an idea to help i.t.v. viewing figures.

​Firstly, and this should not be glossed-over, horse racing enthusiasts should count their blessings that we have over 100-days of terrestrial coverage to enjoy and that the sport is in such competent hands as the I.T.V. racing team. Yes, Ed Chamberlain has a habit of occasionally over-hyping what is to come but it is done with the best of intentions. And I believe the team under him are better balanced now more female ‘experts’ are employed, portraying themselves as less of a lads get-together. 
As someone who is very much National Hunt led, with my following of flat racing more forced than instinctively necessary to my life, I am not surprised I.T.V.’s more substantive viewing figures revolve around the winter game and I was amused (though I am not sure he was offering a serious suggestion) by Lee Mottershead’s comment that its summer viewing figures would increase if they included a few races from Ffos Las or Worcester to their coverage of York or Goodwood.
One shouldn’t crow, though, that the figures clearly suggest that amongst the public National Hunt is more popular than the flat as the big bosses at I.T.V. headquarters may cool on renewing the contract if summer televised racing does not bring in advertising revenue, the main reason they are interested in screening the sport.
My first introduction to racing was through the t.v. screen when I was about 7 or 8, left alone with my sister while my parents went out to buy a birthday present for me. My birthday is in April and my taster to the sport was flat racing. 12-months or so later I watched my first Grand National and my fascination with the sport became a life-long condition of wonderment. I could not have been struck with more awe if I were transported back to the battlefield to spectate on the Charge of the Light Brigade.
There was a time when the Epsom Derby caught not only my imagination but the interest and fascination of the wider sporting and non-sporting public. It was labelled the greatest horse-race in the world, though in my eyes and heart it paled in comparison to the Grand National. Sadly, and no matter how deep you dispute my belief it is true, the Epsom Derby is not these days the ‘greatest horse-race’ in the world, with the Arc one race that has definitely usurp it in terms of prestige.
The Epsom Derby is plagued by both tradition and unnecessary change. To me, the Derby run after Royal Ascot, as it was two-seasons back, would benefit the race as it would build a stronger narrative. Also, the race should return to mid-week, as has been its history until bookmakers decided betting turnover and their profits would increase if swapped to a Saturday. It hasn’t worked for the prestige of the race as a Saturday in June makes it impossible for the race to be the standout event. But none of that is the fault of I.T.V. They are left to stir-up sporting interest in our ‘greatest race’ when the Epsom Derby is in competition with other great sporting attractions. I am convinced they would achieve larger viewing figures if the race returned to mid-week.
The problem flat racing must contend with, not that it will be admitted by anyone, is that there is no comparable flat race to the Grand National. No race with a ‘wow factor’; no race that fires-up the imagination; no race that will grab the attention of mainstream media or the floating sporting viewer.
Back in the early days of this site, so so long ago, I put forward the suggestion that for flat racing to leap forward in the eyes of the public it might be an idea to glance back at the sport’s past. Though it is difficult to perceive in our modern era of immediacy, before the 1st World War and between the wars, the Lincoln Handicap was one of the most prestigious races to win and formed one-half of the Spring Double, a concept all but forgotten today. Read autobiographies of trainers or jockeys of that era and tales about the Lincoln abound, with horses laid out for it, huge gambles won and lost and top-notch horses, the previous season’s Guineas winners, no less, in the race. As the Lincoln has been as good as abandoned nowadays, I think it is time it was reborn, jazzed-up and given, for the flat, the unique calling of the ‘wow factor’.
For my idea to have traction it might have to be moved to Newmarket as the mile straight at Doncaster is not wide enough to make what I am about to suggest viable. I propose a field of 40 and started from a barrier, not stalls. The Grand National is unique; I propose the Lincoln can also become unique. There is jeopardy in 40-runners, there is jeopardy in starting a race from a barrier. It will be a 1-mile in duration glimpse of flat racing’s past, a lesson in how flat racing was for the better part of its existence. It will be frightening for the jockeys as not one of them will be old enough to have ridden in a race started from a barrier and will require a riding technique they are not used to. And that is the point. It will be different; as the Grand National is different to the normal.