LAST weekend saw the second afternoon of racing on ITV, the new free-to-air providers of horseracing on televisions in these islands. This has some disadvantages for Irish viewers who require adroit navigational skills on their Sky remote controls simply to find the programme. For those who can access the coverage, it comes with none of the modern conveniences that we have become accustomed to, such as pause or record.

The usual industry figures have given their tuppence worth on the new production though I suspect that those employed in the industry are not really the target market that the ITV bosses have in mind. As Lee Mottershead commented, the risk of losing existing viewers on terrestrial TV in order to attract new ones may be critical to the future of the sport.

Televising racing is like showing real-time fox-hunting or an extra-marital affair - some relatively short moments of frenetic action interspersed with prolonged periods of nothing much at all. It is not like a football match where, by and large, the viewer gets an experience pretty similar to attending the match (though with a rather shorter queue for the facilities at half-time).

For the paying public, a day at the races is a largely ambient one, and racegoers undergo a variety of experiences which combine to the sum of the parts. Races themselves generally take up less than 20% of the time that anybody spends on a racecourse whereas a football match is in progress for over 80% of your time in the stadium.

As a result, racing presenters have to fill in more gaps than their football counterparts and in both instances, the majority of pundits have a history of playing the game. Racing however has dramatically fewer key players at the top level and the resulting familiarity can make for duller television. Not even David Attenborough would hold an audience if he presented us with the same few animals, week in, week out. That is why a spread of success and an innovative production team might really stimulate new passions for our sport, which is good for all.

I must admit to being among those cursing the (first world) problem of finding ITV 4 - a full five clicks on the remote - but this is the channel that shows the Tour de France, probably the biggest annual sporting event in the world.

TOUR DE FRANCE

Much as I enjoy following the Tour - we are often in France in July and I have seen the event live - this incredible spectacle has sadly become subject to endless doping allegations and discussion.

I often wonder whether it is time to have an alternative “dirty” games, with as much medication as you want. Let’s face it, we already have performance enhancing clothing, footwear, diets, rackets, clubs and numerous other technologies which are already permitted. Why not have a free-for-all and watch some Russian bloke the size of a tractor hurl a discus out of the stadium and a sprinter, with thighs so huge that he takes up two lanes, run 100 metres in under nine seconds.

One sport that used to feature more on television was snooker, and there was a tournament in Goffs at the weekend; a two-day England versus Ireland competition and featuring such players as Ronnie O’Sullevan, Jimmy White and Ken Doherty. The ban on cigarette advertising has hit this sport hard; when I first worked at Goffs, the Benson and Hedges Irish Masters Snooker was an annual event and was a production of the very highest standard.

On Wednesday this week Ger Hennessy (Goffs facilities manager) and I called to Punchestown to meet Richie Galway, the racecourse manager. The improvements to the main self-service restaurant and De Robeck Room upstairs are superb but mean that we need to look at some minor changes to the logistics of our Goffs Punchestown Sale. It will hopefully attract some more horses of the level sold there in the last couple of years.

Television plays an important role at Punchestown and is a major factor in the racing starting at 3.40 pm. This apparently maximises the television audience for the feature races though why they cannot be run as the last two races on the card, I do not know. I was once told that a late start gives British visitors the chance to fly in on the same day. Irish racegoers are happily better organised as is evident on any Cheltenham morning at Birmingham airport despite a 1.30 first race.

I may be in the minority but remember some very happy times when a hugely sociable après-Punchestown was in full swing during the daylight hours of a spring evening.