Champions ITV Series

There is still no jumps racing this week, it is just flat action again today and there are four meetings at Lingfield, Bath, Hamilton and Kempton.  There is no racing at all in Ireland and the stable does not have any runners.  

I am sure many of you may have watched the first series of the ITV programme, Champions which was a documentary about racing and in particular followed the champion jockey battle between Harry Cobden and Sean Bowen at the time.  It was announced yesterday that Flutter Entertainment would end their financial support of the project which is likely to mean that there would not be another series.  Fear not, for the short term as series two has been filmed and is due to be aired next month but anything after this is now in doubt.  Flutter Entertainment is a parent company of brands such as Paddy Power, Betfair and Skybet and has pulled its involvement from the series due to "uncertainty" of the treasury to potentially harmonise online betting duties in the autumn budget.  This again highlights why there will be a blank day of racing next week and shows again what a devastating effect these changes could have on our sport.  

The first series of Champions was broadcast on a Primetime slot on ITV1 and averaged 930,000 viewers an episode and the series had a reach of 4.3 million people.  I think the series helped to promote racing to a wider audience and it was a good way for people to get to know what happens behind the scenes a little more and get to know more about the jockeys and people who featured in it.  Series two will feature around the narrative of the introduction of the David Power Jockeys Cup competition.

Novak Djokovic beat Taylor Fritz in the US Open quarter final yesterday to set up a semi-final encounter with Carlos Alcaraz.  The other quarter final matches will take place today with Jannik Sinner in action and the other quarter-final match is between eighth seed Alex De Minaur and Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime.  In the women's draw, number one seed Aryna Sabalenka had a walkover in her match to reach the semi-finals and she will play American Jessica Pegula on Friday. 

England were easily beaten in the cricket one day International yesterday at Headingly by South Africa.  Batting first, they reached a lowly total of just 131 all out and the visitors easily claimed victory, reaching 137 off just 20.4 overs.  Vitality Blast cricket action returns this evening as we have reached the quarter final stages and we have the first match, Surrey play the Northamptonshire Steelbacks at 6.30pm.  Somerset will be in quarter final action, the last of the four matches, on Saturday evening, at home to the Bears.  All the teams will be hoping to qualify for the Finals Day at Edgbaston.

It's almost time for bed so i'll just check my email, Instagram, FB, Tiktok, question why we're here and watch one full season of a show on Netflix real quick!

Have a good Wednesday!