Ruby Walsh: Why are we so far off the pace when it comes to bringing viewers close to the action?

NBC seemed miles ahead of European TV coverage with the footage they could access during the Breeders' Cup

PICTURE PERFECT: Aidan O'Brien saddled three winners at the Breeders' Cup but it was the camera angles and the way NBC brought each race to me that most enthralled Ruby Walsh.  Picture: Healy Racing

Cheltenham's Open Meeting kicked off yesterday afternoon in front of a large and enthusiastic audience with a six-race card that hardly set the world on fire. Sometimes the occasion matters just as much as the entertainment, and from where I watched it all unfold, the noise suggested people were having fun.

This afternoon is a far better card, and in the featured Paddy Power Gold Cup, Mouse Morris flies the Irish flag with French Dynamite. He is the favourite and could take the big prize in a race that far more Irish horses have lost than ever won.

Big names and big clashes are the stories of the weekend. Banbridge and Sole Pretender are the Irish runners in the most intriguing event at Cheltenham, the Grade Two Arkle Challenge Trophy Novice Chase, where Monmiral, Tommy's Oscar, Pentland Hills, and Glory And Fortune make up a solid but select field. Paul Nicholls's yard could hardly be in any better form, so the vote goes to Monmiral.

Gentleman De Mee versus Coeur Sublime, Fil Dor versus Brazil, and Grand Jury versus Three Stripe Life are the interesting clashes at Naas.

Tomorrow at Navan, Flooring Porter and Bob Olinger face off in the Lismullen Hurdle. It is the Stayers’ Hurdle champ versus the prodigy whose chasing career didn't quite reach the height of expectations and so Henry de Bromhead has changed course with him.

In the Fortria Chase, the injury-prone Ferny Hollow will bid to gain valuable experience in open company before facing stiffer tasks. At Cheltenham, in the Shloer Chase, Arkle winner Edwardstone will look to repel Nube Negra as he bids to become Britain's leading Champion Chase hope.

Most of those clashes will be broadcast live on various terrestrial TV platforms, but after watching the Breeders' Cup last weekend, I got the feeling we are way behind when bringing viewers close to the action.

NBC seemed miles ahead of European TV coverage with the footage they could access. It helped that Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore were having a good weekend for the patriotic part of me, and that William Buick and Charlie Appleby were on fire, but it was the camera angles and the way NBC brought each race to me that enthralled me most.

I was convinced on Friday night that they were using wire cameras, running parallel to the horses for their shots in the back straight as they engulfed the whole field from an angle where you could watch the race unfold.

Every movement for a position, a signal of distress or confidence, was so apparent that I almost didn't realise that this was not normal. The camera then swung across in front of the runners as they exited the backstretch and showed them rounding the home form outside the runners before seamlessly switching to the home-run camera.

It created excitement and kept me glued to the TV before NBC switched to rerun shots from overhead drones that showed how much magic some jockeys worked and how brave other horses were.

On Saturday morning at Down Royal, I made a beeline for the outside broadcast trucks to see how much these wire cameras or the infrastructure to put them up would be. A new media rights deal is in the offing, so now would be as good a time as any for racecourses to make their primary product — the actual racing — as attractive as possible.

It is not required, because I was watching a drone camera all night! Sadly, it didn't fly on Saturday night, moving at a height just above the horses but inside them instead of over them because of high winds.

Having watched Australia, the USA, and been in Paris as a drone flew and captured the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris from every angle, I want to hear the solid and logical debate as to why Irish racing is falling way behind. Some sectors or voices within Irish racing have an issue with the use of drones, but who or why? I don't yet know, but I will endeavour to find out.

IRIS provides all the pictures for Irish racing, and they have drones which are kept in a different air space to the one required because of this illogical argument which is the same in the UK. Also, the aviation authorities are currently blocking their use over safety issues within specific areas.

I accept that a drone shouldn't be in a position to fall on anyone, but please, if you have ever been on a racecourse, you will know 95% of the area is unpopulated and could easily be a controlled flying space.

The vast majority of our racecourses are wide enough to have drone paths, set at 12 feet high, and you could even log the coordinates, so it stays precisely on that route all the time, with only its speed controlled by an operator.

Dots in the distance or closeups of the one in front should be a thing of the past if racecourses and HRI want them to be. The tools are in most Irish racecourse broadcast units to make horse racing come alive on TV screens, and it is time to be proactive and catch up with what other sports provide.