It remains to be seen whether racing has gambled astutely in choosing ITV over Channel 4 as its main broadcaster from next year but ITV’s production team already appears to have made one good bet. Ed Chamberlin, recently named as the channel’s chief racing presenter, brings profile, popularity and decades-worth of accumulated knowledge to the job.
This is another of those occasions when racing’s entrenched insecurities make its inhabitants surprised and delighted to find some of football’s stardust being sprinkled over them. Chamberlin has been Sky’s chief football presenter for five years and his decision to make this switch would not be seen by all observers as a step up the broadcasting ladder.
The doubters apparently include his 10-year-old son, who responded to the news by asking: “Dad, what have you done?” Chamberlin’s reassurances that they could still go to see Southampton play at regular intervals went some way towards restoring domestic peace.
He himself appears very happy with the move, for all that it was a wrench to leave his many friends at Sky, notably the producer Scott Melvin, whose work he lauds. “I had it in my head that this is the job I’ve wanted since I was young,” Chamberlin said, recalling how he was introduced to racing by his grandfather some 30 years ago, when they watched together most Saturdays.
ITV showed racing every weekend in those days. Chamberlin’s only regret is that his grandfather is no longer with us to delight in the news. “I’d love to have seen his face.”
Racing was a source of sustenance to Chamberlin when, seven years ago at the age of 35, he was treated for stomach cancer and found himself stuck in hospital during the Cheltenham Festival. “I think I was the only person ever to get a TV into intensive care at Southampton General,” he says.
Committed racing fans will remember exactly where they witnessed the extraordinary effort by AP McCoy in getting Wichita Lineman up to win at that Festival of 2009. Chamberlin shared the moment by leaping out of his hospital bed, inadvertently tearing out intravenous tubes so that blood and chemotherapy drugs spilled across the floor.
“That kind of thing does give you a boost,” he recalls now. “And getting the Racing Post every morning from the shop downstairs was a bit of a challenge that helped me make progress from day to day.
“In many ways, I wouldn’t have taken this risk if I hadn’t been through that. Now I’m much more inclined to seize these opportunities as they come along. I slightly feel that I’ve been given a second chance.
“I’m a very lucky boy and that experience has changed me enormously as a person. I’m very fortunate to have come through the other side and racing, in that period, was a huge part of my life.”
Chamberlin’s early ambition was to go into racecourse management, to which end he signed up to the sport’s graduate scheme some 20 years ago. Having asked for a work-experience placement at Ascot or perhaps Goodwood, he was somewhat disconcerted to find himself at Ladbrokes instead, but ended up loving it and stayed for years.
What he learned there while carving out a living as an odds compiler will be invaluable to him in his new role and should ensure he gets instant respect from hardcore punters. He recalls with pride being part of the shrewd team that kept Shahtoush onside before she was a surprise winner of the Oaks in 1998.
Chamberlin, who has a painting in his living room of those much-loved 1990s steeplechasers Dublin Flyer and Martha’s Son, has never lost touch with the sport but now plans a kind of re-immersion, which began last week at Royal Ascot, where he backed the Hunt Cup winner and shook “thousands” of hands.
“Racing’s all I’m going to do now. If you’re going to do something, throw everything at it, commit yourself to it. This is something I’ve seen particularly from working with Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher. Neither was the greatest or most talented young footballer but they dedicated themselves to what they were going to do.
“There are lots of people I need to meet, lots of things I need to learn and I’ll be reliant on a lot of people for that … I can’t wait.”
As for his broadcast style, Chamberlin is no fan of the “look at me” school. “I hope I’m someone who is good at getting the best out of other people. I like to think I’m laid back but I’m also a decent enough journalist and the story is everything in our world. Des Lynam is a hero of mine and I’ve always lived by his approach: it’s about the sport – not the presenter.”
