“I THINK it’s pretty obvious to most people, particularly in Ireland, that Irish racing has missed out on a significant opportunity to maintain and grow the profile of the sport and when the next cycle of media rights renewals comes up I suspect it will be the Irish racing authorities who come knocking on our door rather than the other way around.”

The words of At The Races chief executive Matthew Imi to The Irish Field after news came through that ATR was to be rebranded to Sky Sports Racing and had acquired the rights to show racing from both Chester and Bangor. At the time, it was mooted that Ascot, with their non terrestrial rights up for negotiation, could also be lured, and that has been confirmed this week.