Rupert Bell and the team bring you all the latest news, views and reports live from the course. Plus there’s up-to-the-minute traffic and travel with Shaun Moore from Gloucester News Centre, in association with Cross Country Trains.
As each race approaches our paddock experts will cast their eyes over the runners and we will bring you a detailed analysis from beforetheoff.com ahead of live commentary and previews of all races.
A look back at the highlights and main talking points from the day’s action.
Rupert has over 25 years of radio and TV broadcasting experience, covering news and sport across the world. Rupert has developed a professional and flexible approach during a career communicating a number of topics for a vast portfolio of clients with horse racing at the forefront.
Rupert is an accomplished sports TV presenter and commentator, having presented for Sky Sports and the Racing Channel. He is also a regular reporter for Talksport Radio – keeping the UK public up-to-date with sports news from around the world.
Rupert’s adaptable and passionate approach has positioned him as the infallible face and voice of horse racing across the globe.
Horseracing has been Niall’s passion for as long as he can remember. After growing up in Northern Ireland and riding numerous pony race winners, he travelled over to England to turn conditional jockey at the age of 17. Based in Middleham with George Moore, weight problems forced him to retire from the saddle in 2005 after riding ‘nigh on 100 winners’ including successes at Cheltenham and Aintree.
Niall is now a familiar face on RUK having first made an appearance on the channel in June 2010 as a pundit and quickly moved on to presenting the show.
Niall also works as a presenter and broadcaster for William Hill and Independent Content Services Limited who provide horse racing radio and commentary.
Malcolm is a Racecourse Commentator and professional actor. He has worked on the racecourse since 2004 and is heard regularly on Racing UK, Aththeraces and Channel 4. He is also part of BBC Radio 5Live’s commentary team for whom he calls the runners over the first four fences in the Grand National and was delighted to be asked to call the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood for them this summer.
In his other career he has appeared in many top TV shows including Eastenders, The Bill, Emmerdale, Cold Feet, Hollyoaks and The Chase. He can next be seen as Quentin Kendall in Casualty next February. Malcolm has two children, both also in the acting profession, Eleanor and Ross. Eleanor was recently seen as Isabel Neville in the BBC series The White Queen and will be on screen again soon as Georgiana Darcy in the upcoming series Death Comes to Pemberly.
Gareth is the newest and youngest member of the racecourse commentary team, and has been calling them home for the tracks, RUK, Attheraces and occasionally Channel 4 since October 2012.
Based in Leeds, where he picked up a degree in Sports Journalism in 2010, Gareth also works in the city as a studio broadcaster for William Hill and Independent Content Services Ltd.
He has also experienced commentating in Australia and America on flat and trotting races. His heart is though in the National Hunt game and from a much younger age he worked in the point-to-point field, which he describes as 'the best grounding possible,' for the job he always wanted to do from childhood.
Darren Owen is a familiar voice on British racetracks, having been an on-course commentator for over 15 years.
The Welshman covered nine Grand Nationals as part of the BBC TV commentary team and has called races in the US and Australia.
He also racereads for the Racing Post in addition to working on William Hill Radio and being part of ICS’ racing commentary team.
Darren has a passion for National Hunt Racing, making his first trip to Cheltenham as a 12-year-old schoolboy to watch the veteran Tied Cottage lead the field home in the 1980 Gold Cup (later disqualified) and was bitten by the bug.
Steven is a passionate and lifelong horse racing supporter, having spent many of his early years at Warwick, Stratford and Uttoxeter with his Grandfather.
Steven is currently the Raceday Presenter at Newmarket Racecourses and also covers Market Rasen, Nottingham and Hamilton Park in that capacity. Originally from Birmingham but now based in Leeds, Steven works as a studio broadcaster for William Hill and commentator for Independent Content Services Ltd and has ambitions to join the Racecourse Commentary team.
He has also commentated at Meydan, home of the Dubai World Cup, in the USA and Ireland and managed to visit all 60 courses in Great Britain before his 21st birthday. His favourite days at the races include Kauto Star landing his fourth Betfair Chase in 2011, Moscow Flyer beating Well Chief and Azertyuiop in the 2004 BetVictor Tingle Creek Chase and his first visit to the Cheltenham Festival, aged 12, on Champion Hurdle Day in 2002.
Brett has been involved in horse racing for as long as he can remember. Being the son of a former jump jockey, he was destined to work in the industry in some way or another and spent many cold, wet early mornings riding out on Cleeve Hill for local trainer Norman Babbage, before moving on to Mikey Heaton-Ellis, Andrew Balding and even ended up having a few rides as an amateur jockey for Ian Williams. The least said on his riding career the better!
Clearly unable to cope with the chilly conditions the UK presents, and spending a fortune on gloves, Brett migrated to the sunnier climes of Dubai where he worked as a track work rider for Erwan Charpy, Paddy Rudkin and Satish Seemar before turning his attentions to broadcasting, and after working his way up through the media ranks, became the face of Dubai Racing Channel where he presented all live television coverage for the channel. He was also employed as senior producer and channel adviser for all English-language output.
Now back in the UK full-time, Brett works as a presenter on Cheltenham Radio.
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Thanks
The Cheltenham Radio team