Racing’s ‘Drive to Survive’ puts sport in front of TikTok generation

The notion of prime time is not what it was, but 9pm Friday on ITV1 is still an impressively prominent slot in the schedule for Champions – Full Gallop, an access-all-areas, fly-on-the-wall attempt to give jump racing at least a fraction of the boost Formula One received from the Netflix docu-series, Drive To Survive.

When Drive To Survive launched in March 2019, F1 was suffering from declining revenues and ratings and struggling to expand or diversify an ageing audience. Similar problems to those facing racing, in other words, but six seasons of Drive To Survive later, F1 is one of the world’s fastest-growing sports with many millions of new fans and a rosier outlook than it has enjoyed for decades.

The show has also given rise to a new genre in sports documentaries, with professional tennis – Break Point – and golf – Full Swing – following on and seeking to use the individuals and personalities involved to give casual viewers an emotional foothold in the action.

ITV, clearly, does not have the global reach of Netflix, but then, neither does National Hunt racing. While Netflix’s subscriber base in the UK seems to have plateaued somewhat at around one in two households, ITV is readily available on every British telly. As a result, the potential audience for Champions: Full Gallop runs well into seven figures and if even one in every 100 could be turned into an occasional punter, racegoer or both, the effect could be considerable.

That, at least, is presumably the line of thought that persuaded Racecourse Media Group – which includes Jockey Club Racecourses and several big independent tracks – to invest in the six-part series, alongside Flutter Entertainment, the owner of betting brands including Paddy Power and Betfair.

There are some obvious similarities between Formula One and racing, including speed, intense competition and ever-present danger. There are important differences, too, when it comes to pitching the sport to a new audience. Seventy-five per cent of the population have a driving licence, for instance, while very few have learned to ride, so driving a car at 200mph will be a more immediate hook for many than riding a horse at 35mph.

But the exhilaration of competing and winning is universally understood and this is something Champions – Full Gallop communicates very well. The series as a whole follows the 2023-24 season but the first episode is centred on the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day – which, as luck would have it, was one of the most dramatic and memorable in the race’s long history.

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The format is the modern drama-doc standard – lots of talking heads describing the buildup to the race and no shot longer than five or 10 seconds to accommodate modern attention spans. This may grate just a little with some viewers, but to the TikTok generation it will be instantly familiar. Harry Cobden shows a natural awareness of what the format requires.

The race is presented via a mix of helmet-cam footage, closeups and commentary from the jockeys, including snippets from the chat immediately before the start, when everyone was wondering whether Shishkin would jump away with the field.

Even casual racing fans will remember how it all played out, but for someone who has no clue what happened, or any knowledge of racing at all, it packs a lot of excitement into a very accessible and memorable package.

For most of us within the sport, the horses are the real stars and what keep us coming back. But it is the people around them, and the jockeys in particular, that are likely to be the finest ambassadors with an audience that is coming to racing, and horses in general, with a completely blank slate.