There was almost something of an inevitability about this after the whole lot started to be banded together. I'm surprised that the BBC didn't think to simply put in a bid for the Grand National meeting on its own, which would - even with everything else still on Channel 4 - have surely led to more money overall for horse racing?
Another point I think will be the overall coverage. Like most of the country I'm not a horseracing fan, so whenever I watch the National I need some things explained to me in "diddy" terms - what the odds mean, what a furlong is, etc. To me, Channel 4 Racing seems to be great for the racing punter who tunes in every day it's on, but it is impenetrable for someone like me who just doesn't understand it. I have this wee niggling suspicion that we'll see viewing figures for the National in particular drop dramatically, and that long term horseracing will suffer for not having the BBC coverage which - by the very fact it was occasional - meant that it had to explain things to the average viewer.