Horsepower on Amazon

[CaveMum]

Anyone else watching this?

Cards on the table, I work in racing and we’ve been waiting on this series to drop for a while. Interested to know what “non-racing folk” think about it.

I'm not really non-racing as a lifelong fan of the sport but I guess I am an outsider as I don't work in the industry?

On the whole I'm enjoying it, it's beautifully shot and some of the human interest stories are great. Andrew and Annelise Balding come across very well, Murphy not so although I suspect a lot of that is in the editing. It's a real pity the way the timing worked they missed covering the big scandal with his ban as knowing what we all now know that story feels it's missing a big chunk? Also I'm not sure it's really filling that 'drive to survive' niche it was pitched as, it just feels, I don't know, too insular maybe? With it being focused so much on KIngsclere? Maybe it would have been better if like drive to survive each episode was more themed on a different stable, then they could have covered the contrast between the huge military operations of a Coolmore or a Godolphin and the smaller operations, and picked up some of the underdog type stories that every season throws up, e.g. last year there was Pyledriver winning the group 1 with a great story behind it. I really enjoyed that aspect of Drive to Survive and it certainly got me interested in F1 in a way I wasn't previously, and not sure this will do that for a non racing fan, but I guess that would have required an awful lot more filming and resources so maybe wasn't practical.

But like you I am interested to see what people make of it?

I doubt they’d get Godolphin/Coolmore to give the behind the scenes access they’d need without allowing them full control.

John Maxse is one of the drivers behind this series and, as he does some freelance work for Qatar Racing, it’s inevitably a puff piece for them. I doubt they’ll be touching on the topic of Sheikh Fahad dumping his American-born wife and children last year!

I do like the Balding’s though, I was interviewed by Andrew’s mum Emma for a job on their stud once though I turned it down to come to Newmarket!

True, and I can imagine the whole Sheikh Mohammed situation is not one they'd want to go into either! I'd still like to see more of a variety of different stables featured if they do a second series though...

Hadn't seen about it, as hadn't been into my Amazon Prime Video much lately, but sounds like my cup of tea - thanks for the heads-up!

@MothsAndWaspsAreUsefulPollinators it only came out on Friday, and for some reason a lot of people couldn’t access it straight away, so you’re not behind!

Be interested to hear what you think though.