Negotiating the Grand National

Abstract

Horse racing became a staple of BBC television sport coverage: it was regularly available in both winter and summer; it filled hours of the schedule and was cheap to produce; it had broad appeal to either racing aficionados or the casual viewer; and it linked to gambling, which was a popular entertainment in and of itself. After football, racing remains the most televised sport in Britain. Racing had its characters and compelling narratives, but for most people, each race was instantly forgettable, with another race and another bet on the horizon. Betting on horses was an established part of male popular culture by the interwar years. When combined with actual spectatorship, horse racing, according to Mike Huggins, was arguably the most popular sport of the period.¹