ITV – Irish racing

[chestnut]

I see that there is an article on todays Racing Post website that suggests ITV would like to cover Irish racing on a Sunday. Unfortunately I do not have access to the full article.

Can anybody confirm it is as the headline suggests and ITV are considering coverage of Irish racing on a Sunday?

[jackh1092]

There is a hope that 5 of the 6 major Sunday in Ireland can be televised- starting with Feb 3rd Irish Gold Cup day.

According to the piece, “word on the street” is that ITV want to make this happen. It is possible it would be shown on ITV4 and as this is unavailble to a lot of Irish homes, it wouldnt annoy RTE too much.

Twitter: Jackh1092
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[GoldenMiller34]

This news should quieten down some of the criticism of HRI for switching from ATR to RUK. ITV is becoming ever more closely aligned with RUK as it prepares for future mainstream rights battles with SSR.

[LD73]

Must be good news any time additional race meetings are making their way onto terrestial TV, now if only we could get more big meetings on a Sunday over here (still such untapped potential).

[phil walker]

Channel 4 did attempt to show the Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown many years ago but due to adverse weather it was abandoned, I think they even sent their presenters over there too. Unsurprisingly they never showed the race again.

I also recall they once showed the Prix Jacques Le Marois live, again this was a one hit wonder.

I very much agree with LD73 the majority of racing on Britain is a disgrace and simple bookmaker fodder. Its a pity we can’t follow the example of Ireland who stage a lot of their big races on a Sunday, but hopefully ITV might change that with some as the midsummer Saturdays which are log jammed with fixtures such as Newmarket’s July meeting.

[clivexx]

I am baffled by that argument. If there is a lot of low quality racing then don’t watch it. There’s a lot of non league football that I don’t watch

Also if we switched big races to Sunday then Ireland might switch theirs to Saturday. Why can’t we appreciate two good days over the weekend across the isles? There are only so many top races to go around ffs

[phil walker]

I am equally baffled by your response clivexx.

I don’t watch a lot of Sunday racing as I find most of it to be rubbish and prefer quality over quantity. Apart from 1000 Guineas Day, the final day of Cheltenham’s November meeting and miscellaneous other fixtures, Sunday racing in Britain is a wasted resource and far from what you call it, a good day.

Ireland stages their 1000 Guineas, Derby and St Leger plus countless other good flat and jump events on a Sunday. They would only move to a Saturday in the event of a top hurling match taking place. France holds the majority of their top races on a Sunday, not to mention most other European countries.

What does the UK do however? Cram all their top races on a Saturday just so it gets television coverage; for example in the middle of July you get the July Cup at Newmarket, the John Smiths’ Cup at York and another meeting at Ascot. I no longer gamble but say if I did, there’s no way I could seriously read the form and place bets on each of these fixtures if I wanted to.

I understand there are only so many top races to go round but why not spread it out more evenly, that’s all I am saying.

[clivexx]

I am less interested in flat than jumps and that Saturday in July is a fair point but I prefer the best races on a Saturday and let the courses exploit the more family geared crowd on Sundays

There are simply not enough good jumps races to spread more thinly than now. You could argue for the first days of Hennessy or tingle creek being swapped to Sunday’s but personally I like them where they are

I just don’t get the what the real problem is though and why low grade racing is a “disgrace”. Presumably non league football and minor counties cricket is equally “disgraceful” and should be dealt with immediately whilst point to point is probably quite evil

[runandskip84]

The obvious meeting to benefit is Becher day at Aintree,it’s not great having it on the same day as The Tingle Creek.

[LD73]

Clive – your analogy with non-football I feel is a little off as very rarely (if at all) do you see those non league games and/or teams on TV (unless they are cup games).

All we are saying is that Sunday is very under utilised quality wise – you don’t have to put a load of the G1 races there but there are plenty of better quality races that get lost in the shuffle on overly busy Saturdays that may benefit from it.

Yes you would need ITV to be on board (but from the sounds of things they are open to trying it) and being a Sunday you may have more people (that prefer going out on a Saturday or are simply put off by televised races from different meetings bombarding them one after the other without a break between the races to catch their breath) that then decide to stay in on a Sunday and watch a bit of telly.

Until you give it a concerted try with the proper backing you never know whether it will be a success or not – having top races spread over the full weekend just seems a better balanced option than being saturated by everything on a Saturday.

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