Baroness Harding joins Jockey Club

FORMER Talk Talk boss and horse racing fan Dido Harding is joining the board of The Jockey Club.

The 50-year-old peer, a keen amateur jockey who is chairman of regulator NHS Improvement, will sit on the so-called board of stewards from January 1.

It appears to be a perfect match for both parties.

The racecourse owner owns 15 courses including Aintree, Cheltenham and Epsom Downs and runs major events such as the Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup and The Derby.

Harding ( pictured), a married mother of two, has won more than 25 races as an amateur and was the owner of Cool Dawn that won the Gold Cup at Cheltenham in 1998.

It has been a busy few days for Harding. It is understood that as the boss of NHS Improvement, which support health service trusts, she last week asked Lord Kerslake to consider his position as chairman of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London in light of the parlous state of its finances.

Kerslake, an advisor to Jeremy Corbyn and former top mandarin in the civil service, resigned days later with a broadside at the Government.