John McCririck believes Nick Luck is an "automatic choice" to anchor the terrestrial television coverage for the Crabbie's Grand National on April 11.

Channel 4 Racing is on the lookout for a new lead following the news Clare Balding will scale down her racing commitments in 2015 to just the nine days of the Cheltenham Festival and Royal Ascot combined.

Balding will instead present the Boat Race for the BBC on the day the National is run.

There has been speculation that Channel 4 executives are considering a number of non-racing broadcasters to front the Grand National coverage, with Gok Wan, Jeremy Kyle and Ant and Dec amongst those to have been linked with the role.

But former Channel 4 pundit McCririck believes the racing public would be "aghast" if a celebrity was given the job.

He does, however, acknowledge Luck is not as well known to those outside racing as some of his potential rivals.

McCririck said: "In what other sport would you bring in a presenter who has no previous experience of it? Racing is such a specialist subject.

"I worked on Grandstand with David Coleman and Des Lynam and they were all-round sports journalists.

"There is talk of people like Jeremy Kyle and Ant and Dec taking over, but I think people who follow racing would be aghast if that happened.

"I'm a big fan of Jeremy Kyle as a broadcaster and I love his shows and he knows his racing, but what does it say about racing as a sport if we have to bring someone like that in to front the coverage?

"Nick Luck would appear the automatic choice to take over. There is no question of his talent, his experience and his credibility within racing.

"He has also done very well in America, but he is not a national figure and there is clearly a lot of head-scratching going on at Channel 4. People will never be pleased whatever you do."

Bookmakers Paddy Power make Luck the 5-4 favourite to be the National lead presenter, with Wan next on the list at 5-1. Long-standing sports broadcaster John Inverdale can be backed at 8-1, while Paddy McGuinness, host of ITV's Saturday night show Take Me Out, is a 10-1 chance, as is Kyle.

Liverpudlians feature in the betting, with comedian John Bishop rated as a 12-1 shot and Coleen Rooney available at odds of 250-1.

Paddy Power said: "Nick Luck brings a suave sophistication to racing that mere mortals can only dream about, but punters thinking backing him is easy money might do well to consider the producers could select someone better known to viewers not that familiar with the sport."