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Clare Balding will be the new senior presenter for Channel Four racing when their exclusive terrestrial coverage of the sport begins in January.
The production contract has been awarded to IMG.
The full press release can be found here
http://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/channel-4-racing-enters-new-era
That’s certainly good news. It was unthinkable that Clare wouldn’t be presenting horse racing going forward.
This is fantastic news. Channel 4 Racing will get a hell of a lot better.
Twitter=@PGHenn
So don't run, just like the others always do
I am delighted by this news.
She will bring a professionalism to a programme ( and team ) that has been dying on its ar*e for years.
Wee Willie to follow, I wonder ?
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
Fantastic news. Proved yet again during the Olympics what a superb broadcaster she is.
Get rid of McCririck and we’re cooking.
Get rid of McCririck and we’re cooking.
I think Sean Boyce would be a more than able replacement
IMG promise a combination of new and existing talent in front of the camera, so I wonder who will be axed and who will stay.
I imagine and hope that Simon Holt and Tanya Stevenson will be the mainstays from the old team.
I imagine and hope that Simon Holt and Tanya Stevenson will be the mainstays from the old team.
It would be a major surprise if Holt wasn’t retained and similarly a major one if Stevenson was.
Has anyone told her that, as fronstsperson for Ch4 Racing, she is now under an obligation to attend the NH Preview of the Midlands Racing Club at Stirchley Working Men’s Club in October? Clare; the glitter ball and cheese and onion sandwiches await you.
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Clare Balding is, by some distance, the best racing presenter out there. She’s knowledgeable, professional and unflappable, making the sport interesting without being dull or patronising.
Let’s hope that Willie Carson, her perfect foil, follows her over to Channel 4. The rest of the Beeb’s racing team should be put out to grass.
Let’s hope that Willie Carson, her perfect foil, follows her over to Channel 4.
Tell me this is ironic??
Mike
IMG promise a combination of new and existing talent in front of the camera, so I wonder who will be axed and who will stay.
I imagine and hope that Simon Holt and Tanya Stevenson will be the mainstays from the old team.
Couldn’t disagree more. Holt is reaching the same stage Graham Goode was before Holt took over from him – cliched and tired.
Stevenson is one the worst live broadcasters I have seen. She hasn’t improved one jot since the first day she worked on C4. She has no confidence and there is no reason why she should suddenly improve.
Love him or hate him, McCririck has always conveyed an air of excitiement from the betting ring. She just comes across as incompetent, constantly getting her words mixed up.
Clare Balding will add some much-needed gravitas to the Channel 4 coverage.
She has been easily the most impressive racing presenter for many years now and is consistently authoritative, professional, well-informed and knowledgeable, as well as being able to think quickly on her feet.
Much of the Channel 4 coverage is lightweight, self-indulgent and lacking in authority but Clare will add some backbone and authority to the coverage. If she adopts the impressive approach she has done at Royal Ascot and Aintree for the BBC, the new coverage will be much improved.
I am regularly amazed at just how brilliantly she does her job on racing and on a myriad of other sports as well.
She has done exceptionally well on the BBC’s Olympics coverage and yesterday I was again reading another newspaper columnist who was saying that Clare was easily the most impressive presenter of the BBC’s coverage.
I can’t imagine her behaving in the unprofessional and indisciplined way Denise Lewis and Colin Jackson did in bounding all over the place and not keeping a professional calm, as they did during some of the British victories.
Channel 4 needs a good kick up the backside with an injection of some authority and gravitas. The love-in between Mike Cattermole and Emma Spencer has become an embarrassment, reaching a new low when they even had a kiss-in on the day of Emma’s appearance back in the saddle for the race at Glorious Goodwood.
The National Hunt team of Alastair Down and Alice Plunkett has also become jaded and a bit of a pain, although Alastair is probably the most authoritative of the Channel 4 team and is an impressive wordsmith in print and on television.
It will be interesting to see how many actual days Clare presents on Channel 4, whether she just does the big days, as Brough Scott did towards the end of his time at Channel 4, or whether she will also do the more bread-and-butter days week in, week out.
I wonder whether she will lower herself to appearing on the Morning Line. Brough Scott very rarely did.
There’s not a chance Willie Carson will join her on Channel 4, I don’t think. That would be a mistake in view of his bumbling and grammar-mangling chattering.
I suspect McCririck will be pensioned off (not before time, many would say, despite his vast knowledge) but whether Channel 4 will now try to recruit a more articulate betting expert instead of Tanya Stevenson, I don’t know. Perhaps a new face might be recruited, although Tanya will no doubt continue. Tom Lee might be under threat because he is pretty lightweight.
Simon Holt will be odds-on for senior race commentator. He is consistently excellent. I was impressed with him at Glorious Goodwood when, in addition to calling often big fields, he helped out Jim McGrath when John Francome wasn’t there one day by doing some good paddock commentaries as well, at a time when I’m sure he would have preferred to have been doing last-minute mugging-up on his colours and names.
No doubt there will be a big revamp of the actual programmes and formats, surely only for the better.I too would show Tanya Stevenson and Tom Lee the door. It’s a toss-up which one is worse than the other. A two bob double if ever there was one.
I was a fan of McCririck’s but now his act has become tiresome and weary, and has now become a parody of his former self. The camaraderie that he had with the others has now dissipated to the point where they appear bored in his and their own company.
The Cattermole and Spencer love-in is, I agree, nauseating at times. They act like two giggling teenagers. Get a room and let’s get on with the racing.
Steve Mellish and Lydia Hislop have a good chemistry on screen and, more importantly, they know the sport inside out. Hire them.
That’s me done.
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
Crusty if Tanya could use tic-tac for her pieces to camera then she does not need to be articulate. There is a reasonable chance that a greater proportion of the viewing public will understand what she is trying to relay compared to her attempts at oration.
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