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I paid my first visit to Aintree on Thursday (probably overdid it by driving from London and back on the day) and thoroughly enjoyed it. The quality of the racing (4 Class 1 races) was probably better overall than any day at Cheltenham but the atmosphere was not as good in my opinion.
Fully agree. The Updated News column on the right-hand side (which was very informative) has disappeared.
The FA Cup Final nowadays kicks off late afternoon / early evening so the Derby can be run at, say 3:35. The later races can be on ITV4.
Sky Sports Racing said that Desert Crown had a niggle so preparation for the King George has been interrupted. More news on Friday.
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.
