Channel 4 to screen its first ever Royal Ascot

17 June 2013

Channel 4 is set to broadcast Royal Ascot for the first time with the familiar faces of Clare Balding and Nick Luck at the helm.

The five-day Royal Meeting starts tomorrow Tuesday, June 18th to Saturday, June 22nd and will officially be the most extensively covered race meeting in the UK TV history with all 30 races live on terrestrial television - another first - encapsulated in over 30 hours of racing programming that includes a daily Morning Line from 7:55am, Royal Ascot: Channel 4 Racing live from 1:40 – 6pm and evening highlights.

Jamie Aitchison, Channel 4’s Sports Editor, explains: “For the first time ever all six races are been shown on terrestrial television because every race on the Royal Ascot card deserves to be screened.  Punters will even get an extra hour every morning with The Morning Line plus a highlights show every evening.

“It’s a tremendous honour for us to have Royal Ascot within our racing portfolio and we very much intend to deliver like we have at all our premier meetings.”

The daily Morning Line hosted by Nick Luck will preview the top quality racing action and provide last minute punters with the latest betting trends and changes.  Walter Swinburn returns as a special guest to provide first-hand knowledge of the turf, conditions and stamina required to ride the Ascot track.   Last Leg presenter, Alex Brooker, will provide his very own A – Z guide to the Royal Meeting which will be supplemented by a series of short superstar vignettes voiced by Simon Holt. 

Channel 4’s racing coverage from Royal Ascot is presented by Clare Balding and Nick Luck with Jim McGrath, Mick Fitzgerald and Graham Cunningham providing analysis from the studio that overlooks the track and Royal Enclosure.  Commentator Simon Holt will call home all 30 feature races; Rishi Persad, Emma Spencer and Gina Bryce will be responsible for reporting duties with Irish expert, Brian Gleeson also on-hand.  The latest betting news and statistics will be scrutinised by Tanya Stevenson while Alastair Down completes the line-up to deliver daily essay-style preview packages. 

Fashion from Royal Ascot will be integrated within the 30 hours of programming and lead by a dedicated fashion team.  Adept fashion producer Rollo Ross will team Brix Smith-Start, a stylist on Gok Wan’s Clothes Roadshow, with a mix of Channel 4 talent, designers, milliners and fashion industry professionals to appear across the week.  The traditional daily racegoers style-guide will complete the essence of the Royal Meeting.

Carl Hicks, Executive Producer for IMG, says: “From 1997 to 2005 I edited the BBC’s Royal Ascot coverage and I’m delighted to be back, renewing my association of this great event and new racecourse facilities.

"Royal Ascot is arguably the greatest Flat-Racing meeting in the world.  You have horses coming in from the USA, Australia, Japan, South Africa, Hong Kong, as well as Great Britain, Ireland and France.  On the back of the Investec Derby, we have produced a ton of informative features to complement this iconic international event.

“Within our coverage we hope to capture that unique mixture of top quality racing, Royal Patronage and the fabulous backdrop provided by the 300,000 plus racegoers who turn up, dressed in their fineries, from the Royal Enclosure to the Silver Ring.”

42 cameras will be employed for the Royal Meeting across the five days.  This includes four cameras in the studio, eleven wireless cameras that will cover every part of the racecourse including the Royal Enclosure and for the first time at Royal Ascot, Channel 4 will deliver live injects from the racecourse stables seeing the horses depart for the big race of the day.  The traditional tracking camera and hi-motion cameras will be used to capture the fast moving racing action.   Other equipment includes the Camcat which will run on 600 metre wires along the inside of the track looking back towards Ascot’s magnificent grandstand and the Vortex  camera, that travels vertically from one to 30 metres in seconds, and will be positioned near the bandstand overlooking the paddock.  Supported by the latest enhanced sound system – Channel 4’s coverage is set to capture racing’s most social and iconic events of the year in glorious fashion.

Channel 4’s digital platforms will also provide a comprehensive racing service for the Royal Meeting.  channel4.com/racing offers live daily blogs packed with in-depth analysis from on-screen is supported by multi-media live text commentary.  A social media campaign titled #RoyalHatscot will encourage followers, racing and fashion aficionados to tweet their Royal headwear with the best photos and video package accessible on @channel4racing and Facebook.