Leading Jockey Luke Morris with a big fancy at Lingfield

I’ve been back in the saddle this week after a little break over Christmas and I’m feeling refreshed and ready for another big year of racing. The biggest news of this week has been ITV winning the rights from Channel 4 to show racing from next year and I, like a lot of people I think, hope ITV bring a bit of spice and excitement when they take over.

Channel 4 did a lot of good things for racing. When they went and had mornings at place likes stables and studs they were very good. On a couple of occasions they did The Morning Line from places like Banstead Manor Stud with Frankel and they were really good and watchable.

They also did other bits to help racing as well with things like the Sir Henry Cecil feature and the Frankel feature as well which were both great. They did plenty to help racing and boost racing but I felt the actual programme covering the racing on the Saturday failed to grasp you.

It was a little bit tedious at times, and a few of The Morning Line’s on a Saturday failed to reach out to the public and make you want to watch. You would just turn over to watch a race and then turn over to another channel once the race was over.

I hope ITV liven things up a bit more and, while some people might not be a fan of him, I thought having Matt Chapman as one of the presenters might be the answer. He’s a bit like Marmite but at the same time he’s the sort of guy that could reach out and get the everyday person watching racing, which is what we all want in the end.

Anyway, that’s for the future and my focus for now is on Lingfield on Saturday where I have some good rides, including one of my favourite horses Lamar in the 1m conditions race.

12.10 Lingfield – Aleator
He ran a really good race behind Man Of Harlech two starts ago but he disappointed us a bit the last day so we thought a set of blinkers might just sharpen him up and keep his mind on the job. I just felt he lost concentration a bit last time. I think this is a weaker race than last time anyway and if the blinkers do the trick he’s more than capable of winning. He’s got some strong form and it was a rare blip from him last time. We’re just hoping the blinkers will keep him focused and if he runs back to form he’ll be good enough to win.