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Very few of the races interest me to be honest and the fashion BS stops me watching any of it.
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highwaysPurwell if I ever had a royal Ascot runner id turn up wearing a sladesque top hat covered in mirrors ….
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
When will whoever is in charge of the coverage of Down Royal going to realise that the camera tracking the runners does not work? The pictures from it have frozen and broken up in all four races, causing the coverage to revert to the conventional cameras (which are perfectly adequate).
Now the actual racing has started it’s become marginally more bearable.
They just had a segment in a hot air balloon – put me in mind of “Kind Hearts And Coronets.”
“I shot an arrow in the air,
she fell to Earth in Berkeley Square.”I’m terrible – beyond redemption.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Oh dear
just said Baaeed is now in the same bracket as FrankelGaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
Tbf, in the sense that they are both horses, they’re right.
Brian Gleason has super natural skills – even though muted I can’t hear what he is saying, his sheer body language intensely annoys me.
Quite remarkable, really.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"I think the actual race pictures are fine and in the sense it was on ITV1 all afternoon it was great.
But the actual races are a total of about 15 minutes and the rest of it is hour after hour of PAIN for anyone who isn’t a Royal Family/celebrity/high fashion-loving airhead.
But it gives us something to talk about.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"As I said earlier, Royal Ascot coverage has always been like that. Complaining about too much fashion and minor royals is a bit of a waste of time.
You’re right, CAS, but do you not feel that way back in the day when the BBC used to cover it with Peter O’Sullevan, Julian Wilson and Jimmy Lindley, while they would cover the Royal procession and wheel out Judith Chalmers to comment on the fashions between races, the over-riding impression was that it was still primarily a racing broadcast.
It just doesn’t feel like that any more – it’s a Royalist/celebrity/fashion love fest with a bit of racing thrown in.
That’s how it seems to me, anyway.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Perhaps. I have not really seen much of ITV’s coverage. I watched a bit of it yesterday and thought it was OK.
ITV’s coverage was always going to be different to the BBC’s because it has to attract advertisers and keep them happy.
I heard the Frankel comparison and me and a friend in a group chat both said the same – really?
Was Megan Nicholls, who was also making similar comparisons between Ben Curtis and James Macdonald.
Ridiculous.
JJM, to be fair to Megan Nicholls she wasn’t comparing the two. She was peeved because Curtis was two from two on the horse and had been replaced even though he’d done nothing wrong.
Unless my memory decieves me there is no way itv comes close to the quality of coverage you got with julian wilson on the bbc. Yes we had the fashion but the racing chat was all about the horses. Plus of course you had sir peter delivering his timeless commentary. I loved watching any listed or group race then now i watch only the top races,mostly with the mute button on.
Sadly, we have to accept that horse racing is competing with so much else these days. In the halcyon days, Royal Ascot and Cheltenham were (more or less) stand-alone events with no other live sports competing. Grandstand and World Of Sport featured sport (including racing) on a Saturday for 5 hours or so, so attracted the viewers as there was nothing else on anywhere else. Nowadays, we have so many sports on so many other channels so horse racing has a fight on its hands. The main festivals are, I think, covered very well by ITV in an attempt to woo viewers and the aficionados (as I suspect most of us here are) have never had it so good with two dedicated racing channels covering every meeting in Britain and Ireland. I was at Royal Ascot for what I believe to be the best day’s racing of the year (day 1) and thoroughly enjoyed it. (Apart from the Punchestown Festival, I don’t go to racecourses much these days.) I was prepared to criticise ITV Sport (as they have made a mess of so many sports over the years) but I think they have coverage of horse racing about right.
Do they try ‘too hard’?
The polished interviews and delivery’s (straight out of Balding’s blueprint delivery, too good).
So many presenter’s. Is the programme so long it concerns them, they need to share ‘the burden’.I feel the more successful racing programmes were a bit rough round the edges. You had Francome, always sounded like he had a cold but the accent, the no nonsense views kept viewers engaged.
O’Sullivan. At times during a longer race there were pauses, but it worked. Hoiles take note, we don’t need relentless chatter. Hoiles would be good for those with impaired vision.
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