Tony McCoy, whose work as a member of the Channel 4 Racing team at major meetings has brought a wealth of insight and first-hand experience to the station’s coverage, said on Tuesday that he does not expect to be part of ITV’s racing team when it begins a four-year exclusive contract to cover the sport from January.
McCoy, the most successful National Hunt jockey of all time and the champion over jumps 20 years running until his retirement in April 2015, joined Channel 4 Racing’s team in November, working on showpiece events including the Cheltenham Festival and the Grand National meeting at Aintree, as well as the Derby and Royal Ascot on the Flat. He is contracted to work one more afternoon for Channel 4, at Ascot on Qipco Champions Day on 15 October.
Ed Chamberlin, formerly the presenter of Monday Night Football on Sky Sports, was confirmed as the lead presenter for ITV Racing in June. Chamberlin has been a close friend of McCoy for 15 years and following his appointment it was widely assumed that the former champion jockey would also join ITV racing as an expert pundit.
Several more roles in ITV’s team have been finalised in recent weeks, with Francesca Cumani, the daughter of the Newmarket trainer Luca, confirmed as a co-presenter during the Flat season. Hayley Turner, Britain’s most successful female jockey on the Flat, and Sally Ann Grassick, a presenter for RTE Racing in Ireland, are also expected to be employed by ITV, while Mick Fitzgerald and Rishi Persad, members of C4’s lineup, will switch channels at the end of the year.
“Claire [Burns], who looks after me, talked with them a while ago but I haven’t heard any more,” McCoy said. “I don’t know what I’m doing with my life at the moment. I definitely haven’t made any plans for the future. I’ve only got one day left on Channel 4, so we’ll see how it goes.
“They seem to have announced their presenters and I wish them the best of luck and hope they do well.”
McCoy’s most recent appearances on Channel 4 were during the Ebor Festival this month. “I enjoyed the couple of days I worked with Nick Luck at York,” McCoy said. “I thought he was brilliant and he’s going to be a loss [if, as expected, Luck is not part of the ITV team]. It’s very hard to say there was an awful lot wrong with Channel 4 but now ITV has got it I hope they do the best for racing.
“It’s going to be a hard thing for them to keep everyone happy. One thing they need to cater for is the older audience. I’m not sure about just bringing in a lot of young people, because racing has an older audience.
“I’d like to think that they’ll do a good job for racing, and that when I put the racing on, on a Saturday afternoon, I can watch it and enjoy it.”
McCoy says that he will take his time to decide what the next step will be in his career out of the saddle. “I’m lucky that I still work for JP [McManus]. I still ride horses for him that he’s thinking of buying and I spend a lot of time with them, and I’m lucky that I’m in the position where I can do what I enjoy.
“Whatever I am going to do, I need to be sure it’s something that I’m going to enjoy. I was lucky all my life that I enjoyed riding, it meant that I never really worked. Finding something that you enjoy is the difficult thing – and something that’s challenging.
“I’ve had over a year out now and we’ll just see what comes next.”
