BBC break 47-year tradition and explain brutal ‘kick in the teeth for racing’

The BBC have broken with a 47-year tradition by ending their daily horse racing tips after a disastrous run of results. The broadcaster has offered daily selections as part of the sports bulletin on BBC Radio 4‘s long-running Today programme for nearly five decades, but that is about to change.

Today host Amol Rajan has confirmed the BBC‘s racing tips will be reserved for only the biggest days in the future, with the focus shifting to major events such as the Grand National and Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Addressing sports reporter Mike Williams, Rajan said: “No racing tips from you today, Mike. That is because we have decided to break the tradition of having racing tips every day of the year. Instead we’re going to reserve the tips for the biggest days in the racing calendar.

“We will very much continue to cover horse racing, as we do so many other sports, not least through interviews with leading lights in the racing world, and we will sometimes continue to broadcast from the big ticket events like the Grand National festival, or Cheltenham Gold Cup week.”

It was reported by the Daily Mail last year that the BBC were considering scrapping their daily tips, prompting former racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght to brand the decision a ‘kick in the teeth’.

He said: “At a time when racing’s media profile has been eroded and racecourse attendances have been falling this is another kick in the teeth for the sport. It is massively disappointing news, but probably not a complete surprise.

“Any publicity racing can secure is valuable and the Today programme audience is huge. Anything related to gambling clearly prompts debate at the moment and rightly so, but the tips are just a bit of fun rather than serious advice to bet and to suggest otherwise would be to misunderstand them.”

The BBC tips served up a horror run of results in 2022, with The Sun revealing that just one in five turned out to be a winner. It was the third year in a row that punters would have been left out of pocket if they had placed bets on all of the broadcasting giant’s daily selections.