‘The grit and the glory’: new series to show racing as never before
Champions: Full Gallop, a new six-part documentary series showing jockeys “as you have never seen them before”, comes to TV screens tomorrow (19 July) at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
Going behind the scenes with jockeys, trainers, owners and horses as they compete in the 2023-24 jumps season, the series features contributions from key players including trainers Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson, Willie Mullins and Dan Skelton and jockeys such as Harry Cobden, Sean Bowen, Harry Skelton and Bryony Frost at key meetings including the Cheltenham and Grand National festivals.
The series takes in all the elements that make racing such a compelling sport, from charismatic owners to the trainers and stable staff who invest so much in the welfare of their horses.
Produced by South Shore, supported by Flutter and Racecourse Media Group (RMG), the series has been given access to all areas from weighing rooms to stable yards as viewers are invited to follow the thrills, emotion and drama both on and off the racetrack.
The first episode will chart the build-up to and outcome of the King George VI at Kempton on Boxing Day as the programme attempts to follow the success of other sports documentaries, such as F1’s Drive To Survive and tennis’ Break Point.
At the Champions: Full Gallop premier from left to right: Harry Skelton, Bryony Frost, Nico de Boinville, England footballing legend Peter Crouch, Harry Cobden, Gavin Sheehan and Sean Bowen.
RMG chief executive Martin Stevenson this week described the launch of the docuseries as a “huge opportunity” for racing.
He said: “The question is how can we build on this. I hope everybody will love it and we can talk about the next series. The way these things work best is to build them over a number of series and to really draw people into the stories so it becomes one of the ways they enjoy the sport.
“We want people at home to be able to engage with racing and to see it in a different way, to get a glimpse behind the scenes and experience the grit and the glory.
“We hope to ultimately widen the sport’s fanbase. Racing is clearly facing some challenges, but it still has a huge audience and if we can get a decent fraction of the people who enjoy jump racing engaged then we’ve succeeded.”
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