Featured Post Image - Sky Sports Racing/At The Races Pundits, Commentators & Presenters

Sky Sports Racing/At The Races Pundits, Commentators & Presenters

If you think of Sky Sports, there is a very good chance that horse racing won’t be all that close to the top of your list of sports that you consider the broadcaster as being known for. In reality, however, it is one that it has covered in some detail for a number of years, being a regular sport that it is able to show. It hasn’t always been an exclusive part of the Sky Sports portfolio, coming into the broadcaster’s remit in the April of 2018 after having previously been a partnership between BSkyB, Channel 4 and Arena Leisure. A year later and it became part of the Sky Sports family of channels.

Sean Boyce

Whether you like it or not, and some people definitely don’t like it, there is a strong link between the world of horse racing and that of gambling. Perhaps that is seen nowhere better than in the fact that Sean ‘Boycie’ Boyce is one of the main studio presenters for Sky Sports Racing, having spent the early part of his career working as a bookmaker. In fact, it is fair to say that he has led something of an eclectic working life, having also been a PR Manager, a journalist and even an occasional actor prior to working as a tipster for the likes of At the Races.

It was the latter role that saw him move onto our televisions on a more regular basis, appearing on everything from Sky Sports News to Big Brother to give people a sense of what the odds are on any given event. Consequently, many of you may know his face from somewhere other than Sky Sports’ horse racing coverage. Yet it is also the case that he has been front and centre on At the Races for some time now, regularly working as a host when the broadcaster brings us coverage from courses such as Ascot, Bangor-on-Dee, and Sedgefield.

Matt Chapman

Even if you don’t necessarily recognise Matt Chapman’s face, there’s a very good chance that you will know his voice. Often used by ITV as well as Sky Sports Racing, ‘Chappers’, as many refer to him, will usually be seen on the course speaking to the likes of bookmakers and punters, getting a sense for how things are on the course. His front-footed nature certainly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, getting him in trouble in 2017 for reportedly ‘taking the wrong tone’ when presenting at Epsom. Yet he’s rambunctious enough to mean that Sky Sports Racing use him on a regular basis.

He has always been into horse racing, working on the racing desk of the Independent newspaper during his final year at university studying History and Music. After graduating, Chapman joined the International Racing Bureau in Newmarket, then became a writer for the Racing Post for eight years. As satellite television became a major part of the landscape in 2000, Chapman moved into the presenting sphere through At the Races and has worked for Sky Sports Racing ever since, alongside his role working for ITV Racing on terrestrial television.

Jason Weaver

Born in Nottingham on the ninth of February 1972, Jason Charles Weaver was actually brought up in South Wales. He was born into a sporting family, on account of the fact that his dad, Eric Weaver, was a professional footballer who had played for the likes of Swindon Town and Notts County. When he was 17-years-old, Weaver became an apprentice for Luca Cumani at Newmarket, riding his first winner on the 30th of May 1990. Three years later and he was named Champion Apprentice, having ridden 60 winners during the season, riding 200 winners a year later.

He retired as a jockey in 2002 when he was 30-years-old, saying that he was having trouble keeping his weight down for the races. In spite of his retirement, he still wanted to stay in the sport and believed that the work that he had done would allow him to keep working in the likes of management and training. It didn’t take long for Sky Sports Racing to come calling, asking him to work as a presenter for the horse racing channel. Ever since then he has worked in the studio as well as as an on-course presenter, also making appearances for ITV Racing from time to time.

Derek Thompson

Born to Stanley Moorhouse Thompson and Lillian Thompson in Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, Derek Thompson was part of a household that included an older brother called Howard. Stanley Thompson had been a small-time horse trainer, which presented Derek with the opportunity to have his first rides as a jockey. A student at Guisborough Grammar School, he commentated on a point-to-point meeting when he was just 15-years-old, working as an assistant trainer in an unpaid capacity for Denys Smith when he left his school in 1968, moving to work with Pierre Sanoner six months later.

When he was 18-years-old, he also began working in broadcasting for BBC Radio Sport, covering numerous Grand Nationals alongside names such as Peter Bromley and Michael O’Hehir. He moved to ITV in 1981, appearing on World of Sport for their midweek racing coverage. He joined Channel 4 Racing when it was formed in the mid-1980s, eventually stepping down from his role there at the start of 2013. Although he briefly worked for BBC Radio again, covering the 2013 Cheltenham Festival, it was Sky Sports Racing that snapped him up to work for them.

Hayley Turner

Hayley Turner
Hayley Turner via flickr

Such is the nature of horse racing as a sport that the vast majority of people who work for the various broadcasters have spent at least some of their time working as a jockey or trainer. That is the case with Hayley Turner, who was born on the third of January 1983 just two miles from Nottingham Racecourse. One of six daughters, her mother was a riding instructor, which allowed her to learn how to ride a horse from an early age. After gaining more experience, she was apprenticed to Michael Bell at Newmarket and enjoyed her first ride for him on Markellis at Southwell.

That was in the March of 2000, with Turner not actually finishing the race when the horse broke its leg. She did go on to enjoy significantly more success, however, becoming the first female jockey to ride 100 winners in 2008. She was badly injured on the Newmarket gallops in 2009, but did return to racing and only retired from the sport in 2015. She decided to step down as a jockey in order to take up a role working on At the Races, although she did race again over the following years before retiring again in the April of 2025, also working for ITV Racing in the years since.

Jim (J A) McGrath

Jim Aloysius McGrath was born on the 13th of June 1952 in the town of Charlton, Victoria, in Australia. Initially, he commentated on races in the country of his birth, but when he found the opportunities to do so few and far between, he made the decision to move to Hong Kong. That was in 1973, working regularly enough there to remain in the country for more than a decade before moving to Europe in 1984 and commentating at Dublin’s Phoenix Park. That year he was also asked to cover the Ebor meeting at York Racecourse, getting positive reviews from the national press.

He joined the BBC Sport team in time for their coverage of the 1993 season, succeeding Peter O’Sullevan as the senior race commentator four years later. That allowed him to commentate on all of the BBC’s major meetings, which included the likes of Glorious Goodwood, The Oaks and Royal Ascot. Between 1998 and 2012, he had the honour of calling home every winner of the Grand National at Aintree. In 2004, McGrath began working for At the Races, which he has done ever since. His work with At the Races has mostly been as a reporter rather than a commentator.

Anthony Ennis

Known to many as ‘Enzo’, Anthony Ennis was part of the At the Races coverage for a number of years, working at the London base under SIS before moving to Sky Sports Racing when the changeover happened at the start of 2019. In the years that followed, he got to learn about how much horse racing coverage has improved over the years, including the introduction of the likes of ‘super slo-mo’. His love of racing began at a young age when he followed in the footsteps of his father and his brothers, all of whom loved racing and would watch the coverage.

He also has a cousin who trains in Ireland, giving him something of a firsthand experience of racing. He would go to Kempton, Ascot, Windsor and other racecourses in that area. As well as horse racing, Ennis also enjoyed watching greyhound racing and covered that sport as well. His route into broadcasting came about after realising he didn’t like the computer course he was studying, leaving it and working for the Post Office and then NatWest, prior to working in a record store. His love of racing led him to working at a bookmaker’s, eventually taking his experience into the world of racing.

John Hunt

One of the things about the world of racing is that it is a close-knit one. Those who work in it know each other, offering support and love when it is needed. That has arguably never been the case more than for John Hunt, who took time out from his work as a racing commentator after his wife and two daughters were murdered in a knife and crossbow attack in their home. Kyle Clifford was arrested on suspicion of murder, later being jailed for life for killing his ex-girlfriend, her sister and mother before stabbing himself in the chest. Unsurprisingly, the racing world came together to support him.

He has spent many years working as the commentator on horse racing for BBC Radio 5 Live, earning the love and respect of everyone in the industry thanks to his tireless work. That also saw him as a commentator for Sky Sports Racing, working on At the Races on a regular basis. Having earned a reputation as one of the finest broadcasters working in the sport, it is perhaps no surprise that the industry reacted with such a showing of love and support for him, with all of his colleagues and those involved in the world of racing holding him in the highest esteem.

Hayley Moore

Something noticeable about the world of horse racing is the number of families who work in the industry. So it is for Hayley Moore, who grew up in Brighton because her grandfather, Charlie Moore, was a trainer there. Her father followed in his footsteps, becoming one of the country’s best dual-purpose trainers, whilst all of her brothers became jockeys. Ryan Moore is a talented flat rider, whilst Jamie Moore has won races at Cheltenham Festival and Josh Moore was a racer before being forced to retire through injury. It is little surprise, therefore, that Hayley Moore also entered the industry.

She wanted to be a jockey like her mother, who had ridden as an amateur, eventually having an amateur career of her own and winning the Longines Handicap Stakes for lady amateurs at Ascot. She had done a week’s work experience in television production with Satellite Information Services when she was 14-years-old, which was the racing channel at the time. She got some presenting off the back of that, eventually doing on-course presenting for At the Races, which was the start of her journey into working with Sky Sports Racing on a more regular basis.

Darrell Williams

Sky Sports Racing helps you to realise is that there is a lot of crossover between horse racing coverage and greyhound racing. Darrell Williams is a good example of that, originally working for Sky in 1999 as a reporter for the greyhound racing programming that the broadcaster offered, while also gaining some experience in commentator and presenting shows. Having attended Grove School in Hastings in the 1980s, he began his freelance work in 1997 at UK Racecourses, going on to work with numerous different organisations in the years after.

Part of his work includes things for bookmakers, so it won’t come as much of a surprise that it is often used by networks to give betting tips to punters. He has also worked as a voiceover artist, putting the skills that he’s learned commentating on horse races to good use for companies such as GBI Racing and SIS. In the January of 2019, Williams began working as a presenter for Sky Sports Racing, taking on the role of presenting both Stateside Live and Raceday Live. He also works for the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia as a presenter for their English language coverage.

A Long-Running History

At The Races LogoAttheraces was launched on the first of May 2002, being a partnership between BSkyB, Arena Leisure and Channel Four Television Corporation. It continued working for the three years that followed, but eventually closed on the 29th of March 2004 when financial problems struck. In the end, a decision was taken to restructure things, relaunching the channel on the 11th of June 2004 but without Channel Four Television Corporation as part of the lineup. At the time, it was known as At the Races a channel, but on the 30th of April 2018 it underwent a rebranding exercise.

At that point, the channel announced that it would become Sky Sports Racing as part of the Sky Sports portfolio of channels. The aim was to give the channel a more wide-ranging reach, including allowing people with Sky Sports packages to watch it on Sky Go, rather than being a standalone product that people had to pay for on top of their Sky Sports subscription. Within a month, Chester Race Company signed a 10-year deal to allow Sky Sports Racing to bring live race broadcasting from Bangor-on-Dee and Chester Racecourses from the March of 2019.

It was also announced in the July of 2018 that Sky Sports Racing would also hold the rights to races from Ascot starting at the same time as the coverage from Chester and Bangor. The rebranding officially took place on the first of January 2019, being Sky Sports Racing ever since. To add to the confusion, At the Races remains the parent company of the channel, with the website and app becoming digital partners of the channel. Broadcasting begins at 9am every day, showing racing news as well as action from the previous day, with the main shows being the likes of Racing Review and Raceday Live.