To be fair terrestrial tv racing through its many guises has always had its fair share of detractors even when it was on the BBC (Julian Wilson’s toffishness and Eve Pollard’s Fashion segments during Royal Ascot) and Channel 4 (Big Mac regularly offending someone similar to Chapman now), the only difference now is that those dissenting voices just have a bigger and more accessible platform with which to air said feelings to the world.
At the end of the day ITV Racing has to be a mix of a sport and entertainment programme to appeal to a very wide range of viewers and in general I think it straddles both lines quite well – do we have various forms of issues with most (if not all) of the presenters that make up the ITV Racing team……..yes and no but then historically that has always been the case and it is just the same on the dedicated racing channels too.
The one thing I wish would change (or at least be more measured) is the discrepancy between the over effusive praise and tepid criticism some of the big names get (or don’t when it comes to holding them to account over a ride or comment/behaviour), the amount of tap dancing that happens then is just ridiculous and screams “I don’t want to upset them because they might not talk to us again”.