Racing: Fresh focus for punters: Greg Wood reports on a video venture to keep backers in the picture

FRESH ideas in racing tend to be greeted like an attack of ringworm in the Derby favourite, so the producers of Going Behind, a monthly video magazine now approaching its fourth edition, must be applauded for their bravery at least.

Praiseworthy too is their decision to target punters, rather than racing professionals. Where Racing World, a longer-established video, is highbrow to the point of snobbery, Going Behind is unashamedly aimed at people who bet, and do so regularly.

Features include a trawl through SIS footage from the minor meetings to highlight runners which were perhaps not giving their all, while a major forthcoming race is also analysed (the inaugural video tipped Monsieur Le Cure, the Sun Alliance Chase winner, at 16-1). Paul Haigh, the Racing Post's award-winning columnist, is a frequent contributor, while Nick Mordin offers more general advice on better betting.

Mordin is a natural, wrapping up advice in a bouncy, witty delivery. Unfortunately, his talent tends to show up the austerity elsewhere, though his fellow presenters can perhaps be forgiven a lack of fizz since Going Behind appears to have been recorded in the punishment block of a Grade A prison. No-one expects Hollywood production values, of course, but a video should surely offer a degree of visual appeal.

A far less tractable problem is timing. The most recent edition of Going Behind gave much consideration to the Grand National, and assumed of necessity that the going would not be soft. Forty-eight hours of rain before the race was not the producers' fault, but at pounds 12.99 a throw, it might feel like yours.

If it was a two-year-old, Going Behind would be described as green and unfurnished, but showing definite signs of talent. One to follow.

Going Behind is available from Worldwide Subscriptions, Unit 4, Gibbs Reed Farm, Ticehurst, East Sussex TN5 7HE, price pounds 12.99 + pounds 1.60 p & p. Credit card orders on 0580 200 657.