Originally Posted by Armagideon Time:
“Time to give this thread a bump, as a trailer was shown during C4's Paralympic coverage - during the evening session which was co-fronted by Clare Balding - of all the big horse race meetings which will be covered by C4 from 2013 onwards, including the Grand National, The Derby, Royal Ascot and British Champions Day, which they have wrested from the BBC, to go alongside the Cheltenham Festival, the Guineas' meeting at Newmarket, the St Leger meeting at Doncaster, plus summer festivals at Glorious Goodwood and York; also added to the fact that an announcement will be made very shortly as regards the make-up of the new racing team, now that the Paralympics are over.
It has already been announced that the coverage will be produced by IMG and Clare Balding will be the main presenter, especially for all the meetings mentioned above. So who will join her on the all-new C4 racing team? Well it looks like it could be a total clearout of the old guard, especially as John Francome has said he wants nothing to do with the new set-up, out of loyalty to outgoing production company Highflyer; John McCririck's appearances are few and far between these days and it remains to be seen if Jim McGrath would be part of the team if asked.
So here's my predictions for the new C4 Racing Team:
Presenters:
Clare Balding
Nick Luck
Paddock Commentary/Analysis:
Graham Cunningham
Mick Fitzgerald (Jumps)
Jason Weaver (Flat)
Commentators:
Simon Holt
Richard Hoiles
John Hunt
Pre/Post-Race interviews/Features:
Alice Plunkett (Jumps)
Emma Spencer (Flat)
Betting Ring/Exchanges:
Tom Lee
Whoever currently does the betting for At the Races (don't watch it regularly) or Racing UK (don't subscribe to it)
The one name from that list who is not part of a current TV racing team is John Hunt; I've included him as history tells us that whenever there is a new TV contract for a sport, the person who commentates on that sport for BBC Radio moves into TV; witness David Croft and friends going from Five Live to Sky for Formula One and preceding that, former R5L boxing commentator John Rawling moved to ITV to commentate on the sport there when they started showing boxing again (albeit briefly); in the mid-1980's Alan Parry and Peter Matthews moved from BBC radio, where they used to commentate on the athletics, to ITV, as they then had the rights to all the top meetings in Britain and in 1997, Simon Taylor, who was previously Five Live's F1 commentator, moved to ITV when they started their F1 coverage.”
“Time to give this thread a bump, as a trailer was shown during C4's Paralympic coverage - during the evening session which was co-fronted by Clare Balding - of all the big horse race meetings which will be covered by C4 from 2013 onwards, including the Grand National, The Derby, Royal Ascot and British Champions Day, which they have wrested from the BBC, to go alongside the Cheltenham Festival, the Guineas' meeting at Newmarket, the St Leger meeting at Doncaster, plus summer festivals at Glorious Goodwood and York; also added to the fact that an announcement will be made very shortly as regards the make-up of the new racing team, now that the Paralympics are over.
It has already been announced that the coverage will be produced by IMG and Clare Balding will be the main presenter, especially for all the meetings mentioned above. So who will join her on the all-new C4 racing team? Well it looks like it could be a total clearout of the old guard, especially as John Francome has said he wants nothing to do with the new set-up, out of loyalty to outgoing production company Highflyer; John McCririck's appearances are few and far between these days and it remains to be seen if Jim McGrath would be part of the team if asked.
So here's my predictions for the new C4 Racing Team:
Presenters:
Clare Balding
Nick Luck
Paddock Commentary/Analysis:
Graham Cunningham
Mick Fitzgerald (Jumps)
Jason Weaver (Flat)
Commentators:
Simon Holt
Richard Hoiles
John Hunt
Pre/Post-Race interviews/Features:
Alice Plunkett (Jumps)
Emma Spencer (Flat)
Betting Ring/Exchanges:
Tom Lee
Whoever currently does the betting for At the Races (don't watch it regularly) or Racing UK (don't subscribe to it)
The one name from that list who is not part of a current TV racing team is John Hunt; I've included him as history tells us that whenever there is a new TV contract for a sport, the person who commentates on that sport for BBC Radio moves into TV; witness David Croft and friends going from Five Live to Sky for Formula One and preceding that, former R5L boxing commentator John Rawling moved to ITV to commentate on the sport there when they started showing boxing again (albeit briefly); in the mid-1980's Alan Parry and Peter Matthews moved from BBC radio, where they used to commentate on the athletics, to ITV, as they then had the rights to all the top meetings in Britain and in 1997, Simon Taylor, who was previously Five Live's F1 commentator, moved to ITV when they started their F1 coverage.”
Originally Posted by Armagideon Time:
“As I mentioned in post #123, IMG will take over the production of C4's racing coverage, so they will have their own ideas of on-screen personnel they would like to enlist and whether Alastair Down or any of the current C4 on-screen team will continue under the new production remains to be seen (it must be noted that all of the production companies who battled for the C4 racing contract had Clare Balding down for the No.1 presenter in their tender documents they presented).
Besides Balding, the only other ex-BBC racing team member who I could see go to C4 for definite is Mick Fitzgerald. Richard Dunwoody and Rishi Persad are possibles at best.”
“As I mentioned in post #123, IMG will take over the production of C4's racing coverage, so they will have their own ideas of on-screen personnel they would like to enlist and whether Alastair Down or any of the current C4 on-screen team will continue under the new production remains to be seen (it must be noted that all of the production companies who battled for the C4 racing contract had Clare Balding down for the No.1 presenter in their tender documents they presented).
Besides Balding, the only other ex-BBC racing team member who I could see go to C4 for definite is Mick Fitzgerald. Richard Dunwoody and Rishi Persad are possibles at best.”
The names in bold have today been confirmed as members of the Channel 4 Racing team from 1st January 2013. Not a bad shout eh?



