FOR a number of years now at the Cheltenham Festival, my desk allocation has been opposite that of Lydia Hislop. I cannot say that we have done much more than had a nodding acquaintance, saying ‘good morning’ or exchanging the occasional snippet of information.

The lack of communication has nothing to do with either side being haughty or unfriendly. Indeed, I have been a staunch admirer of the broadcaster and, as a people-watcher, I had long ago concluded that the lady is the ultimate professional. In the hours leading up to the off of racing, it is a busy period for Lydia and not so much for me. More time to people-watch.

What I observed is that Lydia Hislop does not settle for 100%. No, she is always looking for more. She seeks perfection, and that only comes about with lots of preparation. What drives her in that quest, and who is Lydia Hislop?

“I was born in Wolverhampton. My parents were teachers and didn’t have much interest in racing. My dad’s father was a punter, not a particularly good one, and I adored him. From being left outside F.A. Brookes’s betting shop in my pram to trotting alongside him to Dunstall Park in the days when that racecourse was turf and the likes of Indian Skimmer made her three-year-old seasonal debut there, racing was part of the package when spending time with my grandpa.

“Soon it became a consuming passion of my own. I spent my pocket money on model horses from Woolworths and, playing underneath the dining table, recreating past Grand Nationals with frame-by-frame accuracy supported by my VHS recordings. I imagined the training centre of Newmarket into life, having never seen it, and produced a weekly newspaper that told the fictional exploits of the horses I ‘trained’ there.

“Very Promising, the real horse, was my obsession at the time and responsible for tipping my love for racing over into addiction. My dad took me to visit him at the open days at Condicote, when David Nicholson introduced the concept there. My uber-strict parents even allowed me to bunk off school once a year to attend the Wednesday of the then three-day Cheltenham Festival and watch him race.

“When I went to university the freedom to go racing whenever I felt like it was intoxicating. It didn’t occur to me to join the University Turf Club – mine was a private pursuit – but I did persuade my fellow students to watch Shaamit win the Derby, and recall cheering home Viking Flagship in various races when I really should have been studying.

“All of this unconsciously laid down my career path. I edited the student newspaper and, while many peers were on the fast-track to global management consultancy, I applied for work experience at the Sporting Life and Racing Post. The Life’s editor Tom Clarke invited me to interview, offered me a month’s tenure and promised I could stay for three months if things worked out. I ended up staying for four.

“I should confess that, concurrently, I was rejected for the BHB’s graduate scheme. I actually rang them from the college pay-phone seeking an explanation of that decision. The confidence of youth!”

Famous name

In spite of having a famous racing name, and no, she is not related to John, her start in racing was at ground level. “I was the first person in my family to go to university; I studied English language and literature at University College, Oxford. So my parents took with remarkable equanimity the revelation that I was joining an obscure news agency on £10,000 a year as my first job back in 1996.

“That salary was almost entirely consumed by the annual train fare into Finsbury Park from Bedford. I worked at Racenews for 10 months and four days, gaining an understanding of how the industry behind the sport worked.

“When Christopher Poole was retiring as racing correspondent for London’s Evening Standard, on spec I wrote to the editor Max Hastings to pitch for some features. Following an interview, he gave me a six-month contract to write two per week. I am forever grateful to him and the sports editor Michael Herd for the leg-up they gave me in journalism.

“However, it almost came to a premature end when, just weeks later, the new sports editor Simon Greenberg sought to sack me, assuming I was ‘some pony-clubbing friend of Max’s’ who couldn’t write news stories. At that time I was also writing news for the Racing Post, so instead I was given a three-month trial as the racing correspondent and I held the role for five years.”

Career move

With an admirable degree of prescience, Lydia then made a life-changing career move. “One of the reasons I branched into television in 2002 was because it was obvious that print media had some tough challenges ahead. Racing was one of the initial casualties in the sweeping contractions forced by the advent of the internet. Its status in the wider media also came more accurately to reflect its diminished relevance to a modern, increasingly urbanised society. This latter dynamic was already well-developed before I set foot in the industry in 1996.

“At the same time, the growth of social media, and the confused reaction this provoked in its more traditional cousin, has given minority voices a much greater platform. This has brought positive benefits, but also perhaps distorted the importance of certain issues in favour of those who shout loudest or coordinate their response, including the supply of disinformation, most effectively.

“This is the environment in which racing must at least survive and, preferably, thrive. I think the sport needs to do three things: care for its existing fans better, communicate its complexities more confidently, and assert its status as a sport as well as a betting medium.

“Some free-to-air coverage remains important to its profile and associated finances, but we should be aware of the trend for niche pursuits – watching an entire box-set rather than what’s on television, and the unfettered linking of like-minded people via social media. Racing should be in a strong position to harness, and be regenerated by, this latter trend because it already has a hard core of fans who evangelise about the sport’s worth. That’s how almost everyone not from a racing background came to the sport, by way of an ardent fan they knew.”

Core supporters

Lydia is trenchant in her belief that the core racing supporter should not be overlooked. She explains: “While it’s understandable that racing seeks new fans, it should never do so at the expense of existing ones. They’re literally worth far more than your casual viewer or racegoer per head. We should give those fans what they want: better data, a more positive racecourse experience, not falling foul of bookmaker’s restriction algorithms. Their appreciative response will catch on.

“That also means not apologising for racing’s complexities or, worse, trying to remove them, stripping elements of the sport’s structure that fans value. Racing should celebrate that it rewards those who apply themselves to understand it. Yes, racing is a sport that people love to bet on. However, it is also about the work and devotion put into getting the best out of each individual equine athlete and, most intoxicatingly at the top end, pitching the best horses against each other to discover champions – the principle of elite sport.

“There is a growing puritanism about betting in society. In response, racing should require bookmaker partners to demonstrate a high standard of customer and staff care as a minimum standard. It should be curious about how they behave towards problem gamblers before going into business with them. You might say ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ when it comes to sponsorship, but insisting on better standards is a mutually beneficial dynamic in what should be a symbiotic relationship. It can elevate both the sport and the bookmaking operators out of a reputational mire that threatens to irreparably tarnish both.”

High standards

Having been accorded a major honour last year by her peers, does Lydia ever feel that she is a target for the largely faceless keyboard warriors on social media? “I received the HWPA Broadcaster of the Year title last year. If I’m honest, such awards in themselves don’t sustain me. The truth is I’ve got restlessly high standards and it’s those that I strive always to meet. I greatly value the regard of those of my colleagues whom I respect. Some of them I count as good friends.

“Social media is a whole other ballgame. In that arena it is necessary to go the ‘full Kipling’ and treat praise and its opposite as the same. You can’t choose only to take one of them to heart. If I’ve stuffed up, I never need someone else to point it out. My own assessment will bother me far more and for far longer.

“The internet can be a horrible place where people say things they would never voice in person. Everyone has insecurities and some vicious random with an overactive keyboard or pen can sometimes hit on yours. When that happens it can be upsetting for a short period of time. In the end, you have to feel sorry for them: what kind of life is that?”

Broadcasting or writing, which is her preference? “Until recently, my unhesitating answer would have been writing. The reason is that it was relatively late that I began to feel relaxed and confident in my style as a broadcaster. In my early days there seemed to be a tacit presenter ‘mould’ that I didn’t quite fit, and those interacting with me on those terms made me lose confidence, the one thing you can’t do on television. I had some unpleasant experiences while at work that made me feel unsupported.

“I had to choose whether to quit or press on doing the job as I thought I should. It was when I stopped caring what others thought that I started to feel comfortable. Now I like both pursuits equally, and am very grateful to have been able to maintain each of them.

“My favourite thing about broadcasting is being able to ask a question, live, that immediately gets to the root of an issue or moment. What I love about writing is the freedom to pluck an unexpected word or allusion that exactly expresses what I want to say. I think that for me, due to the specific roles I fill, my writing can be edgier.”

Racing TV

Today, Lydia’s professional career centres on her role with Racing TV. What aspects of it does she enjoy the most? “I see my role on Racing TV as working on behalf of the curious fan. It’s my job to tell them as much as I can about what’s going on at a racecourse, what’s just happened and might happen in the future, to ask the questions they want aired and to discuss relevant issues in an accessible but informative way.

“I do think my role is to challenge when appropriate, because that’s part of my responsibility to the viewer. You don’t get to the bottom of a subject or find out whether what is being said has any substance without asking questions. There may be very good answers to those questions, or a point of view that you hadn’t considered, but how will we know if we don’t ask?

“I prefer working at the racecourse because that’s where the live sport is happening. However, I did enjoy making Road To Cheltenham with Ruby Walsh. I find him very easy to work with because we are both intent on the same thing; conveying pertinent information, relevant insights and challenging opinions in a no-waffle show.

“We wanted none of the traditional ‘here’s a horse jumping the last and running to the line’ but instead to use concise, informative clips to illustrate a point. Each programme flew by as a result, and that’s always a good sign.

“The most challenging interviewees are those who are not inclined to engage with the audience. Obviously, context can make an interview situation difficult – if you’ve just lost or made a mistake or something worse has happened to you or your horse. My experience is that those who grasp that nettle do themselves and the sport a massive favour. People respond to honesty and vulnerability as a profoundly human element in the pursuit of victory.”

An emotional Noel Fehily interviewed by Lydia Hislop for Racing TV after winning on Eglantine Du Seuil at Cheltenham in 2019 and announcing his upcoming retirement \ Healy Racing

Pattern Committee

Away from the screen, Lydia holds a very important role in racing, though it is perhaps one that many will not be acquainted with. She is now chair of the BHA Flat Pattern Committee, having been a member for some 16 years. I asked her to explain what the group does.

“The committee makes recommendations to the BHA board on matters relating to maintaining and improving the programme of British pattern [group] and listed races. It aims to provide a balanced framework through which to develop and test the best horses over a range of distances and to stimulate the breeding of quality bloodstock.

“The Pattern Committee is not a representative body and I strongly believe its function and principles would be fatally compromised were it ever to become so. Its members occupy their seat due to their knowledge and understanding of the pattern, and their passion for sustaining the wellbeing of British racing at the highest levels. They are required to leave their personal or organisational interests at the door.

“Chairing the committee, it falls more explicitly to me to ensure that everyone gets to express their point of view, and to condense the key points in our discussions so that we can reach a fair conclusion. Our conversations are often challenging but always fascinating. It’s been especially rewarding to work with the committee, guided by Ruth Quinn, Paul Johnson and Mike Waring at the BHA, to produce Britain’s revised pattern programme forced upon us by Covid-19.

Difficult decisions

“The committee had to make some difficult and time-pressured decisions. Uncertainty meant we could not always know all the relevant facts as we usually would. I’m really proud of the work we’ve done, the fruits of which we’re starting to see this week.

“All committee members have an excellent grasp of the interlinking role the pattern plays with the function of blacktype for the breeding industry. Blacktype should act as a kite mark, and therefore it relies on a healthy and robust pattern in order to fulfil this quality-assurance role.

“The trend for valuable two-year-old sales races at one time presented a qualitative risk to the strength in depth of our best races, but these have tended to fall from fashion, partly because they could not ultimately compete with the enduring meaning of the pattern’s established touchstones.

“Worldwide races of dizzying value, or buy-your-berth events, pose a challenge for existing pattern races, particularly for countries which cannot match those prize funds. Yet Britain’s key Group 1 races, and those in Ireland and France, have retained their status because they remain the events in which most of the world’s best horses regularly compete. They crown authentic champions. This doesn’t happen by accident or luck.

“It’s by maintaining and policing rigorous standards that the reputation of the European pattern and its constituent parts endure. It’s paramount that Europe continues to work closely and holds itself to the highest standards because that is the only way that its races, and the many businesses that rely upon them, will endure as world leaders.”

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