Channel Hopper: Channel 4 Racing From Chester, Tuesday to Thursday

Tighter finances can sometimes concentrate the mind and help create a better product. If you want a good example, try watching Channel 4 Racing one day.

Once the major player in the televising of the sport in the UK, Channel 4 has been handed a much-reduced role over the past few years because of the rise of satellite channels. Terrestrial broadcasts of major meetings are scarce these days, and partly as a result of that the producers of 4's equine output have been handed much-reduced budgets.

The big change was made only in March, when reported cuts of 800,000 a year were imposed. The role of John McCririck, once the face of the sport in Britain and one of the best-known presenters on 4, has diminished to vanishing point. At the same time, former champion amateur Emma Spencer has been handed a far more prominent position.

Much of the initial publicity given to Spencer's position as chief interviewer centred on the awkward situation which could arise if she had to stick a microphone under the nose of her estranged husband, jockey Jamie Spencer. She explained that would be no problem, but did draw the line at exchanging pleasantries live on air with another jockey, Hayley Turner, whose liaison with Jamie was a factor in the Spencers' split.

Now that particular furore has settled down, it is to be hoped that attention begins to turn to the job that Spencer and her colleagues are doing, because it is first-rate. In fact, it's more than that. With the arguable exception of some cricket coverage, it is the most well-informed show in UK sport.

This is possibly where the budget cuts come in. There was a time when almost every sports programme in the country seemed to be seduced by gimmickry; when the presenters communicated less and less information and expertise about their sport, in some cases, you suspected, because they knew less than their predecessors.

You could not level the charge of ignorance at McCririck, but he was guilty of various crimes against good taste, and often seemed to think we had turned on just to watch him. Spencer never makes that mistake, for all that she is approximately 750 times more photogenic.

What comes through from Spencer, and from colleagues such as Tanya Stevenson and above all John Francome, is a genuine enthusiasm for the sport, as well as a deep knowledge of it. Granted, the baleful spirit of McCririck lingers on, and was channelled at this week's Chester meeting by one of the male presenters, who told us that a particular horse "stays longer than the mother-in-law".

But these moments are rare, and heavily outweighed in particular by Stevenson's razor-sharp assessment of the betting market and Francome's languid evaluation of the field. And when the setting for such virtues is as picturesque as the Roodee, Chester's compact racecourse on the banks of the River Dee, Channel 4's whole package cannot fail to impress.

The most appealing virtue of the programme, certainly for those who are not hardcore racing enthusiasts, is its variety. The analysis of the races is paramount, but the magazine-style features on training methods, plus interviews with luminaries such as footballer Michael Owen, add greatly to the whole package.

Spencer summed up the approach rather well recently. "I'm interested in fashion and they're trying to give it a younger, fresher image," she said. "It is an industry I've been brought up in – my parents (Lynda and Jack Ramsden] used to train for a long time, so I've lived and breathed it from a young age.

"I've had first-hand experience, too. I was champion amateur twice, so I feel qualified to have an opinion. But we're not just there to talk about the horses all day long. We're trying to add a bit more than that to it."

Adding more value while cutting down on the expense is a difficult balancing act. But the Channel 4 team are pulling it off with poise and professionalism.