Beverley Gets First Appearance On ITV Racing

Beverley Gets First Appearance On ITV Racing

ITV Racing will setup shop and showcase three races from Beverley Racecourse for the first time in it's history on this coming Saturday afternoon.

The news has given Beverley racecourse a momentous lift by illustrating all that is good with northern racing, as the build-up towards the mostly-coveted-southern features continues with Royal Ascot just under two weeks away now.

The action on Saturday begins at 1:25pm with the 7.5 furlong Dadie Oughtred Memorial Handicap, followed by the 5f Hilary Needler Trophy Fillies' Conditions Stakes for juveniles and the 5f Brian Yeardley Two Year Old Trophy Conditions Stakes, both of which should prove critical and noteworthy in the Royal Ascot juvenile markets. 

The chief executive at Beverley, Sally Iggulden said: "We've had ITV and Channel 4 cameras covering the Beverley Bullet in August before but that would be for just the one race.

"It's a really nice bonus for us and this is the first time they've taken our two feature two-year-old races, as well as having more than one live televised race, which is excellent for the course. 

"It's great exposure for us as a whole," she finished.

ITV will also be based at Newmarket and Haydock for further Group and handicap action, but the rare appearance in the county town of East Riding in Yorkshire really signifies the diversity ITV have implemented into their racing fixtures, since they took over from Channel 4 in January 2017.

ITV's lead presenter Ed Chamberlin has been further enhancing the need expand and transform racing across all ageing platforms up and down the country, and recently spoke of his delight of the figures for last weekend's Epsom Investec Oaks and Derby Festival.

The former Sky Sports presenter admitted he was fearing the worst for the Derby viewing numbers as the broadcaster competed with a many other high-profile sporting events on the warmest day of the year, only to feel relief at a peak audience of 1.75 million to see Anthony Van Dyck win the second Classic of the season for the colts.

(Credit: Racing Post) He said: "I feared the worst for Saturday.

"We didn’t have a whole lot to hang the Derby on in terms of narrative this year, it’s half term, and it’s probably the busiest Saturday of the sporting year. You only had to look at the morning newspapers to see where the Derby stood!

"So with all that considered, I was actually really pleased with the numbers we got, and we’ve held up very well against all those sporting giants.

"I want to knock it out of the park and get huge numbers. We threw the kitchen sink at that and we’ll continue to do so because we’re determined to put the Derby back where it deserves to be."

Chamberlin and his fellow regular pundits can look forward to an abundance of racing on the channel as the royal meeting draws ever closer.

The Cool Silk Partnership owned last year's Hilary Needler winner Kodyanna and could team up with trainer Richard Fahey again if handing a debut to Moon Of Love. 

The market for the Two Year Old Trophy is unsurprisingly headed by Richard Hannon's Oh Purple Reign, who followed his initial Nottingham win with a very decent second to Godolphin's Pinatubo, in the Woodcote Stakes at Epsom last weekend.

As mentioned, both outcomes in the two-year-old contests could have a major say in forming the markets for the likes of the Coventry Stakes and the Norfolk Stakes in just over ten days time.