The day that changed my life

The sports presenter, 41, remembers the chance meeting that started her broadcasting career after realising she was never going to make it as a jockey

My father Ian Balding, as well as both my grandfathers and one greatgrandfather, all trained horses. My great-grandfather trained four Grand National winners, so horses are in my blood. As I was growing up I rode a lot of showjumping and eventing horses, and at the age of 15 I rode my first thoroughbred. I did my first point-to-point at 16 – the age you have to be to race horses – and rode in my first flat race aged 17, straight after I finished my A-levels. I then completed two full seasons as an amateur jockey, becoming ladies’ champion in 1990.

But once I got to university I started to ride less, and eventually I stopped racing completely. You have to be riding every day in order to do it well, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to turn professional. I’m the wrong shape for a start. I also knew I didn’t want to become a trainer like my dad. You have to deal with a lot of different horse owners and all the staff. There’s an awful lot of pressure and I didn’t want that. I’d have had too many rows.

In 1993 I’d just graduated in English at Cambridge and was enjoying a day at Windsor racecourse, when I was introduced to BBC racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght. I told him I wanted to go into journalism and he asked whether I’d thought about radio, as he needed a racing reporter. He asked me to come to the BBC studios the following week to do a voice test.

It was that chance meeting that changed my life and gave me the broadcasting career I have today. I went to work for him for six months before becoming a BBC trainee sports reporter, covering all sports. By the time I got a screen test for TV, I could comfortably cover everything from rugby league to bowls.All that training has lead to a varied career that’s constantly interesting. And even though I’m not riding horses any more, I’m still very involved with the racing world.

Then three years ago I discovered I had thyroid cancer. I was doing a programme on showjumping at Olympia when I saw a lump on my neck in the monitor. I thought, ‘What the hell is that?’ I was referred to a specialist at Basingstoke Hospital and when I found out the lump was cancerous, I was pretty shocked. But you deal with it. I had three operations and then had some radioactive iodine treatment, which ended a year ago. Now I’m clear as far as I’m aware and I hardly ever think about it. I was determined it wouldn’t affect my career or any other part of my life and it hasn’t.

What I do know is I now have the most wonderful life in the world, and last year was the biggest year of the lot. Full stop. I was incredibly excited to be covering the Olympics for the BBC. Since I first sat on a pony at less than a year old, sport has meant everything to me, and the Olympics was the absolute pinnacle.

As told to Paula Kerr Clare’s autobiography, My Animals And Other Family, is out now, Viking, £20.

Clare (front) with her family in 1974