BRYONY FROST owned the red carpet as she returned from France to lead a star-studded line-up of jockeys for the Champions: Full Gallop premiere.
The trailblazing rider was joined by the likes of reigning champion jockey Harry Cobden and Nico de Boinville at the glitzy central London bash.
Celebrities including Peter Crouch – who towered over the jockeys in one red carpet snap – and Vernon Kay also made it to BAFTA 195 Piccadilly.
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Champions: Full Gallop is a new six-part documentary series airing at 9pm on Friday on ITV1.
The channel has done loads to thrust the sport into homes around the country with its commitment to showing live action – and won their own BAFTA awards in the process.
But it’s clear more needs to be done to draw new fans into the great game – and a primetime slot goes some of the way to achieving that.
For it to be a true success, though, you need action that grabs viewers by the throat and stops them flicking to their phone after a couple of minutes.
The first episode, which focuses on the unforgettable King George Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day last year, hopefully does that.
Racing fans – and those with a love of Shishkin – will remember all too well what happened.
The jaw-dropping finale to one of the biggest jumps races of the season was just about as good as it gets.
With the money the likes of Flutter and Racecourse Media Group have put behind this project, they will be eager to see if it’s enough to bring in a new generation of followers.
For all the action on the track, though, it’s the personalities off it that may still hold greater sway with casual viewers.
Racing will never have the sexiness of a 20something driving an F1 car round a track at 200mph.
But the life-and-death danger of the two sports is definitely comparable.
And the gruelling nature of a jockey’s very existence – just this week one jockey retired aged 28 because he had lost the battle to keep his weight low – should at least draw some empathy, if not fascination.
Speaking on the red carpet, Frost said the show’s biggest thing for her was showing that ‘it’s not all glitz and glam – in fact, there’s no glitz and glam’.
Former England striker Crouch echoed that, saying the moments that really gripped him were when jockeys were alone with their thoughts.
He said: “I don’t know the full ins and outs of racing but, honestly, I’m all in after that. It’s brilliant.
“I’ve watched a lot of the sports documentaries and the one thing I want to know are the things you’d never dream of seeing.
“That was a proper peak behind the curtain.”
Champions: Full Gallop airs on ITV1 at 9pm on Friday. Episodes two and three will be available to livestream on ITVX immediately afterwards.
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