full gallop: MY INITIAL THOUGHTS.

​‘Champions: Full Gallop’ is the B.H.A.’s and horse racing in general’s great white hope of boosting the popularity of the sport amongst those who thus far have lived their lives as non-horse racing supporters. Yes, I was a bit disappointment.
The problem with the first episode of the programme was I could not view it through the eyes of someone who knew little about the sport. It was, to me, the same as when I re-read a Raymond Chandler novel. I still enjoy Chandler’s writing style. I still like the character of Philip Marlowe and I still hear Humphrey Bogart narrating the dialogue. And though I have a poor memory, which allows my brain to play guessing games with the plot development, as the book closes in on its climax, I know how the storyline will reach its conclusion. Once seen, one cannot unsee. But then the series is not arrowed towards the likes of me.
Perhaps I am being ungenerous. The production values are A.1. and for the viewer with no knowledge of the human players, the horses or the result, it came across as highly watchable. But did you not feel that you had seen it all before. Even the footage of Frodon leaving Ditcheat for the last time and arriving at Jimmy Frost’s stables was similar to the film published on YouTube last spring.
And that leads me to Bryony Frost. Yes, I am a big and its doubtful I will ever have a bad word to say about her, so perhaps I am biased. But if your nan watched ‘Full Gallop’ who would she pick out as the person of most interest, the person who stepped through the screen and showed the sport in the sort of light the B.H.A., for instance, would approve of? When Bryony spoke about her old pal Frodon, she spoke from the heart, not from ego, her bank balance or any excellence she had performed on him. It was ‘an honour’ to be responsible for his well-being now he was retired. He never let her down. And the girl who looked after him down the years at Ditcheat saying he would never be replaced at Ditcheat. It came from the heart, unscripted, without a glance at the camera or seeking the light of publicity.
Harry Cobden is a fine jockey, blessed with a smooth West Country accent; a credit to the sport. Yet in this first episode I did not witness ‘Hollywood Harry’ as was highlighted in the Racing Post’s write-up of the programme. Indeed, what I wanted to see more of was Nico de Boinville at home with his children, the little girl hoisted on to that big grey horse. Hopefully as we go from episode to episode, we will get more insight into the private lives of the jockeys involved in the series. To engage fully, for viewers to want to invest their time and imagination, we need to be given exclusivity, not the sort of material served-up on a regular basis by I.T.V.. But again, the programme is not aimed in my direction. I just do not think it will, for example, escalate my other half’s passing interest in the sport.
That said, they could not have started with a better race than the King George as it had drama, a characterful winner and the retirement of one the great equine stars of the past twenty-years.
But let’s be clear: Bryony on her own, being herself, could sell this sport to people. She is a nice person, modest, I should think, and would give my praise no credence. Yet every time I hear her speak, I cannot help thinking that the sport has not only let her down but gave away a great opportunity to have a Frankie Dettori of the National Hunt game. Someone who quite naturally connects with people. And if you disbelieve me, go back to her reaction to winning the Ryanair Chase. Gold-dust + class.