ASK any racing enthusiast whether they have an opinion on the Hennessy Gold Cup and you’ll almost certainly get an answer – even though the big race at Newbury changed sponsor soon after the 2016 contest. Ask who’ll win the Ladbrokes Trophy and you’ll probably receive a puzzled look. It takes time for a successful brand to change its name.

I’ve only just discovered Dime Bars are now called Daim , but then I’m a bit slow on the uptake with these things. To be fair, I had spotted the Daim name when shopping in IKEA, but I’d just assumed that I’d successfully sourced some deliciously cheap foreign imports. Unlike Snickers, which I’ve obstinately referred to as Marathon bars, ever since their name changed 18 years ago. I know, it’s nuts!

So even though the team at Racing UK will be unveiling a new name for the television channel this weekend, don’t worry if you can’t immediately forget the old one – we’ll all know what you mean. The new name is required because, from January 1, the channel will be broadcasting racing from Ireland as well as the best racing from the UK.

Nearly 90 per cent of all Group and Graded races in Britain and Ireland will be shown live, in high definition, next year, which means race-fans will be able to follow the progression of Irish horses as they head towards the major festivals at Cheltenham and Aintree. But more importantly, viewers will also be able to see all of the races from Cartmel too.

I’m not going to spoil the big media launch by revealing the new name of the channel here, but that’s not because I can’t remember it – unlike the new name for Opal Fruits, which I had to look up. Apparently, they’ve been known as Starburst since 1998.

There’s no doubt that the new channel name will be every bit as classy as the horses which feature in the coverage. It will soon become synonymous with top-quality racing and we’ll eventually wonder why we ever confined our horizons to the domestic fixture list alone. Just as we’ve forgotten that The Beach Boys were once The Pendletones, Nike was once Blue Ribbon Sports and the highly successful O2 Arena was ‘that cruddy Millennium Dome’.

Most people are aware that Datsun vehicles became Nissan. Although you may not know that the original brand name was spelled Datson, which had to be changed because it was too similar to a Japanese phrase meaning ‘to lose money’. Speaking of which, our selection for this week is Allysson Monterg, trained by Richard Hobson, in the Ladbrokes Trophy at Newbury – which will be covered live by Racing UK.

Until the New Year, when we’ll be calling it something different.