Happy New Year, pilgrims. Let me start by apologising to the regular readers for tipping a non-runner for St Stephen’s Day, in my Christmas message, broadcast on the forum on 21 December. Said mare though has got an entry at Cheppers on Sunday – SHAAMA GRISE.
Big question of the day though is what did we make of ITV’s ‘comeback’ racing prog??? If asked to sum it up in 5 words I’d respond, ‘Dire with a capital D’. I didn’t see all the show but here are my observations:
(i) Ed Chamberlain at times resembled a cat caught in the headlights. Plus his habit of saying something and then modestly guffawing I find highly annoying,
(ii) Luke Harvey and Matt Chapman were both introduced as ‘wacky’ characters. To me though the former is nothing but dull and the latter highly annoying. Meanwhile, Chapman looked totally ill at ease when acquiring a few ‘friends’ whilst strolling the betting jungle. No attempt at a witty response in that instance just blind panic!
(iii) AP MCcoy (who I’d never heard of until he appeared on CH4 about a year ago) looked as if he wanted to be anywhere but on our screens. Adds nothing.
(iv) In one of the surrealist moments, of all time, on TV we then had Cheltenham Gold Cup and Champion Chase winning pilot Mick Fitzgerald interviewing the horrendous Victoria Pendlebury (whom I think has ridden at the track a grand total of once) about what it was like to ride at the course! At first viewing I honestly thought this was a skit. But it wasn’t.
(v) And then from nowhere up pops the Plunkett mare! As usual her gibberish was pointless.
So to sum up I thought this was even worse than the last days of CH4. Was pleased that the likes of Graham Cunningham, Tom Lee and Gina whatever her name is had gone but the 2 it missed the most were undoubtedly Jim McGrath and Ems Spencer.
Good luck to those wagering today.
