McCoy, Walsh and Pendleton part of C4's Cheltenham line-up

9 March 2016

•             Presented by Clare Balding & Nick Luck alongside Sir Anthony McCoy and a team of racing experts

•             Ruby and Ted Walsh re-join The Morning Line team

•             Double Olympic cycling champion to ride in the final Festival race broadcast live on Channel 4

•             22 hours dedicated to horseracing across four days

Next week (March 15th – 18th), the much anticipated Cheltenham Festival will be shown live on Channel 4 featuring 22 hours of live championship action with Clare Balding, Nick Luck and Sir Anthony McCoy forming part of the dedicated racing team.

Ruby Walsh - Ireland’s reigning champion jockey - will join The Morning Line team to provide viewers with a unique and invaluable insight into his daily rides. From Tuesday to Thursday, Ruby will exercise his Festival mounts live on-course wearing a gilet camera and microphone to capture the early morning pipe-openers on some of Ireland’s most exciting contenders. His father, Ted Walsh, will be more comfortably seated within the studio alongside regular Channel 4 Racing pundits and special guests.

Nick Luck, Alice Plunkett and Rishi Persad will co-host the Festival Morning Line - live daily at 8am.

A bespoke opener featuring Ruby will launch Channel 4’s high definition Festival coverage, which begins at 12:35pm on Tuesday, 15th March. The daily coverage runs until 4:30pm and includes a daily delivery of five top-class races with Clare Balding and Nick Luck at the helm. Reporters Alice Plunkett, Rishi Persad and Mick Fitzgerald will complement a top punditry team that includes Sir Anthony McCoy, Jim McGrath and Graham Cunningham. Brian Gleeson will also be on hand to provide the latest news on the Irish challengers alongside betting expert Tanya Stevenson, with Simon Holt calling home the winners for his 16th consecutive year on Channel 4.

An array of racing features will be shown across the afternoons, including an exclusive three-part AP meets Ruby series, while the recently retired champion jockey also enjoys a schooling session on Gold Cup fancy, Don Cossack. This is all complemented by further features on jockey Nina Carberry.

Channel 4’s final Festival contest will be the 4:10pm St. James’s Place Foxhunter Steeple Chase Challenge Cup in which double Olympic cycling champion, Victoria Pendleton will conclude her switching saddles campaign in the highly competitive amateur race.

Throughout the week, Channel 4 will broadcast four 45-minutes evening highlight programmes showcasing the day’s finest action.

Steve Lyle, Channel 4’s Commissioning Editor - Sport, said: “Once again we have the Festival covered with around six hours of programming each day. To enhance the drama and excitement of this great event we’ll be adding our trademark camera innovations, a raft of features including incredible access to leading jockeys and trainers; and a presentation team including Clare Balding, Nick Luck and Sir Anthony McCoy. This really does promise to be our best Cheltenham ever.”

Channel 4 online will complement the four-day spectacle with multi-media live text commentary throughout the Festival with strong social media activities.

Come Saturday, 19th March the Channel 4 Racing team will review the UK’s finest jump racing Festival on The Morning Line at 9am followed by afternoon racing that takes in six races from Uttoxeter and Kempton Park including the second longest race in the UK – the Midlands Grand National run over four miles plus.