Clare Balding

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Clare Balding : biography

29 January 1971 –

She has served as one of the presenters on BBC Sports Personality of the Year. She is the new regular presenter of ‘Good Morning Sunday’ on BBC Radio 2 taking over from Aled Jones. Balding is the presenter of Britain’s Brightest, which began in January 2013 – ‘Ordinary people with extraordinary minds face a series of nail-biting challenges and demanding puzzles as they battle to become crowned as Britain’s Brightest’.

In March 2013 she anchored Channel 4’s coverage of the Cheltenham Festival.

Balding was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting and journalism.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22626487

Family and personal life

Balding has close family links to horse racing: her father, Ian Balding, trained Mill Reef, 1971 winner of the Epsom Derby, Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes; and her younger brother, Andrew Balding, trained Casual Look, the winner of the 2003 Epsom Oaks. The latter win led to a very emotional post-race interview with her brother. Her uncle Toby Balding has trained winners in The Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle. Furthermore, her grandfather was the trainer Peter Hastings-Bass and her maternal uncle the 17th Earl of Huntingdon was once trainer to Queen Elizabeth II. Her maternal grandmother, Priscilla Hastings, is descended from the Earls of Derby and was one of the first women elected to membership of the Jockey Club.

She formalised her relationship with the BBC Radio 4 continuity announcer and newsreader Alice Arnold in September 2006 by entering into a civil partnership. The couple live in Chiswick, London.

On 29 May 2009, Balding announced that she had thyroid cancer. She told the Daily Mail newspaper that she had her thyroid gland removed and would have radioactive iodine treatment in July that year. She promised to be back on television covering the Epsom Derby, by the following Saturday. On 21 August 2009 she announced that the radioactive iodine had been successful with no signs of the cancer having spread.

In July 2010, Balding made a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission over an article by writer A. A. Gill in The Sunday Times that she felt had mocked her sexuality and appearance and for which the newspaper refused to apologise.Caroline Davies , The Guardian, 30 July 2010 The PCC found in her favour, judging that AA Gill had "refer[red] to the complainant’s sexuality in a demeaning and gratuitous way". BBC News, 17 September 2010; Retrieved 17 September 2010

Early life

Balding’s father is horse trainer Ian Balding who trained champion thoroughbred Mill Reef. She was educated at Downe House in Berkshire, where she was Head Girl and a contemporary of comedian Miranda Hart. BBC Two, November 2010 She applied to read law at Christ’s College, Cambridge but failed her interview and realised that law was not what she most wanted to do. She later successfully applied to Newnham College, Cambridge and read English. While at university she was President of the Cambridge Union Society in Easter 1992 and graduated in 1993 with a 2:1 honours degree.

From 1988 to 1993, Balding was a leading amateur flat jockey and Champion Lady Rider in 1990. She had an eating disorder during her time as a jockey.

Writing

Balding has written regular columns for The Observer, the Evening Standard and The Sporting Life. She signed a deal with Viking Press to write an autobiography entitled My Animals and Other Family, which was published on September 2012.

Charitable activity

Balding participated in a celebrity edition of The Apprentice in order to raise money for charity., Charities Aid Foundation, 28 February 2008; Retrieved 29 February 2008 Sport Relief Does The Apprentice is part of the BBC’s annual charity initiative and aired on 12 March and 14 March 2008.

"The Girls’ team", which also included Louise Redknapp, Jacqueline Gold, Kirstie Allsopp and Lisa Snowdon, won the contest, raising over £400,000 from ticket sales and sales on the night of the big event at their shop.

In 2010 Balding became a patron of the British Thyroid Foundation. British Thyroid Foundation