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Ian I’m the same as you, only watch the races on betting apps now, I will tune in to sky racing though for Seb Saunders (tremendous tipster) and Matt Chapman who makes me chuckle.
I’ve also wondered quite what ITV Racing are up to re the occasional interviews with Ken Pitterson. Perhaps the level of involvement he has currently is what suits him, in which case great.
However, as a viewer, it does come across a little uncomfortably as if they are trying to include more non-white faces without fully committing to making him a proper member of the analysis team.
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Ken is well-known for being able to pick out a likely one in the paddock, that’s his specialty and he works for Will Hill as well.
He’s never going to be a bigger part of the team, no matter what colour he is.Used to chat to Ken Pitterson regularly when I was going racing, quite prepared to share thoughts on horses’ fitness.
I’d settle for just seeing the horses at some point before the race.
Saw a bit of yesterday’s coverage, particularly when they were discussing the farcical start of Klassical Dream’s race.
Oli Bell is an embarrassment. His “jokes” were not in the slightest bit amusing. Thank goodness he is not on RTV any more. I had almost forgotten about him.
And Mick Fitzgerald thinks Champ will beat Klassical Dream. Wow, I never could have guessed that…
I find Ken’s contributions interesting (especially as it’s an aspect I know very little about) and I used to enjoy his Weekender column but I’m not sure how much he would relish greater exposure. He strikes me as the sort of character who excels in the “small fields” scenario Colin refers to above, chatting one on one to interested punters.
I could foresee problems if he was handed the Francesca/Alice role of walking round the paddock, how many times would he have to say “x’s horse looks very unfit” before x got the hump and became uncooperative. Tom Scudamore might even shout at him.
Re Ken, I more had in mind the “expert who is asked for their views” type of role than a presenting role. That’s how he is being utilised at the moment, albeit rather infrequently. I don’t picture him striding around the paddock with a mic either!
If it eats into a few more minutes of their ‘burden’ of running a 3 hour live programme, then ITV bosses will take what they can get!
For me it is more of a light entertainment show (to try to entice new devotees/demographics) than a dedicated sport programme (for the long term racing fans) – for me every iteration of terrestial tv racing had their issues which meant that at some point you would be reaching for the mute button from time to time.
That being said, they need to address the showing horses before the race either in the paddock or at the start and depending on field size their should be at least 5-10 mins set aside for that (the lower end for smaller fields and the upper end for the large double digit fields).
I also feel that they all should be more open to highlighting the average and bad rides so that they start to re-dress the balance of the over effusiveness of the good rides – they always tend to find some lame excuses as to why jockey ‘x’ has been unlucky in the race rather than it being an average or bad ride.
Have to say though that I do enjoy the ‘Home Schooling’ segments as it is like a little sneak peek behind the curtain into racing yards/life and whilst I would like to see a little more of that I know it is reliant upon the continuation of the participants recording those moments.
The thing with Ken is interesting as I would like to see him given more time (as a specific expert rather than an on air analyst) and it was most telling that his view of Shishkin (carrying some condition and would definitely come on for the run) was the polar opposite of (I think it was) Adele Mulrennan who made absolutely no mention of him carrying any condition or even needing the run.
Agree with a lot of that LD73. As I’ve said on here frequently, I think a lot of the criticism of ITV is misplaced, but the pre-race coverage is one area that does need some attention. When they do include paddock coverage, it is usually massively rushed, and allows for no real insight. Alice and Francesca sometimes sound like they are commentating on a race they are having to speak so quickly.
Adele Mulrennan works as a race day presenter at some of the racecourses in Yorkshire, making a few bland statements about the horses in the paddock and interviewing winning connections after the race. The sort of role which some racecourses think is necessary now but never was when they treated their audience with a modicum of intelligence and appreciated they did not want non stop chatter.
Let’s be honest how many of the ITV lot would get into the old Channel 4 team ……err none
Chapman as understudy/sidekick to Big Mac would probably have been quite entertaining
I am probably being unkind but the sound of Lizzie Kelly’s voice (currently heard on today’s RTV coverage from Taunton) has me reaching for the mute button.
She unfortunately has one of those slightly grating voices – comes off to me a little schoolmarmish.
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