DOMINIC KING – BEHIND THE SCENES WITH ITV RACING: Walsh and McCoy are perfect foils for Chamberlin

Before we get to Ruby Walsh and his gizmos and Sir Anthony McCoy’s fondness of sweets, the first place to start, fittingly, is with the anchor man.

As a racing mad teenager, Ed Chamberlin used to make a yearly pilgrimage to Aintree and Seagram’s Grand National win in 1991 is ingrained in his mind because he spent much of that day trying to see if he could get his face on TV as his idol, Des Lynam, presented Grandstand’s coverage.

So the scene that unfolds as he tries to record the footage that will launch ITV’s coverage this year has him smiling. Chamberlin wants to walk through the crowd and deliver his opening thoughts looking up at the state-of-the-art wire camera, which is perched above the paddock.

Easier said than done: he is stopped mid-flow three times with requests for selfies but it is all good fun.

‘When I left covering football to come to horseracing, the Grand National was the biggest reason,’ says Chamberlin. 

Ed Chamberlin has led ITV’s coverage since the channel won the rights to racing in 2017

AP McCoy (left) and Ruby Walsh have been likened to Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher

‘The most nervous I get is just before the show starts on National day but this is what it is all about: this is the day we take the nation racing.’ 

That is certainly true. While there will be a 70,000 crowd at Aintree this afternoon, more than eight million of us are expected to tune in from 2pm to watch the action. To give that figure perspective, 1.7million watched Galopin Des Champs win the Cheltenham Gold Cup last month.

Chamberlin has led ITV’s coverage since the channel won the rights to racing in 2017 and the production has rapidly evolved, with the ambition to take viewers closer to the heart of a spectacular sport than ever before.

To understand this, you have to look behind what you see on screen. ITV have had people on track since last Saturday laying miles and miles of cables and installing more than 50 cameras to all manner of vantage points to ensure nothing is missed.

‘We are not a racing channel but we are an entertainment show that does racing,’ says Paul McNamara, who directs operations from a truck with a mesmerising amount of screens in front of him. ‘It’s all about conveying the connection between the horse, the jockey and the people.

‘The most watched race every year is the Grand National; the second most watched race every year is the replay of the Grand National. We want to make the experience better every time we are on air and we are never content. It’s all about detail.’

It helps, of course, that the punditry team includes McCoy and Walsh, whom Chamberlin likens to Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher when he fronted Monday Night Football for Sky. Add Mick Fitzgerald into the mix and you have a team that rode the winners of four Grand Nationals.

McCoy is never short of an opinion nor does he ever run short of goodies to get him through the course of an afternoon — under his desk will be bags of Haribos, probably some Maltesers and a can of coke to get him through the broadcast.

Mick Fitzgerald, Chamberlin, Alice Plunkett, McCoy and Walsh have starred for ITV racing

‘Of course I still miss riding,’ he says. ‘I miss the danger of it, the thrill. But to be here, in the privileged position of being able to talk about this great race when everyone is watching. If you are going to do something, you have to do it properly.’

The team includes Walsh, who will spend the show in his own tactics truck. Mail Sport watched Thursday’s Alder Hey Aintree Bowl alongside him and the speed with which he was able to pick apart key moments of the race, while his assistant Hannah clipped up the visuals, was a lesson in itself.

‘Horseracing is a wonderful sport,’ Walsh, a Paddy Power ambassador, declares. ‘If I can encourage people to understand it a little more, then brilliant. I hear people say it’s difficult to understand. That’s nonsense. Is there any more jargon in racing than rugby? I wouldn’t say so.’

One thing that binds this crew together is a passion to showcase all that is good about racing. Like the 40 runners that will line up at 5.15pm, Chamberlin and company are primed to deliver.