The first transmission of racing on the channel was on 22 March 1984 from
Doncaster, as it took over midweek coverage that had previously been on
ITV. On 5 October 1985, the week after
World of Sport ended, Channel 4 took over ITV's Saturday afternoon coverage. From the beginning of 1986, however, the amount of racing covered, especially on Saturday afternoons, was substantially reduced with coverage focussing on
Newmarket,
Epsom,
Doncaster,
York,
Sandown Park,
Kempton alongside visits to
Ayr for the
Scottish Grand National and
Ayr Gold Cup meetings and
Newcastle for the
Eider Chase,
Northumberland Plate and
Fighting Fifth Hurdle. Race meetings dropped would be the small/medium tracks that were covered by World Of Sport
Warwick,
Nottingham,
Market Rasen,
Ripon,
Beverley,
Towcester,
Stratford,
Catterick,
Fakenham,
Fontwell,
Sedgefield,
Plumpton,
Redcar,
Thirsk,
Hereford,
Lingfield Park,
Hexham,
Kelso,
Worcester,
Uttoxeter,
Salisbury,
Wincanton,
Southwell,
Windsor,
Wolverhampton,
Wetherby although the BBC occasionally televised meetings from those tracks mostly the Saturday cards on
Grandstand (Most of these courses would return from around 1993). However, coverage from
Chester was added in 1989, in 1995
Cheltenham was snatched from the BBC, in 2001, the year of the foot-and-mouth disease crisis, Epsom would switch to the BBC (Channel 4 would return with the Derby and Oaks in 2013), in 2002
Newbury joined the roster, 2007
Goodwood started being covered full time (after a period of being shared with the BBC), in 2008 came
Haydock Park full time (after a few years of sharing with the BBC) and gained
Ascot at first only the jumps meetings while the big flat meetings stayed with the BBC until 2012, 2011 Aintree would be added with the Becher Chase card (Aintree would come full time in 2013) From the start of 2007,
Channel 4 Racing mainly, but not exclusively, featured meetings from the
Racing UK courses having initially signed a three-year contract which ran throughout 2007, 2008 and 2009. The contract guaranteed 80 days of racing each year on Channel 4. Coverage was sponsored by
Totesport in 2006 and 2007, and by
Dubai from 2008 to 2016. From 2013,
Channel 4 Racing became the exclusive home of free-to-air televised racing, having signed a four-year deal in March 2012. Coverage included all major races including
The Derby,
Cheltenham Festival and for the first time on Channel 4, the
Grand National and
Royal Ascot, and international races including the
Dubai World Cup and the
Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
End of Channel 4 Racing On 1 January 2016 it was announced that Channel 4 had lost their horse racing rights after 32 years to ITV who would have exclusive free to air rights to British horse racing from 1 January 2017. The reason for the change was said to be that ratings had dipped for most of the big meetings that used to be broadcast on the BBC up to 2012 since the move to Channel 4. Under the new deal ITV will show a minimum of 40 days of horse racing live on
ITV, with a further 60 days a year live on
ITV4, with
ITV Sport also producing their own
ITV Racing coverage rather than Independent Producers. Initially, it was announced that Channel 4 would broadcast their final day of horse racing on 31 December 2016, with the rights moving to ITV on the following day. It was announced at the start of December 2016 however that the last day of racing would not be on 31 December. Owing to logistical problems, the last day of Channel 4 Racing was on 27 December 2016, when Channel 4 screened action from Kempton's Christmas meeting as well as the Welsh Grand National from Chepstow. As New Year's Eve fell on a Saturday that year, this meant it was the first Saturday in recent memory that horse racing was not shown on terrestrial television. Instead, pay channel
Racing UK made its coverage available free to air for the day. ==Coverage==