Yeeehaaa! Matt’s miffed

ITV racing irritant Matt Chapman has made no secret of his upset at not being short-listed for the Horserace Writers broadcaster of the year award.

So he would have been extra miffed to find that his ITV rival Luke Harvey won and that chairman Marcus Townend toasted absent friends with the exclamation ‘Yeeehaaa’ — Chapman’s Twitter handle.

Being short-listed for the broadcaster honour wasn’t enough to get Racing UK’s Lydia Hislop back to a function she has snubbed since former chairman Geoff Lester made disparaging remarks about her a decade ago.

Meanwhile, it didn’t go unnoticed that Mike Dillon, Ladbrokes’ PR grandee who has hosted his company’s table at the Horserace Writers bash since time immemorial, was sitting instead among the ITV racing party. Dillon played the biggest outside role in assembling ITV’s team.