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Female Horse Racing Commentators, Pundits & Presenters

There are few sports that are as much of a level playing field as horse racing. In spite of the fact that female jockeys do just as well as their male counterparts when given the same quality of horses to ride, it is only in the era of the likes of Rachael Blackmore that they have started to win the biggest prizes. Whether they are former jockeys or trainers, females involved in horse racing often move into punditry as they are able to demonstrate the kind of skill and ability that their male counterparts are also called on for. There are also some women involved in presenting and commentary that have never worked in the horse racing industry itself, of course.

Clare Balding

Clare Balding
CharlesFred via flickr

If you want to find a female working in sports media who has done it all, then you’re going to struggle to discover a much better example than Clare Balding. Born on the 29th of January 1971 in Kingsclere, Hampshire, Balding was born into the equivalent of horse racing royalty. Her father, Ian Balding, was a racehorse trainer, whilst her maternal grandfather was Peter Hastings-Bass, who was also a trainer. Unsurprisingly, Balding herself ended up going into horse racing, becoming a leading amateur rider on the flat between 1988 and 1993, winning the Champion Lady Rider title in 1990.

In 1994, Balding, who had read English at Newnham College, Cambridge, became a trainee with BBC National Radio and before too long had begun presenting on the television. Although there is very little that she hasn’t done as a presenter, including covering several Olympics, her past as a jockey meant that she was made one of the main presenters on Channel 4 Racing and fronted coverage from the likes of the Cheltenham Festival and Royal Ascot. In 2003, Balding won the Sports Presenter of the Year award from the Royal British Television Society and the Racing Broadcaster of the Year.

Gina Bryce

It isn’t exactly outrageous to suggest that the world of horse racing commentary is predominantly male-orientated. If you want to find proof of that, then it is worth noting that Gina Bryce made history when she became the first woman of modern times to commentate live on the Grand National from the Aintree Racecourse, and that that happened in 2025. Not that she hadn’t been around for significantly longer than that, however. In fact, Bryce’s career dates back to 2008, working for Channel 4 Racing for four years before making the switch to Sky Sports with occasional work for BBC Radio 5 Live.

The only woman to have commentated on the Grand National before Bryce was given the honour was Mirabel Topham, taking the microphone for the 1952 renewal, but the fact that her family owned the racecourse and she took on the commentary duties after a disagreement with the BBC probably tells its own story. Bryce has also worked as the leading female presenter on Sky Sports Racing, having a specialisation in the bloodstock side of racing in addition to her much broader knowledge. A well-known face around the racecourse, she is one of the best in the business.

Alex Hammond

There is a good chance that you will recognise the face of Alex Hammond, bearing in mind the fact that she is one of the most experienced female presenters working in the horse racing industry. Her presenting career began when she was 24-years-old and in 1998 she was one of the presenters for The Racing Channel. If you ever watched Good Morning Sports Fans on Sky Sports then you will know Hammond, who used to let the world know about any racehorse news that there was to present on. Sky Sports soon made her the on-track correspondent.

Bringing you information from on the course as she interviewed the likes of jockeys and trainers, Hammond was made the main presenter for Sky Sports Racing when the channel launched after a rebrand from At the Races on the first of January 2019. She is also experienced as a jockey, having taken part in numerous flat races as an amateur jockey. It is her role at Sky Sports Racing for which she’s best known, however, with Hammond occasionally offering her insights and tips for punters to look out for before they head to the bookmakers to place their bets.

Megan Nicholls

If you want to work in horse racing, it certainly doesn’t hurt to be the daughter of one of the best English trainers ever to send horses out onto the track. Paul Nicholls has won the Gold Cup more than once, as well as virtually every other major race there is to win in jump racing, which allowed Megan Nicholls to learn plenty about the sport whilst growing up on Manor Farm Stables. Surrounded by horses such as Big Bucks, Kauto Star and Denman, she began her own riding career in point-to-point races before switching code and becoming a well-respected flat racing jockey.

Having ridden winners at the Glorious Goodwood Festival and during the week of the Grand National at Aintree, Nicholls retired as a rider in 2022 having ridden 110 winners. She then started working in the media, often being used by ITV Racing as a pundit for their horse racing coverage whilst also appearing on Racing TV every now and then. An ambassador for York Racecourse, she has also worked as the agent of Kevin Stott, himself a Group winning jockey on the flat. Given her experience and her heritage, it isn’t a surprise that she’s used regularly for her knowledge of the sport.

Hayley Moore

Hayley Moore’s grandfather, Charlie, was a horse racing trainer, which is a solid part of the reason why she got into the industry. She made her debut as a jockey at Ascot in 2012, winning a race that she was in with a horse called Redvers. She went on to have 33 starts in the saddle, winning three of those races in order to demonstrate to her brothers that they weren’t the only ones who knew who to race. Of course, the fact that one of her brothers is Ryan Moore, who races on the flat, and the other, Jamie, won races at the Cheltenham Festival means that she was always fighting a losing battle.

Not that she’s been at all intimidated by the idea of working in a man’s world. She has been a presenter for Sky Sports Racing for many years, becoming something of an icon at the channel. Her work in media actually began when she was 14-years-old, doing some work experience at Satellite Information Services, which eventually led to her being an on-course presenter for Sky. She hit the headlines in 2018 when tackled a loose horse that was running straight towards her, stopping Give Em A Clump in its tracks when the horse had unseated its rider at Chepstow Racecourse.

Leonna Mayor

It probably says something about the battle that women are still fighting in the media when you consider the fact that Leonna Mayor was labelled the ‘world’s sexiest jockey’ by certain tabloids. She made her debut in the saddle in 2010, becoming more and more confident with each race that she rode in. By the time she decided to hang up her spurs, Mayor had ridden in 26 races and won four of them, heading towards a successful career as a jockey. In the end, however, she was forced to retire after she suffered a serious ankle injury that restricted how much riding she could do.

It didn’t take long before various broadcasters saw her as a possible addition to their books, combining her experience with her winning personality to ensure that both ITV Racing and Sky Sports wanted her to work for them. She also works for a well-known bookmaker as a commentator, whilst her and her partner Stuart Hogg, the rugby player, welcomed their first child together into the world in the February of 2025. Gone are the days of Mayor having to pose in a bikini for a lad’s magazine like Zoo in order to make money after her racing career ended.

Adele Mulrennan

When Adele Mulrennan worked as an apprentice jockey, she managed to get some reasonably big wins under her belt. Arguably the most famous of them was her success at York Racecourse in the Scottish Sprint Cup, which she won the back of Masta Plasta back in 2008. She became interested in horse racing as a child, at least in part thanks to the fact that her father used to take her to various racecourses around the United Kingdom. She rode in more than 100 races, picking up 12 wins before falling pregnant and deciding that it was time to give up her work in the saddle.

Married to jockey Paul Mulrennan, she was never going to walk away from the sport entirely and decided to take some media training courses in the wake of her retirement. In 2017, Go Racing in Yorkshire offered her a role as a presenter, which soon led to ITV Racing deciding to add Mulrennan to their roster. She has continued in both roles in the years since then, allowing her the opportunity to cover some of the biggest races in the country. She can often be seen looking around the Parade Ring at various courses, offering her expert opinion on the horses being given a run out.

Charlotte Hawkins

Even if you don’t watch much horse racing, there is a very good chance that you will have seen the work of Charlotte Hawkins. Born on the 16th of May 1976 in Chichester, she attended the University of Manchester in order to study English Literature. She then did a postgraduate diploma in Broadcast Journalism at the London College of Printing. In 1999 she began her broadcasting career as a reporter and occasional newsreader for LBC Radio, being one of the first journalists to offer live coverage of the Paddington rail crash. That then saw her working for ITV prior to joining Sky News in 2007.

Hawkins is one of the most experienced presenters on the patch, anchoring a slot on Good Morning Britain as well as presenting a podcast on dog training. In 2017, ITV Racing brought Hawkins in as one of their reporters, with the West Sussex journalist working on the horse racing coverage ever since. It was also in 2017 that she took part in Strictly Come Dancing, being knocked out in week four. She has to balance her time working elsewhere in the media with her work for ITV Racing, which is why she is often only seen for the biggest meetings.

Lucy Verasamy

One of the things that ITV Racing has looked to do with its coverage of horse racing is to ensure that you get all sorts of different perspectives to help you understand why a day’s racing has been what it has been. That is where Lucy Verasamy comes in, with the meteorologist often used by the broadcaster to give you a sense of what the weather is going to do. You might say that that isn’t really all that important, but you ignore the Going on a racecourse at your own peril if you’re planning on placing a bet or two. Verasamy is the one to listen to before you head to your bookmaker.

Born in King’s Lynn in Norfolk in 1980, Verasamy graduated from Brunel University with a BSc (Hons) degree in Geography in 2001. She then trained as a meteorologist at the Press Association’s weather centre, going on to write national and international forecasts for TV and radio. Having gained some experience in front of the camera on the likes of Daybreak on ITV, she was added to the ITV Racing team in 2017 and has been giving people the heads up about what the weather will be like on the racecourses around the country ever since.

Victoria Pendleton

Victoria Pendleton
Roy via flickr

If you thought that Victoria Pendleton was involved in a different kind of racing, then you would be absolutely right. Born in the Bedfordshire town of Stotfold on the 24th of September 1980, Victoria Louise Pendleton was part of the Sky Track Cycling team that won countless medals at some of the world’s biggest cycling meetings. For her part, she won gold and silver medals in two different Summer Olympics, as well as numerous other major medals in the likes of the World Track Championships and the Commonwealth Games. In 2015, she decided to become a jockey.

That involved her training in order to take part in the Foxhunter Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in 2016, in which she finished fifth after having been given training and guidance from Paul Nicholls. She retired in the wake of that race, but it was enough for ITV Racing to offer her a slot as part of their coverage of racing. It was felt that Pendleton’s knowledge around exactly what it takes to become a jockey and stay at the height of the sport would be invaluable insight for viewers, with the former cyclist able to speak intelligently and with experience of the psychology behind success.

Anything Men Can Do, Women Can Do Better

One of the joys of horse racing is that there is very little in the industry that men can do that women can’t. The nature of the beast is such that it is the horse that is doing the heavy lifting, both literally and metaphorically, with the jockeys being there to guide and cajole them rather than take on the majority of the hard work. As a result, women are just as likely to win major races if presented with a horse at the same quality level as their male counterparts, which is why Rachael Blackmore has been able to break through the glass ceiling by winning the likes of the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National.

Similarly, when it comes to training, there is little that men can do when trying to train a horse that couldn’t be done by a woman, allowing the likes of Jessica Harrington, Jenny Pitman and Venetia Williams to train countless winners over the years. What that means is that there are plenty of paths open to women to work in the media around the world of horse racing, with the list above only just touching the surface in terms of those that have plenty to say and offer to punters watching horse racing coverage on television and looking to pick up some tips and hints.

Of course, such is the nature of chauvinism in the United Kingdom and further afield that the women who make it are just the tip of the iceberg, getting lucky because of their family ties or the fact that their ability to succeed has been unarguable. One can only hope that in the future, women don’t have to work twice as hard as their male counterparts in order to be able to enjoy success as a commentator, presenter or pundit when covering any sport, least of all horse racing. There are plenty of talented women just waiting to work in the television industry moving forward.