There’s no more challenging a week for a sports presenter than Royal Ascot.
30 hours of fast-moving live television, in extreme heat again, wearing unseasonal and unusual heavy clothing whilst having to cover a royal procession which takes me out of my comfort zone unlike anything else.
We had controversies, such as the St James’ Palace riding bans and Bacio being on the verge of being thrown out having won the Palace Of Holyrood only to keep the race as the mystery of the missing weight was quickly solved.
Ascot is a monster of a racecourse, and we needed to make sure we were across all areas during five days of relentlessly brilliant racing.
There’s no bigger challenge – but there’s also no bigger privilege.
And everyone wants something different from us; we can’t please everyone all the time. Some want more horses, more betting, others more fashion and more coverage of the Royal family.
TV is subjective, we try to have something for everyone at some stage, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time
Here are my five key take-outs
1 Amazing transformation
This was a ten-year anniversary of our coverage beginning at Royal Ascot. It’s remarkable how the meeting has changed in that time. In 2017 it felt like the entire meeting revolved around the Royal Enclosure. It was all about aspiration to be in there. Ten years later it feels completely different.
Yes, it’s one giant event, but it’s also four major events within that. It’s an event and an occasion if you’ve got a day out in the Windsor Enclosure. It’s a day and an event if you’re having a day out in the Village Enclosure, which looked to me from afar like it was Glastonbury on steroids. It’s an occasion if you’re in the Queen Anne enclosure with all the amazing restaurants and the bandstand in there. And of course, it’s an event and an occasion if you’re in the Royal Enclosure too.
Ten years on it’s still about aspiration and they’re very clever and you might see something next door that makes you think about upgrading next year. But its not all about the Royal Enclosure. The fact that 75% of British postcodes are represented at Ascot shows you that everywhere, up and down the land, from John O’Groats to Land’s End, people want to be there and everyone can have a good time whatever their budget. It's wonderful - but one of the reasons why the Jockey Club are having to work so hard to get the Betfred Derby Festival out from underneath it's shadow.
It was interesting to to hear Kevin Blake and Johnny Murtagh saying on ITV that this is the week that's ringed first in the calendars in so many yards, the one place owners want big runners.
2 Strong leadership getting results
There’s a lot wrong with our sport but racing festivals still feel like the best in the world and I think a lot of that has to do with the chief executives who are in place. I think we’ve got sensational leaders running the big racecourses and they are the ones who set the tone. From Goodwood to Newmarket, Aintree to York, Cheltenham to Royal Ascot, they lead from the front and this week Felicity Barnard has very much done that.
She has an incredible sense of fun but also an incredibly calm sense of authority. She spent the weeks building up to the event wanting everyone to enjoy the joy that Ascot brings and it felt like people were doing that. It felt to me that there’s a siege mentality out there among the punters and whatever is happening elsewhere, it wasn’t going to stop them having a good time and people were there to enjoy themselves.
I interviewed Fliss on Saturday morning when I had to ask her about their position in leaving the RCA at the end of the year. It was a tough one for our audience because most of them wouldn’t necessarily be interested in the subject but I likened it to Jerry Maguire going to his office and saying ‘who’s coming with me’ and eventually he got Dorothy and a goldfish, I think.
Ascot got no-one, they went alone. The big independents and the Jockey Club stayed in the waiting room. Hence I asked her first, if she felt let down, which she didn’t, and secondly, if there was change, after the review from the RCA, would Ascot come back off the plane and back into the departure lounge, She firmly said no. Yes, she radiates joy, but she’s also got steel.
3 The action on the track
The product is the most important thing. I was critical of Cheltenham a few years ago, likening them to the Glazers in that they took their eye off the product and there was too much emphasis on the corporate hospitality and things away from racing which has been now been changed by Guy Lavender and his team.
The world-class racing remains the key product at Royal Ascot and rightly-so. The horses are the absolute stars. You have your James Blunts, Tinie Tempahs, Royalty, everything else but it’s the horse that remains the absolute priority. And the racing is the best in the world. It was stunning this week and the finishes are what we’ll remember from this week.
That incredible climax to the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, and I was in the Co-Op this morning, buying ice-cream, and was asked about the finish to the Gold Cup. I remember my sign off into the break after that race and saying : “The goggles came down, the gloves were off, the Ascot bell rang as they turned for home and we were treated to one of the greatest heavyweight fights you will ever see.”
There was Bow Echo v Gstaad in the St James’s Palace, Causeway wearing down Ancient Egypt in the King Edward VII and many more besides. It was a meeting that got the nation talking.
We all know how good Ryan Moore is, Ruby Walsh and Sir Anthony McCoy were adamant this week that he’s the best we’ve ever seen. But the great thing is we have two young stars to take us into the future too with Billy Loughnane and Dylan Browne McMonagle. They have star quality and Billy in particular engages with the racegoer. The sporting public are going to grow to love him.
4 Million reasons to celebrate
The Derby and Grand National have been real challenges for us on ITV but the other big meetings continue to flourish. When we took over the rights in 2017, we set ourselves the challenge of getting to one million viewers on a midweek raceday for our channel in June. It was a tough challenge, but we got there fairly quickly and this year we got there every weekday of Royal Ascot
That’s despite the changes in people’s viewing habits hence it was great news that there were over a million more streams on ITVX than the year before. Royal Ascot is bang in fashion and long may it continue.
5 Can Royal Ascot improve?
Of course it can and I know the Ascot hierarchy will never stand still. I’ve caused a stir in the past by suggesting the Royal procession could be improved and I’d still love it to move us from the back to front pages of the newspapers more often as it did with the Princess of Wales on Wednesday and Stanley Tucci the following day. More of that please.
And seeing Brough Scott rewarded for everything he’s done for the sport in carriage one on Saturday with the King and Queen was very, very special. He’s been a journalistic and broadcasting giant for six decades now and is still going strong as well as his tireless work elsewhere in the industry, notably with the Injured Jockeys’ Fund.
Ascot were very clever on Saturday when they pre-empted any criticism of facilities by issuing a press release saying work was to start on upgrading the Queen Anne enclosure. Numerous improvements are in the pipeline it seems.
A Festival needs to see the love being shared and it could have been shared more this week with 21 of the 35 races won by only five stables. That’s a bit of a concern. More syndicates, more fairytales, are high on my wishlist.
The scriptwriter did an excellent job this week but a Japanese and a Royal winner would have lit the week up even further.
My final wish – Nick Smith does a wonderful job attracting the global challengers – but next year, Ka Ying Rising please!
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