to front it. I don't mind Alice either, but again, I don't see her as a lead presenter. I don't think she's particularly impressive when she fronts TML.

It's by no means certain ( as Jamie Jay has suggested ) that ITV will win the rights to show horse racing. I remember it was in 2006 if my memory serves me well that the rights to show FA Cup TV coverage were up for auction. The BBC seemed to be favourites to win those rights until ITV which at that time had Michael Grade as it's network Chairman put in a late bid and ended up showing FA Cup coverage.
At this moment in time it does seem that ITV could well end up with horse racing rights, however the BBC which has lost the rights to show the Open Golf Championship and The Voice UK might be tempted to bid for horse racing and hopefully at least end up with the rights to show The Grand National.

Channel 4 have said in the past they will drop all racing if they don't get Cheltenham. I believe but may be wrong that they put all the Crown Jewels together for the last round of bidding. So the thought of BBC taking Cheltenham would see channel 4 pull out and no terrestrial racing on the smaller weekends.

At least with ITV winning you would see the smaller fixtures on ITV4 potentially.

If they want to boost the coverage then move the big summer meetings to the evening and get Ant and Dec to host. Would upset the purist who can watch RUK but certainly draw in loads of viewers.

Francome and McGrath were a good partnership. McGrath hasn't been the same since he left, lots of things seem to get on his nerves and he let's it show.
The morning line has a lot of knockers, things id change would include getting rid of the endless stream of bookies stooges, hardly any differ anyway.
I'd have four on the sofa. The jockey, the form expert, the betting expert (Tanya mainly) and a bookie with a genuine opinion (Banks springs to mind)
The rest of the format is simple, preview the days big races. Its what we want.

Where were you between 2009-2012? Both were the main anchors for the jump racing.


Could you please explain what has this got to do with sport? When was this part of the BBC sports budget?


You want "smaller fixtures" to be televised? Isn't that what the two dedicated racing channels are for? Showing minor events in the calendar of a particular sport doesn't - and shouldn't - interest the terrestrial broadcasters these days. What minor week-in week-out sporting events are shown on terrestrial tv? If the current viewing figures for big race meetings on C4 are p*** poor, then what would they be like if they showed so-called smaller fixtures?

In my opinion, showing racing 52 weeks a year is no longer sustainable.

It would appear to be sustainable at present, you only have to watch the plethora of 'gambling' adverts throughout the show on C4 to see they must be making some good money from advertisers, they even do PIP adverts as the horses are guided in to the stalls to squeeze a few more in.

And most national newspapers have their racing coverage beefed up on a Saturday, many with pull outs as there is demand for a flutter on the racing,

The average punter, which would include my dad, does not care if he gets his winner in a seller at fontwell of a graded hurdle at aintree.

It was always traditional to show 2 meetings every Saturday and that is how it should be , 4 from one and 3 from the other, all people want to see are the races anything else is superfluous especially as most are channel hopping to keep in touch with the football on SKY

I always thought it was a mistake to lose the link to the scoop 6.
A TV bet always gives the afternoon a narrative.

I think when Betfred took over the Tote they could not for commercial reasons? It is just mentioned when there is a huge pot now.

What do you mean, where was I? The fact they have done it before doesn't mean I think they're the right people to do it now.

The gloves are off...

http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse...=last7DaysNews

Very interesting read, almost saying Channel 4 have been rubbish and don't deserve the next contract.

For the like of me I really cant understand why the BBC wouldn't bid for the biggest meetings.

If its true and they may lose the formula 1 rights then any racing rights would be peanuts in comparison.

That's how I read it too. Redvers is an outspoken character, but a very big name in the game. This is an interesting turn of events

The drift of this piece though is that C4 is paying too much attention to betting, whereas my feeling like some others above is that this aspect has if anything been reduced, particularly on The Morning Line.

The morning lines problems highlighted today. Paul Nicholls looked uninterested and like he'd rather be somewhere else, presumably because Spencer was just asking banal questions, and Cunningham was his fawning usual self.
Why on earth is she presenting on such a big day?
And the betting was very minimal this morning.