Excitement returned to the discussion of ITV’s new racing programme last week when the appointment of Matt Chapman as betting reporter was confirmed. After the initial buzz around the poaching of Ed Chamberlin from Sky more than three months ago a series of fairly safe appointments led onlookers to wonder if Channel 4’s format was being copied but the inclusion of Chapman undermines that idea and no one is more energised about it than the man himself.
“OMG,” he tweeted on Friday. “It’s done. @ITVSport here I come. Pumped. Yeeehaaa!”
A man who tweets like that tends to stand out in the conservative world of horse racing but the popularity Chapman has acquired with his playful, irreverent style on At The Races suggests there is room for other, similarly swashbuckling presenters. His detractors feel there is too much “look at me” in his on-screen persona; keen to prove them wrong, he emphasises that the new programme’s fate will depend on how well its various members work together.
“This will be a team effort and the team will be everything,” Chapman reflected on Sunday, “just like the team on Top Gear was everything. In two and a half hours of telly, the actual racing is a small part of the action. We have to make the bits in between so interesting that they are just as interesting as the races.
“People watch X Factor to see what Simon Cowell says, not to see some singer. The presenters are absolutely key to keeping people watching. The team that is built will have as big a part to play as the horses.
“We have to like each other, know each other … If Ed has had a stomach ache the previous day, I have to be able to take the mickey out of him for spending 10 hours on the toilet. And of course we’ll take the sport seriously when it has to be taken seriously. We have to have some fun together and, if that happens, it has a great chance of being a success.
“People can watch the races anywhere they like, now, so the actual races aren’t the thing that will keep people watching the show in the afternoon. We need to make them feel they want to watch this because it’ll be good, that they’ll have missed out if they don’t watch.”
He lauds Chamberlin as “a genius selection” for the job of presenter. “I know that’s going to sound like sucking up but I don’t really care.”
While plainly delighted about his new gig, Chapman bridles slightly at the suggestion in one report that he “craved” a move to terrestrial TV, insisting the impulse was never quite on that level. “It’s just that, doing programmes on ATR like the phone-in show, like Sunday Forum, like Ask The Handicapper, I feel that I connect with normal racing fans. It was a huge frustration that I couldn’t even get an interview [when producers were worried about viewing figures for terrestrial coverage of racing], even while feeling like someone who could help.
“Big-headed or not, I felt that the general public seemed to quite enjoy the shows that I did. But the powers that be didn’t seem to see it as I saw it.” That is no longer true, since Chapman’s contract is for 80 days a year, likely to raise his profile significantly from January.
Comparisons with John McCririck are inevitable but not, Chapman feels, very insightful. “There is no one who could do what he did better than him but I’m not going to be doing what he did. I’m a news reporter, an interviewer, someone who will hopefully get involved with analysing racing, so you’re not comparing like with like. I understand the comparisons but, when you look into it, we’re not similar.
“I want to try to bring the ring to life, speak to punters who are betting, speak to bookmakers and move around a bit. I also want to bring in some of the people who would not normally be in the ring, like owners and trainers and the hierarchy of racing. You hardly ever see anyone interviewed there but why not bring in an owner whose horse is drifting like a barge and talk to him next to the board where his horse is drifting?
“Obviously you’re dependent on people playing along with that kind of game but I think one of my skills is talking to people and somehow I’ve got to wangle that into the coverage of the ring, to make it a fun area.”
His new employers have not got themselves a man who works only when the camera is on. Already, he has been emailing producers with suggestions for how the new show may work. Matt Chapman has finally got his chance and is determined to seize it.
