Here we go! A rather weird intro, not liking it.

A flaw in their outdoor studio plan already found! Someone buy them a cloth for the lens!

Matt Chapman was pretty enthusiastic there

Twitter is already not giving ITV Racing a chance.

Very good up to now, not as stuffy as the CH4 lot, And i love chapman, his love of horse racing is great. keep it going I.T.V.

It'll take some time to bed in, can't make any judgements after 15 mins!

Personally think it doesn't require a cast of thousands to cover horse racing this show seems to have a few too many.

Christ some sad people on twitter, its been very good from what i have seen, give it a chance.

That doesn't really mean that much. People are always complaining on Twitter.

The coverage today will probably be tweaked over the coming weeks and months.

AP Really looks happy to be there.....................

I'm surprised that they haven't moved to a more sheltered location.

I agree lets give it a chance, Been good so far.

Titles are horrible. I was hoping for something more mid-2000s Ch4 Racing esk! Grand and great... The actual coverage is good, been more about intro'ing everyone...

It looks like there is a million people there but give it a few weeks and half the people there won't crop up every week. Won't see likes of Lucy Verasamy pipe up for a ITV4 3:30 at Kempton type day!

Not liking it very much so far. The presentation is too full of itself with a lot of talking over each other. They are trying to look like they are having fun but it's not much fun to watch. The race coverage is more restrained and far better than the stuff in between.

Outdoor presentation is all very well in fine weather but in wind and rain is awkward. They should have a plan B if the weather is bad.

So far not bad, it is still not the finished product, nor will it be until later on in the year. Ed Chamberlain has been very good so far and it is nice to see some passion with the betting. Chapman is a big improvement on Tanya Stevenson who seemed to be the cure for insomnia.

One thing i really dont like is the graphics mid race. I miss the section in the bottom left hand corner which had the time and course. Now the race graphics look like they were made on the first edition of Word Art.

Well I am liking it, liking it a lot. Some people have made up their mind before it started I feel and will never like anything new but I think its excellent. As mentioned above, not at all stuffy like C4 Racing had become.

I agree its not at all stuffy, Matt chapman brings a lot of fun to the program.

I liked it, although the damp start reminded me of Alan Partridge at Marple. A few small points, I think Matt Chapman could do with a sparring partner with him in the betting ring, I suppose Oli Bell might do that some days and Brian Gleeson will be at the bigger meetings. Some of the graphics could be a bit clearer as well. Finally, it seemed the wrong-way round when Mick Fitzgerald asked Victoria Pendleton how best to jump the Cheltenham fences.

The more open feel to it and sense of fun took it away from the Channel 4 coverage and improved it my view, they need to try and win back the mianstream audeince. Ed Chamberlin showed what an excellent presenter he is and Richard Hoiles was faultless. Luke Harvey is very good and hopefully AP will become more relaxed with more experience as a TV pundit. Also nice to hear Gareth Topham with the course-commentary at Musselburgh.

Do people gain much from the jockey interviews immediately after the win?

It's no different to most others sports I imagine, but you notice it more with Horse Racing and Athletics as they're usually speaking within a minute of crossing the line.

C4 had become notorious for shoving a microphone in front of a jockey after any race at all usually for the jockey just to recount what we have all just watched.

The jockeys didn't always look like they wanted to speak or had anything to say. I can think of only about 5% of interviews where I have gained anything at all from them, same with Phil Jones in the athletics. You can peg word for word what the answers will be.

Do other people gain anything from them? Would it be a loss to the broadcast to not have Noel Fehily telling us that the horse jumped well for him and always gives his best?

I suppose the broadcasters do the interviews just in case the jockey does say something interesting, even if they usually don't. Channel 4 got the scoop on Tony McCoy's retirement for example. It also gives the pundits time to compose their thoughts on the race and, if nothing else, kills time until the next race.

Not strictly coverage related, but did I hear right? Did Willy Twiston really say after riding his winner that it "sickened" him having to go to Wolverhampton and Southwell, hence a temporary switch to the jumps?

Are Wolverhampton and Southwell really that bad, or are some jockeys just unwilling to put in the effort required to make it pay? I doubt Adam Kirby for instance takes this view, he makes hay at this time of year which in turn has a knock on effect leading into the summer. There's no doubt it has improved his riding doing the AW circuit.

Anyway I sincerely hope it works out for WTD over the sticks else his next trip to either venue might be a little awkward! No wonder he wasn't getting many rides if that's his attitude.

ITV are aiming to bring in a new audience for the sport and have so far gone the right way about it. C4 made the sport boring to an extent, while it appealed to fans of horse racing it didnt bring in anyone new. ITV made it alot more accessible in just one outing.

Caught most of the coverage and it seemed a breath of fresh air.

A wodge of montages at the top and some old shots of Dickie Davies and Eric Morcambe appearing from footage over 30 years ago.

The whole programme had a confidence to it and seemed good fun with lots of banter between everyone.

The aliasing on the full frame graphics was a tad annoying and im sure they can get that sorted along with a ticker that actually works!

So so much to like!

Its almost a shame week 2 has already been relegated to ITV4 - surely try and get at least 2 shows a month on the main ITV channel to set it in peoples heads that its now ITV Racing - but it doesnt reappear on ITV (1) now until March!!!!

Overall well done!

I agree with most of this, Chamberlin really did look very comfortable in his new role and just by listening to him you can tell he has a very large knowledge of the sport.

Oli Bell for me was the standout today, came across very well and Mark Chapman did really well in the betting ring.

Only negative really for me is Tony Mcoy, didn't look relaxed and at times almost seem to try to hard in his role, could do with smiling more as well, take a look a Chamberlin AP!

Surprised a little Mark Johnson wasn't used at Musslebourgh being number 2 rather than take course commentary.

As for Twitter, well it is ITV and people will moan just for that reason even if they thought it was a good performance.

I did mention a while back that I'd have thought to front-load a couple of run of the mill extra meetings in Jan/Feb on the main channel to stamp their names/faces on the coverage.


Well they only had two races so made since. Come next year ITV won't have a presenter at that event. Channel 4 didn't have anyone at Musselburgh... They just through to races/on-course commentary at specific points.

I disagree.
Putting run of the mill meetings on ITV would be counterproductive - the casual viewer won't be drawn in by that, and thus might not watch the bigger events.

In some respects, today shouldn't have been on ITV... they were lucky to get some close finishes from the very small fields in some of the races today.