The ITV Seven

The ITV Seven was an essential part of World of Sport in the United Kingdom. It started on 4 October 1969 when the programme began to show horse racing from two courses each week rather than one, under the title "They're Off". In the early 1970s it changed to the ITV Seven, reflecting the number of races it showed each week. The ITV Seven was also the title of an accumulator bet where vast sums of money could be won if you correctly predicted the winners of all seven races. The weekly live coverage came from racecourses such as Sandown Park, York, Newmarket, Doncaster, Newcastle and Redcar. More minor tracks like Warwick, Catterick and Market Rasen were also extensively featured, especially during the National Hunt season in the winter, when ITV had the rights to fewer of the big races. Meetings from Goodwood and Haydock Park appeared occasionally, and a meeting from Ascot was shown as a one-off in 1977 when the BBC were covering the Grand National at Aintree. From January 1980 onwards, meetings from Kempton Park were shown regularly - before that time, Kempton meetings were on the BBC and were featured on Grandstand. Over the years, the live coverage was presented by John Rickman, Brough Scott, Ken Butler, Lord Oaksey, and Derek Thompson and Jim McGrath. Race commentators were Tony Cooke and Bob Haynes, John Penney and Raleigh Gilbert and Graham Goode. When racing was impossible due to the weather, greyhound racing would often be shown instead.