Ed Chamberlin
Ed Chamberlin

Ed Chamberlin pleased trainers' TV boycott cancelled


Ed Chamberlin is pleased the proposed trainers’ boycott of TV interviews won’t take place at Sandown on Saturday - but is concerned over the potential damage the whole episode might have caused.

The Professional Racing Association, a body founded by Peter Savill, proposed the move if the demand for payments from media rights companies to allow access to its trainers on racedays wasn’t met.

It would put them in line with jockeys, who receive an annual group fee for TV input which is put towards their insurance scheme.

However, there was mounting opposition from within the industry including the Thoroughbred Group, the body which represents the Racehorse Owners Association (ROA), the National Trainers Federation, the Professional Jockeys Association, the National Association of Stable Staff and the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association.

On Tuesday afternoon it was confirmed the boycott wouldn’t take place and, speaking on this week’s Sporting Life Racing Podcast, ITV Racing presenter Chamberlin said: “I purposefully haven’t said anything on this, because it had nothing to do with me and nothing to do with ITV, although we were obviously going to be a pawn in what was happening.

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“Racing sees itself as a top, professional sport yet this episode has been so amateurish and embarrassing. And outside racing’s little parish, and you can only speculate, I wonder how much damage has been done?

“My fear is plenty. Yes, it could have got a lot worse this weekend and thankfully that’s not happening, but this is a story that’s got outside that parish.

“You only have to look at all the newspaper articles this week. When it gets like that, and across social media, then you know it’s doing damage.

“You can only guess what the government has made of it, another needless squabble in a sport that simply can’t sort itself out, you wonder what racing fans and viewers across the three channels made of it – and what about the owners.

“At the end of the day, it’s the owners who have watched the trainers go after this money and it’s they who give them the horses to work with.

“The only thing I know is what the ITV bosses have made of all of this. Timing wise, this is a period when ITV Sport is all about the Six Nations, the FA Cup, yet the one sport that’s causing trouble and has egg on its face yet again is horse racing.

“The timing has just been terrible, especially with, I hope, the start of negotiations between the terrestrial broadcaster and racing. And it’s a time when racing has been in the sporting spotlight for all the wrong reasons, so unnecessarily.

“It simply can’t afford to keep shooting itself in the foot like this. It has to understand the bigger picture, which I don’t feel many people do. You only have to read Graham Cunningham’s column from this week to understand that.

“From my point of view, we were planning a TV show this week with all this going on, and I’m pleased there’s no boycott, of course I am, but I honestly think the viewer at home wouldn’t have noticed any difference.”

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