What do you expect from the likes of Nick Luck, he won't admit failure and won't believe he is part of the problem.

If Luck had half the presence and empathy Derek Thompson had he still wouldn't come across as an engaging presenter.

I think the last time I saw the morning line which must have been well over a year ago he was trying to some comedy quiz with the guest and it was painful to watch.

Just a line on the idea that most of the coverage (ie the 60 days on ITV4) will be studio based

This could be pretty good !

I have RUK and ATR but I tend not to watch them through but to flick on for the actual races I want to watch. I can't be bothered with all that jockey and trainer interviews malarky.........they never say anything apart from trite clichés which get on your nerves

The best show on RUK is the Wednesday night from Kempton which is studio based. They show a bit of paddock, the race, a reply..........but for the 20 minutes between races the presenter and guest (or 2 guests) will discuss issues in racing, upcoming big races, topics suggested by viewer e-mails etc

Given that the Kempton cards are rarely that interesting I tend to flick to the news or something during the races and flick back for the inter-race chat !

If ITV4 adopted that style I think it would be good entertainment

How can it be good for racing if you keep switching itv4 over after the 5f race and don't watch again for 25 minutes?

Most people complain they don't get to see the horses parading before the race or coming back from a break just as the jump off, so you can't have it both ways and if you turnover anyway why does it matter what they do inbetween?

it's the other way round.........if itv4 adopted the RUK studio based format I would watch the chat between races even if the racing itself wasn't of much interest

Understand that view, but I feel that's exactly what they don't want to be doing. Your saturday afternoon viewer wants to watch sport.
We need more races not less, C4 spend far too much time in the studio.
8 races, 5 minute previews, bit of betting action/interviews with key people. And a Saturday bet that people can get involved in.

A piece by James Willoughby, who is a regular on the Wednesday night RUK show that swingaleg was referencing

http://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com...ss-for-racing/

JW can be infuriating, but if you can cut through to the guts of what the is getting at, he's fascinating.
Mrs DG can't get beyond the immovable top lip though

I'm convinced he has no teeth

Love him or hate him, I think John McCririck has hit the nail on the head with this one.


The rapport between the presenters now is totally void, a very safe and sterile production in my view.

It’s interesting watching that interview – Persad comes across as a much more confident and authoritative person than Luck – which is curious given that Luck is the main presenter.

I also thought the content of what Persad said was better as well.

OK, it’s only one joint 15 mins discussion but if you just watched that with no prior knowledge I think it would be quite surprising to then find out that Luck was the main presenter.

Compare him to someone like Brough Scott – I’m sure Brough would have done such a discussion in a far, far more superior way.

It wouldn't hurt for Channel 4 to give Rishi the main gig, don't sit him in a studio an get him out paddock side.
The problem we have had with Rishi in the past is that he has not just been tied to racing he's covered other sports on the BBC and not been given a full chance on Channel 4.

I suppose it all depends on who ITV go with for the production, do we know who produces the other sports they show at the moment to give us some idea of which production company they tend to favour ?

Pretty much everything is done in-house, with the exception of cycling, which is done by VSquared and MotoGP/Isle of Man TT, which are both done by North One.

There's nothing to suggest that ITV will not do this in-house themselves.

Jockey Luke Morris probably summed things up best regarding the ITV move in his Coral blog:


http://news.coral.co.uk/blog/leading...ld_123308.html

ITV could really improve racing, they have a bigger budget than Channel 4 and older viewers fondly remeber the ITV 7.

O/T for a project I'm working on - does anyone of you hardcore Racing experts know who commentated on the 1977 Red Rum Treble Grand National alongside Peter O'Sullevan? Cheers.

This might help:-

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules...don/1977-04-02

Based on that the other commentators were John Hanmer, Julian Wilson and Richard Pitman

Hanmer and Wilson were the race commentators, O'Sullevan started, then passed to Hanmer at the first, Wilson from before Becher's to Valentine's back to Hanmer till the melling road and back to O'Sullevan at the home turn. Pitman was a pundit I would think.

Brilliant, Cheers.

That is correct. I remember watching it on ESPN Classic.

Here it is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DXR3FOA_o0

Wow, nostalgia-fest.
Thanks DL.

it is also on the horse racing 12 greatest grand nationals dvd I have it

Thanks guys - it's for a commentary disertation examining words used to describe sporting events! Help is appreciated.

I seem to remember the RTE commentator Michael O'Hehir used to do part of the National or is my memory playing tricks?

Yes he did he called the Foinavon incident in the 1967 race. His son Tony also called the Becher's to Valentines part of the race in the last years of the BBC coverage.