ITV Racing win Best Sports Programme at Broadcast Awards for Aintree coverage

It’s a real honour to be asked by The Jockey Club to do it, but it is also everything I believe a big event in this country needs. A big race or a big sporting event needs that connection with its local community and that’s why this day is so important.

Yes, it’s important to find out about the weights and give the media what they want, but it’s also such an important event to involve Liverpool in the Grand National.

The memory I took away from the day was, first the honour of hosting it, but also the moment when the kids in the Liverpool Signing Choir came on with Laura Wright and Marnie Lane, who was the star of the day for me - a young girl who is blind and has taught herself to play the piano. Hopefully, she had the day of her life playing for us all on Tuesday and it was just so emotive watching it.

You had the kids signing whilst Laura sang just beautifully – and don’t forget she is six-and-a-half-months pregnant – and I had a little young fella who can’t have been more than seven- or eight-years-old signing in front of me. He was concentrating so hard, singing the song whilst signing, and I honestly had a lump in my throat. I was looking around at other people who were wiping away a tear and even Sir Anthony McCoy was melting. It was just wonderful.

There were lots of other highlights from the day.

Rich Ricci was hilarious, being rude about my shoes. I think he wants to work in television now, but he was on great form, likewise Willie Mullins. All the top trainers support this event which is so good.

Then obviously the weights were revealed and I came away from the day thinking that we’ve got some great stories potentially in the Grand National.

Snow Leopardess is one for the whole Fox-Pitt story and the galloping grannies. She’s had a foal and remember Alice Plunkett’s incredible winning speech at Sandown earlier in the season. Imagine what that would be like at Aintree, she would probably lose it. We love Al, it would be magic for the Longsdons and everything that goes with Snow Leopardess is brilliant.

It would be so emotive if one of the three Tizzard horses was to win. Don’t forget about the owners of a couple of those horses. For example, one of the owners of Lostintranslation lost his young son a few years ago and that’s why this horse carries the Minions colours. These are the stories that captivate the nation and really make the Grand National appeal.

Just imagine if Colin Tizzard trains the winner of the Grand National in his final year with the licence in his name. It would just be amazing and look at what his grandson Freddie Gingell is doing, he’ll probably ride a Grand National winner one day.

Joe Tizzard was asked how special it would be for his dad to win the race in his last year as a trainer and he joked that he rather the horses were running in his own name so he could win it!

I came away from the day thinking there are some wonderful stories and I came away thinking the Irish are dominant with 16 of the top 20 in the weights. You just sense that to find the Grand National winner you need to look for an unexposed Irish horse and I’ve had some luck actually in this column when we’ve talked on this day with the likes of One For Arthur and Tiger Roll.

Secret Reprieve would be my fancy if I knew he was going to get in, but I just don’t think he will again like last year which is such a shame. I think he’s got all the attributes needed to win a Grand National.

So, I think Longhouse Poet from the Thyestes could tick all the boxes. He is Irish-trained, still open to more improvement and blessed with plenty of stamina. I think he might be my long-range Grand National fancy.

I can’t end the column without talking about Rachael Blackmore. She was there on Tuesday and in really good form. She had heels on for the first time in ages after breaking her ankle last year and she is just an absolute superstar.

The sadness of Cheltenham last year was Rachael having six winners, including Honeysuckle in the Champion Hurdle, and there was just silence. She had the Grand National winner and it wasn’t quite silence – there were a few more people at Aintree – but it was relative silence compared to what it would have been like with 60,000 people roaring her home.

So, I think that’s what I’m looking forward to most at the Cheltenham Festival this year. If she wins on day one on Honeysuckle, the place is going to absolutely explode. Look at the wonderful reception she had at Leopardstown – that was 11,800 people. Imagine what that is going to be like with 60,000 at Cheltenham and that amazing amphitheatre in the winner’s enclosure.

And imagine if she wins the Grand National again. She had messages today from Sir Kenny Dalglish and Dame Judi Dench and she has touched everybody young and old. She is a global superstar this girl and, if she was to win the Grand National with a crowd, I would just love that because she didn’t get the reception she deserved last year.

ITV Racing won the Best Sports Programme for our coverage of the 2021 Grand National at the Broadcast Awards last week and I said it on stage on Tuesday: “Thank you, Rachael”. Yes, we’ve got to tell the story well, but we were blessed with the best story you could wish for with Rachael winning the Grand National.

It’s the biggest thrill I get in this job taking horse racing on to that stage. In the Best Sports Programme category, horse racing was competing and being recognized alongside the Premier League, the Hundred cricket, the Olympics, the Paralympics and the Euros.

That’s quite a big stage, so it was a real thrill to be there and it was an amazing night at Grosvenor House. And, when they read out the winner of the Best Sports Programme of 2021 as ITV Racing for the Grand National coverage, it was just such a buzz.

I was thrilled for everybody. I was thrilled for the sport, because that for horse racing is huge. I was thrilled for Aintree and The Jockey Club for all they put in. I was thrilled for my colleagues at ITV, because that is a hard thing to broadcast, an empty Aintree and a Grand National. Normally, the crowd is such a big part of it, so the guys behind the camera deserve all the credit for this.

Beating the competition that we did, that’s pretty cool.

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