Coral unveils six-part horse racing doc

Betting company follows racehorse trainer Joe Tizzard in YouTube series

Betting company Coral has launched a six-part documentary series, Taking The Reins.

The series, available through Coral’s YouTube channel, follows racehorse trainer Joe Tizzard in his first season in the role after taking over the family-run Venn Farm operation from his father and legendary trainer Colin.

Produced by Equine Productions, the series follows Joe Tizzard and his team, along with his family, owners and racehorses, from mid-November as they prepare for the Coral Gold Cup meeting at Newbury, through the busy Christmas period, the challenging weather in January, the Festival trials in February, through to the Cheltenham Festival itself, climaxing with April’s Grand National.

You can watch the first episode below.

Simon Clare, Coral PR director and executive producer of Taking the Reins, said: “Coral is a horse racing brand through and through and our main aim is to get our customers closer to the action to enhance their passion for the sport. Given the huge popularity of fly-on-the-wall sports documentaries, we decided to take the plunge, and with our partners at Equine Productions, embarked on a major project charting the progress of Joe Tizzard’s first season as a racehorse trainer over a six-month period, focusing on a wide range of compelling stories featuring his racehorses, his owners, his family and his hard-working team, around some of the biggest race meetings in the calendar.

“We hope viewers will find this an entertaining and exciting watch and would like to thank Joe and everyone who participated in the series for their willingness to open their lives and emotions to the cameras. The Equine Productions team have done an amazing job but we couldn’t have produced the series without the support of many individuals and bodies within the racing industry to which we are indebted.”

Dave James, CEO of Equine Productions and executive producer of Taking the Reins, added: “Taking The Reins’ tells the story of Joe Tizzard’s first season as a trainer at the helm of Venn Farm. Through the depths of winter to the sport’s show-stopper at The Grand National we followed Joe and his team, exploring emotional and engaging stories while showing the trials and tribulations that come with being at the elite end of National Hunt racing.

“We believe at its heart it is a story about racing people for racing people, though there will also be a natural appeal to general sport lovers too. We are hugely grateful to Joe for letting us in and opening up, we had full access to the yard and the team and we thank them for giving the project their all even when times got tough. An added thank you has to go to the team at Coral for backing this unwritten story.”