Welcome back Ed and Co! Daytime TV is about to get a lot more interesting

Daytime TV is about to get interesting again. The Chase is over. No more repeats. Unless, of course, Defoe finds the back of the net in the Coronation Cup again. Yes, live horseracing returns to terrestrial television for the first time since Midlands National day at Uttoxeter on March 14. How we have missed you, Ed.

Mr Chamberlin will host the ITV4 action from Newmarket, with the coverage to include the three best races from Lingfield. What better way to follow a 12-week famine than with a Friday feast where the Group 1 Hurworth Bloodstock Coronation Cup (3.35) takes centre stage.

It may be relocated to a different venue this year but it is the same competitive contest it has always been. A time for us to respect our elders before the Classic generation takes over at the weekend in the first two Classics of the season.

We have last year’s Derby winner, Anthony Van Dyck, and fourth, Broome, as well as two-time Gold Cup winner Stradivarius, who won ten on the trot before Kew Gardens ended the sequence by a nose on Champions Day at Ascot. Defoe is back to defend his title and Desert Encounter is getting better with age judged on his last-to-first surge to win the Canadian International at Woodbine in October.

Why, then, do we have a red-hot favourite who has won only once at the top level?

Ghaiyyath: out on his own in Newmarket maidenCredit: Mark Cranham

Perhaps it is because when Ghaiyyath is good, he is absolutely glorious. His two most recent wins have been achieved by an aggregate total of 22 and a half lengths, and he wasn't taking on trees either. His 14-length German demolition job was in a Group 1 at Baden-Baden, while the Godolphin-owned runner-up who was rated 112 could only get within eight and a half lengths of him in the Group 3 Dubai Millennium Stakes at Meydan in February.

Indeed, there is a look of Dubai Millennium about him on occasions. The way he can devour his opponents from the front with that lavish long stride of his can be very easy on the eye, but he needs to start doing it when it really matters. This is the perfect occasion for Ghaiyyath to show just how good he is on home soil.

It is his first home match since 2017, and the good news for favourite backers is that both his British wins have come on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket.

Ghaiyyath folded like a poker player with a two and a six in his hand, unsuited, in the Arc at Longchamp. This is his shot at another big pot.

Stradivarius ideally wants further, but he has never looked slow. This is his prep for the Gold Cup at Ascot later this month, but he has won his warm-up game for the last two years so do not be fooled into thinking there is only one big day in him.

Anthony Van Dyck (near side) won the Derby but it was a close-run thingCredit: Edward Whitaker

Anthony Van Dyck's story since winning the Derby has been a tale of woe, but Aidan O’Brien has won the Coronation Cup five times in the last ten years and seems to think he has his Epsom hero back on the right track. Who are we to argue with the great man?

It was at Lingfield last year where Anthony Van Dyck displayed his Classic claims in the Derby Trial, and the ITV4 cameras are back to help us gather some more evidence for Epsom. There were plenty of clues there last year, that’s for sure.

Not only did Anthony Van Dyck do the Lingfield-Epsom double, but so too did Oaks heroine Anapurna.

Andrew Balding's team have hit the ground running, so it is no surprise to see the 104-rated Berkshire Rocco installed as the early favourite for the Betsafe Derby Trial (3.15).

Miss Yoda is two from three and will be a tough nut to crack in the Oaks Trial (2.40). With five winners already on the board since racing resumed, you would swear her trainer, John Gosden, had never been away.

Brando always seems to produce Oscar-winning performances at Newmarket and the evergreen eight-year-old is seeking his fourth win from five starts on the Rowley Mile in the Group 3 Betway Abernant Stakes (2.25).

Sangarius, who was last seen winning the Hampton Court Stakes at Royal Ascot, returns in the Betway Paradise Stakes (3.00) and the sprint handicap that kickstarts ITV4’s coverage is as competitive as they come.

Friday is supposed to be the golden child of weekdays, but for the last few months it has had a striking resemblance to Monday. They have looked like twins. Now, finally, after all these weeks there is something to get us giddy again and warm us up for the weekend.

Daytime TV is about to get interesting again. Seven races live on ITV4. Horseracing is coming home. At last.

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