Voice of racing, friend of the royals, scourge of the bookies
Legendary BBC commentator Peter O’Sullevan dies at 97
LEGENDARY horse racing commentator Sir Peter O’Sullevan – the voice of racing for five decades – has died at his home aged 97. Known for his passion and flawless style, he covered a total of 14,000 races during his career and became a friend of the Queen Mother and the Queen.
His Grand National commentaries included Red Rum’s three historic victories and the void race of 1993.
Once described as the Voice of God but more commonly known as The Voice of Racing, O’Sullevan was not only fit enough to celebrate his birthday earlier this year, but also to enthusiastically take the wheel of his VW Golf and drive himself to Cheltenham for his seventieth National Hunt Festival.
‘It is amazing isn’t it?’ he remarked, noting that his first trip to the Mecca of steeplechasing was in his two- seater eight-horse-power Austin in 1935 aged 17. ‘I don’t know about the Guinness Book of Records, but I will be having a Guinness, record or not.’
Despite retiring as the BBC’s racing commentator in 1997 after five decades covering Grand Nationals, Derbys and Gold Cups, he continued to be a familiar figure on the racing scene, owning and backing horses – he modestly admitted to outwitting the bookmakers over a lifetime of punting – until shortly before he went to the great commentary box in the sky. Yes-
‘Distinguished and eloquent’
terday, tributes from the worlds of racing and sport flooded in.
Jim McGrath, his successor as racing commentator at the BBC, said: ‘His passion was horse racing and he was able to convey everything he felt about the game to millions of people.’
Fellow BBC racing commentator Cornelius Lysaght, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, described O’Sullevan as ‘a true great’. He said: ‘The word is bandied around a lot but in the case of Sir Peter it cannot be used enough.’
Clare Balding, whose early broadcasting career was in racing, said: ‘ With a sport which moves as fast as racing and still be on top of it in your 70s and still interested into his 90s smacks of his professionalism and real passion. You watched him at work and saw how much study went into him making things look easy. It was a complete honour to work with him.’
O’Sullevan was described as an ‘amazing man’ by champion jump jockey AP McCoy, who added that he was ‘the most distinguished and eloquent voice of racing’.
He had a ‘voice like velvet’, according to former jockey Willie Carson. ‘No one else could give you the same feeling watching a race’, said another former flat jockey, Jimmy Lindley, who added: ‘ He made it feel as if you were riding in it.’
In 1974 his horse Attivo won the Cheltenham Triumph Hurdle and he was the BBC commentator covering the race.
‘It was a fantastically emotional day and as a commentator I couldn’t show any bias. I had the joy of calling in Attivo, a little horse that I’d bred myself, that I owned myself, that I had napped in my racing column myself. And to get over nine thousand in one hit was an enormous delight.’
He raised nearly £3million for animal charities. He also made plans to leave his multi-million-pound apartment off the King’s Road in London to his charitable trust.
With the support of racing figures such as JP McManus and Lester Piggott, as well his good friend Sir Terry Wogan, O’Sullevan’s annual charity lunch at the Dorchester Hotel was the highlight of the sport’s social calendar.
A ferocious luncher – when he was not peering through his binoculars at a racecourse – he was a familiar figure in the up-market eateries near his Chelsea apartment.
Born in Kenmare, County Kerry, of an Irish father and an English mother, O’Sullevan was brought to England at the age of one to live with his grandmother after the break-up of his parents’ marriage. His obsession with horses dates back to a solo ride around Tattenham Corner at Epsom on his pony in 1925. He was seven at the time. On the outbreak of World War Two he volunteered as an ambulance driver after being turned down by the RAF on health grounds.
As a young man he became interested in betting on horses, and became the Press Association’s racing correspondent in 1944 before joining the Daily Express. He was hired as racing commentator for the BBC in 1947 when he made his first commentary at Cheltenham.
It was after covering a post-war race meeting in the Midlands that O’Sullevan met his wife Patricia. For Canadian born Pat and the shy young racing tipster with the plummy voice it was love at first sight. Recalled O’Sullevan: ‘Before we married I asked Pat if she would mind if we had a horse instead of a child. She said that was absolutely fine by her. I never asked her why she was so unenthusiastic about children. But we absolutely never regretted it.’
They were married for 54 years, the union only ending in 2010 when Lady Pat succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease. O’Sullevan retained a huge circle of chums right up to the very end.
But he did miss one particular pal – the Queen Mother. ‘She was wonderful,’ he said.
‘She always asked me up to the Royal Box to have a drink. I remember one year she arrived by helicopter and I asked her if she’d had a smooth ride.
‘I’ll always remember her reply. She said being able to come by chopper was absolutely marvellous, as the chopper had almost as conclusive an impact upon her life as it did on Anne Boleyn.’
Poignantly, at Cheltenham this year, O’Sullevan discussed what would happen after his death, saying: ‘I’m just wondering if I can get somebody to sprinkle my ashes on the course.
‘I don’t want to make a fuss. It will be either Cheltenham or Haydock, wherever there won’t be an objection. That would suit me fine.’