Perspective required as football forces Royal Ascot on to ITV4

To celebrate the countdown to Christmas, the Racing Post is giving away one piece of paid content free each day. Here, award-winning writer Lee Mottershead tackles the big issues in his weekly column

A significant reason why racing chose ITV to take over as the sport's mainstream partner was the need to regain Royal Ascot's lost viewers. Over five afternoons in June that mission was accomplished.

Come next June, ratings will dip significantly. That will again be due to ITV but the broadcaster does not deserve rebuke.

The majority of Royal Ascot 2018 is destined to be shown not on ITV but ITV4.

This was always likely to happen but it was rubber-stamped when the BBC and ITV agreed a deal to split the group stage matches in the football World Cup.

Unfortunately for racing, and for Ascot in particular, games will kick off at 1pm and 4pm during the week of Flat racing's premier meeting. On the basis the BBC was never going to take all those afternoon games, Ascot always knew coverage would be disrupted.

Although confirmed listings have yet to be announced, it seems likely that of the 30 races to be staged, 16 will be housed on ITV4 and 14 on ITV's main channel.

Gold Cup day will be the worst affected, given ITV is televising the match between Denmark and Australia at 1pm before taking France against Peru at 4pm. As such, that will be an afternoon when Ascot is wholly on ITV4. Conversely, there are no ITV afternoon games on the Wednesday, meaning the full programme will be on the main channel.

On the Tuesday and Saturday, we can expect ITV to cover races one and two (2.30 and 3.05) before ITV4 takes over the rest of both cards, while on the Friday ITV4 will be the place to watch the opening two races before ITV picks up the rest of the action.

Forecast channel split

Tuesday: ITV 2.30, 3.05, ITV4 3.40, 4.20, 5.00, 5.35
Wednesday: ITV 2.30, 3.05, 3.40, 4.20, 5.00, 5.35
Thursday: ITV4 2.30, 3.05, 3.40, 4.20, 5.00, 5.35
Friday: ITV4 2.30, 3.05, ITV 3.40, 4.20, 5.00, 5.35
Saturday: ITV 2.30, 3.05, ITV4 3.40, 4.20, 5.00, 5.35

Explaining ITV's position, a spokesman said: "Royal Ascot and the World Cup are both hugely important for ITV and we're looking forward to bringing viewers comprehensive, live, free-to-air coverage of each event.

"The scheduling of World Cup matches means part of our broadcasts from Royal Ascot will move to ITV4 and this will be made fully clear to viewers in advance promotion both on and off air in the lead up to and during the event."

Some racing fans will harrumph about Royal Ascot being downgraded by ITV. Those fans need to take a dose of reality.

Ascot will still be available at no charge to anyone who wants to watch it. Due to being placed in a less prominent shop window, and faced with the competition of World Cup football, there is no doubt ratings will drop - last year total viewing figures increased from 2.7 million on Channel 4 in 2015 to 4.3m - but there is also no doubt that in a scheduling battle with football, racing had to give way.

Consider what happened during the 2010 World Cup. In that year the BBC moved all of Royal Ascot to BBC2. In the same year, ITV pulled in afternoon averages of 3.7m for Serbia v Ghana, 3.1m for South Korea v Greece and 2.5m for Ivory Coast v Portugal. The best average audience for this year's Royal Ascot was 1m on Gold Cup day.

ITV is a commercial organisation. The advertising revenue it earns from the World Cup will be colossal. Securing that revenue, plus the ratings World Cup matches bring, is its priority. For similar reasons, Channel 4 put racing on More4 when it took place at the same time as the Paralympics or qualifying for a grand prix.

Royal Ascot is one of the jewels in ITV's sporting crownCredit: Tristan Fewings

ITV will not be happy about the clash between the World Cup and Royal Ascot. Equally, the BBC will not be happy about the clash between the World Cup and Wimbledon, particularly as it means the corporation will surely have to put the men's singles final on BBC2 given it takes place on the same afternoon as the World Cup final. In relative terms, that is a far bigger deal than the Gold Cup being shifted to ITV4.

For all those reasons, there is a need for realism and perspective. Ascot has shown both.

"ITV has been a tremendous partner to racing and its commitment is beyond question," said director of racing Nick Smith.

"The World Cup is arguably the biggest global sporting event. Everyone knew it would take priority over racing when signing to ITV and we are very comfortable with that.

"ITV has maximised the time Royal Ascot will be on the main channel where it can and the cross-promotion opportunities will be beneficial within their sport portfolio."

Ascot is looking on the bright side. This time it's the right approach. Royal Ascot will stage some wonderful races in 2018. The race against the World Cup was one it could never hope to win.

Highland a horse so easy to love

In moments of perhaps excess enthusiasm, when caught up in the euphoria of a stunning success, Aidan O'Brien has elevated an individual horse to the standing of the best he has ever trained.

While O'Brien's Coolmore masters, with an eye to marketing future stallion prospects, would not necessarily have been irked by such positivity, the world's top trainer has himself in recent years joked about needing on occasions to be more careful about what he says.

He could, however, say almost anything he wants about Highland Reel, for no horse in his era at Ballydoyle has been so deserving of praise.

Highland Reel ends his career on a high in Hong KongCredit: Vince Caligiuri

Based on a conventional understanding of the word 'best', Highland Reel is clearly not the finest horse O'Brien has ever trained. It is hard to imagine, however, he has ever had a better servant, nor that any horse has ever been a greater advertisement for the record-breaking genius who has masterminded the career of a wonderful thoroughbred.

Thanks to yet another fabulous effort on the global stage, Highland Reel bows out with a major success against his name, the seventh of his seven Group/Grade 1 victories.

This Hong Kong Vase triumph epitomised all that is great about him. Within his sleek, handsome body is the class and speed one would expect to be find in an elite performer. More important, though, is the courage, determination and will to win he once again showed when seeing off all challengers under a faultless Ryan Moore ride.

He heads to Coolmore Stud, where next season he will stand alongside fellow new recruits Caravaggio and Churchill. The advertised covering fee for both those horses is €35,000. Highland Reel, at €17,500, is somewhat more affordable at half that amount due to the fashions of the commercial bloodstock market, but compared to them he is a class apart.

After completing his Guineas double, Churchill lost five consecutive races. Caravaggio was billed as the fastest horse in modern Ballydoyle history but we never saw that speed on the racecourse, not even in a Royal Ascot win that preceded three Group 1 defeats. Both remain young horses but both have been retired. At the corresponding stage of his career, Highland Reel was just getting going.

That said, he had already done much travelling.

In his final three-year-old outing, Galileo's son won the first of his two Hong Kong Vases. Over the previous months he had won in Chicago and finished third to Winx in the Cox Plate.

At four he claimed a King George and Breeders' Cup Turf, while in honourable defeat he took silver in the Arc, Juddmonte International and back at Sha Tin.

This summer there were wins in the Coronation Cup and Prince of Wales's Stakes. Later, in the weeks leading up to his swansong, he took third in the Champion Stakes and Breeders' Cup Turf. Forgive him the fact he disappointed twice in Dubai - there had to be somewhere he didn't like - while his home fans will be equally forgiving of the oddity that his only win on Irish soil came in a Gowran maiden.

Highland Reel wears his winner's rug after victory in the Hong Kong VaseCredit: Vince Caligiuri

From 27 starts a total of over £7.5 million in prize-money was earned, way more than any European-trained horse has managed. That was possible only because Highland Reel was the ultimate international racehorse, going from one country to the next like a perfectly prepared Formula 1 car.

Yet earnings in dollars (American, Australian and Hong Kong), euros or pounds provide just one barometer of Highland Reel's excellence.

Judge him as well on the miles he travelled, the battles he fought, the races he won and, indeed, the races he lost. Here is an animal whose standing never slipped in defeat. He was a warrior, a racehorse who never stopped racing, here, there and everywhere.

Highland Reel may not be the best horse Aidan O'Brien has ever trained. He may well, however, be the best loved. If so, he certainly earned it.

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