Female Horse Racing Reporters

There are many great female horse racing reporters working in the UK and Ireland. Each offers great expertise and knowledge for all racing fans. 

In this female horse racing reporters guide, we will name all the best female presenters currently working in horse racing, their backgrounds and why we love them here at British Racecourses.

Find out more about the best female horse racing presenters:

Francesca Cumani

Francesca Cumani is a horse racing presenter working for ITV Racing and 10 Sport.

She was voted by the British Racecourses community as the Best Female Horse Racing Reporter in 2024.

Francesca is regularly live on ITV television discussing ITV’s horse racing tips and ITV Pick 7 Predictions.

Francesca Cumani is the daughter of trainer Luca Cumani, her knowledge of the sport and enthusiasm is unparalleled.

Gina Bryce

Gina Bryce is the leading female presenter on Sky Sports Racing.

Gina is a television and radio presenter specialising in horse racing.

Gina has written on a freelance basis for the Racing Post, The Irish Field and Thoroughbred Owner Breeder magazine and while boasting a broad racing knowledge she specialises particularly on the bloodstock side of the industry.

She is part of the Channel 4 racing team and a regular face on Sky’s dedicated racing channel At The Races (ATR).

Here is Gina Bryce interviewing me at Qatar Racing Club after winning with Flaming Rib, trained by Hugo Palmer.

Known for her colourful amazing fashion Gina Bryce is a great female horse racing presenter, is hugely knowledgeable and with a great sense of humour.

Alex Hammond

Being one of the most experienced female presenters in the world of racehorses, Alex Hammond has given fans years of great in-depth analysis and interviews with some of the biggest people involved in the sport.

Starting her presenting career at 24, Alex was involved in presenting The Racing Channel in 1998. She later moved on to Sky Sports, where she would inform the public of racehorse news on “Good Morning Sports Fans”.

Due to her natural success with presenting, Sky Sports would also make her their on-track correspondent, grabbing great interviews with fantastic jockeys and brilliant trainers.

When Sky Sports Racing launched on the 1st of January 2019, Alex Hammond was chosen to be the main presenter because of her natural skill and her 15 years of working for Sky.

Between these times, she also would ride as an amateur, racing in 50 amateur flat races.

Currently, Alex Hammond is still the main presenter of Sky Sports Racing and even covers some races on At The Races.

As for her tips, Alex Hammond made the list of best horse racing tipsters.

Leonna Mayor

Being labelled the ‘world’s sexiest jockey’, Leonna Mayor has found her way into thousands of racehorse fan’s hearts.

Making her debut as a Jockey in 2010, many people expected great things from Leonna. The more she rode, the more confident she became and it started showing in some big races.

Competing in a total of 26 races, 4 of which she rode the winner, Leonna was on her way to becoming a big-time jockey. However, she would sadly retire in 2013 due to a serious ankle injury that restricted her riding.

Leonna Mayor went into a depression due to this unforeseen circumstance but something good did come of it. Many different TV channels saw Leonna Mayor as a vital target to join their racing teams with natural charm and great knowledge of the sport.

With channels like ITV and Sky Sports wanting her to present their racing shows, Leonna started becoming her old self again, finding the confidence to even come out on Instagram and tell the public about her skin condition.

She now stars on At The Races and appears on ITV Racing. In addition, she also does videos and radio commentary for William Hill.

Alice Plunkett

A historic female jockey turned presenter, the sport of horse racing will never forget the legacy that Alice Plunkett has left.

Starting her career in 1993, Alice competed in some of the biggest races in the UK. She is the only female jockey ever to compete in both the Badminton Horse Trials and over the Grand National course at Aintree. A true legend.

She also represented Great Britain in the European Three-Day Event Championships under 21 and performed really well. Shortly after this, she retired from professional riding in 2000, however, she still competes in charity races at the Cheltenham Festival.

In 2001, Channel 4 offered Plunket the job of presenting their racing show. Due to the fact that her love of horse racing hadn’t waned, she happily took on the roll and stayed with Channel 4 all the way to 2016.

When ITV took over in 2017, Alice was kept a part of the ITV Racing team and ever since then, she still presents the show with her fellow team.

Alice Plunkett is a host on ATR and moved across to Racing UK at its inception.

Emma Spencer

Emma Spencer is a former presenter of Channel 4’s horse racing coverage.

Emma joined the main Channel 4 Racing team in 2001 and has presented horseracing from all the major festivals including:

• The Derby
• Royal Ascot
• Glorious Goodwood
• Dubai World
• The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe
• The Melbourne Cup

Emma was twice champion amateur flat jockey and still rides on occasion in charity races.

Daughter of former trainer Lynda Ramsden, Emma has been around the horseracing scene all her life and was formerly married to champion flat jockey Jamie Spencer.

Megan Nicholls

From horse racing heritage, Megan Nicholls was a top jockey.

Megan Nicholls started her career at a young age. With her dad being the Champion National Hunt trainer Paul Nicholls, Megan became an apprentice to her father and was given the fantastic training that Paul Nicholls is known for.

Winning some of the biggest events in horse racing, including her brilliant race at Ascot with Knappers Hill for the Grade 2 bumper in 2021, Megan went on to join the century club with a total of 110 career wins.

In 2022, Megan announced her retirement from the sport to focus more on her personal life, leaving a huge gap for future jockeys to fill. Her talent was so good that York Racecourse even made her an ambassador.

In 2023, ITV Racing offered Megan the role of presenter on their show and she happily took it. Currently, she is a horse racing pundit for both @itvracing & @racingtv.

Hayley Moore

From jockey to racing presenter, Hayley Moore is a fantastic presenter for the show Sky Sports Racing (previously known as At The Races).

Making her jockey debut in 2012 at Ascot, Haley made a huge impact by winning the race she was in with Redvers. Due to this win, the racing world kept a close eye on her.

With 33 total starts and 3 winners, Hayley proved that female jockeys can offer as much as male jockeys, paving the way for other females in the sport.

In 2017, Hayley ran her last race with Whinging Willie and retired from the sport shortly after.

However, that wasn’t the end. Sky saw a huge potential in adding Hayley Moore to their presenting team for At The Races and during the same year, Hayley made her debut.

She is known by fans for her fantastic in-depth analysis of what jockeys are thinking and their perspectives on the races, but many fans know her for the famous clip below of her stopping a loose horse at Chepstow.

Currently, Hayley still works for Sky and presents the Sky Sports Racing show, still demonstrating her fantastic personality and great in-depth analysis of the competition.

Lydia Hislop – TV Presenter

Lydia Hislop is one of the UK’s favourite racing journalists and broadcasters, admired by readers, viewers and peers alike, she currently holds the HWPA ‘Broadcaster of the Year’ title, a testament to that.

Lydia Hislop was crowned Broadcaster of the Year for the second time in three years on a successful day for Racing TV.

Hislop is a regular presenter on Racing TV and hosts the popular Road To Cheltenham show with Ruby Walsh.

Adele Mulrennan

If you’re a fan of Go Racing and ITV Racing, then the name Adele Mulrennan should ring a lot of bells.

Ever since a young age, Adele has always been interested in the sport of horse racing, with her father taking her regularly to some of the biggest racetracks in the UK.

Once she was old enough, Adele Mulrennan became an apprentice rider for the legendary Dandy Nicholls and won some big races, including the Scottish Sprint Cup with Masta Plasta in 2008.

She competed in over 100 races and rode 12 winners in total. After becoming pregnant, Adele decided to retire from the role of Jockey to spend more time focusing on building a family with her husband, Paul Mulrennan.

Once retired, Adele decided she still wanted to be involved in the sport and decided to take some courses in Media training. Once she completed the training, she became a host on Go Racing in Yorkshire in 2017.

With her covering races at York, Catterick, Thirsk, Ripon, Beverley, Wetherby, and Pontefract, it was only a matter of time until ITV Racing recognised her talent and added her to their lineup.

Nowadays, she still hosts Go Racing but also helps the ITV Racing team cover some of the biggest events across the UK.

Charlotte Hawkins

Charlotte Hawkins has covered many different topics within her career in journalism, but one topic she passionately loves is horse racing.

Since 2000, Charlotte has become an expert presenter on a variety of news shows from different channels. She’s worked on some of the biggest news reading shows such as Five News, Good Morning Britain, Lorraine and more.

Due to her natural talent in front of the camera, she gained a large fan base and it didn’t take long for fans to learn about her passion for racing horses.

ITV Racing decided to incorporate her into their team and in 2017, Charlotte Hawkins made her debut to an outstanding success.

In the same year, she also competed in Strictly Come Dancing and A Classic Christmas, attracting even more fans who would tune in to ITV Racing to see their favourite presenter.

To this day, she still works with ITV Racing to cover the biggest racing events across the UK and has been offered even more roles across the media. Charlotte Hawkins really is one of the best in the industry.

Lucy Verasamy

Weather is a big factor for horse races, so ITV Racing thought to get one of the best weather experts in the media (Lucy Verasamy) to join their racing team.

After graduating from university with a bachelor’s degree in Geography and working as a meteorologist for the Press Association’s weather centre, Lucy put her knowledge on display and gave accurate information to the public on the week’s weather.

In 2010, ITV started their relationship with Lucy Verasamy by hiring her for their show “Daybreak”. She would later become the sole weather forecaster in 2012.

During the same year, Lucy left “Daybreak” and became the main weather forecaster for the ITV channel in general.

After speaking to the ITV bigwigs, Lucy was given the opportunity to use her weather expertise and fascination for horse racing to become the weather expert for ITV Racing.

She still works for ITV Racing and provides viewers with an in-depth view of the weather and how that will impact the runners.

Victoria Pendleton

Winner of Olympic gold medals for cycling, training to be a jockey and winning some of the biggest races in the UK, it was only a matter of time until Victoria Pendleton became a presenter for ITV Racing.

Starting her professional cycling career in 2001, Victoria has competed in almost every high-end cycling event and won a majority of them. In total, she has won 14 Gold, 9 Silver and 2 bronze medals across all the events she took part in.

After the 2012 London Olympics, Victoria decided to retire from cycling and pursue another interest of hers, horse racing.

Trained by the fantastic Paul Nicholls, Victoria managed to compete in a wide variety of different races, even winning at Wincanton. She also finished fifth at the 2016 Foxhunter Chase in Cheltenham, smashing the predictions from the bookies.

After that race, she soon retired. In 2017, ITV Racing offered her a role of presenter on their show, allowing Victoria Pendleton to still interact with the sport she loves.

As of right now, she still presents the show and provides viewers with an in-depth look into the psychology and fitness of what it takes to be a winning jockey.

Summary of Top Female Racing Presenters

Our TV screens are blessed with some incredible presenting talent and all of the ladies on our list are both passionate, intelligent and knowledgable about racing. All this is invaluable in making TV coverage of racing hugely enjoyable and enthusing the next generation of horse racing fans, other notable previous presenters include Hayley Turner and Clare Balding!

Thank you ladies for elevating and informing us every day!

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Subjects covered – Francesca Cumani, Hayley Turner, Clare Balding, racing presenter.