Need a tip for Epsom or Sandown Park? Fiona Adams finds TV racing presenter Nick Luck in top form...
June: the sunlit peak of the English summer season. Epsom and Royal Ascot at full gallop; Henley and Wimbledon beckoning; Glyndebourne building slowly towards a crescendo.
If the stars align, these are glorious warm days filled with champagne, fabulous frocks and – on the racecourses of Surrey and Berkshire – a few lucky flutters on the colour of Her Majesty’s hat. Oh, and the runners and riders.
For most of us, a sequence of Epsom Derby, Ascot Gold Cup and Coral-Eclipse Day at Sandown Park would be more than enough to drain the system of adrenaline and the coffers of excess gold. But for the appropriately named Nick Luck – the face of Racing TV, an analyst on America’s NBC and now the voice of BBC equestrian coverage too – all this is merely the icing on a rich and satisfying cake.
By the time of our April meeting in Teddington, where he lives with his wife Laura – a classical singer and teacher – and their three daughters, Nick has already clocked up a wealth of airtime – and air miles – in 2019 alone.
“I did a trip to America in January, I’ve done three to Dubai, two to Doha, been to Ireland three or four times… then Cheltenham, Aintree… I’m probably working more days now than I have ever done in my life,” he says.
For a husband and father, that’s not always easy. But Nick has been a passionate fan of horse racing since childhood and the job still stirs his blood.
Born in Ascot in 1978, he lived with his older brother, horse-loving mother and property businessman father at nearby Hawthorn Hill, before leaving Berkshire for Hartley Wintney, across the border in Hampshire.
“My mother was very into horses and probably got my dad interested in them too. Before I was born they met Josh Gifford, the ex-jockey and trainer – most famously of 1981 Grand National winner Aldaniti, ridden by Bob Champion – and ended up buying a couple of racehorses with my grandfather.
“I wouldn’t say that I was ever forced to ride, but it was definitely part of my life from an early age. We always had ponies and horses of all descriptions around the place: racehorses, eventers, hunters, showjumpers…”
At Harrow School, Nick was often to be found with a copy of Racing Post in his room.
“I liked betting,” he admits, “but I mainly liked the racing itself. All sorts – flat, jumps, bad, good, Britain or abroad. But I don’t think I ever imagined working in it.”
He confesses to having “a performing side” and was “always farting about on stage at school and university”. What he really wanted, however, was to be a journalist.
“I feel much happier sitting there, where you’re sitting, than over here. I much prefer asking questions, finding out about other people, to divulging information.”
This much becomes obvious. Racing discourse aside, we have soon covered a vast range of topics including local schools, the demise of Teddington Studios, the pros and cons of social media, the veracity of articles in the Daily Mail and the real reason Darcey Bussell left Strictly – of which Nick is a fan (yes, really), though he insists that he would never take part.
But back to the horses. After Harrow, Nick spent his gap year in Kentucky working for a man called Joe Pagan, who ran the Kentucky Equine Research company.
“A friend’s father knew that I had an interest in racing. He said he knew someone who needed someone like me to write lots of copy for very low wages. So, of course, I jumped at the chance!
“It was quite a lonely experience at times, completely different socially and culturally, but I worked hard and made a lot of good friends. In a roundabout way, it’s probably informed everything I’ve done since.”
A degree in French at King’s College London was followed by an MA and meeting Laura, who was studying for a music degree and whom Nick cast in a show. He was unsure as to how his career would unfold and the stage still exerted a pull.
“I had a lot of time outside my MA contact hours, so I was doing stuff for a PR company – a bit of this and that – and acting in a very, er, interesting French comedy troupe called Three-handed Woman. We thought we were going to be the next incarnation of The Fast Show. Everyone who came to see us was almost certain that we weren’t,” he laughs.
Once again, fate – or, dare one say, luck – took a hand.
“By chance, I met the friend of a flatmate who was working for a joint venture between Channel 4 and Sky called At The Races. He mentioned that the studio was desperate for people to present an American horse racing service. So I decided to ring up and give it a go.
“They put me on with another presenter and, although I’d never done it before, they rang me the next day to ask if I could do programmes the following week. I guess I could speak in complete sentences and sound quite plausible!
“It was pretty niche, doing American horse racing late into the night, seven-hour shifts… but it was brilliant. I was essentially allowed to learn on the job. By the time I was 25 or 26, I’d done about 2,000 hours of live TV.
“I said to Laura: ‘This will do until I get a job.’ And here we are, 16+ years later, and I am still yet to get one!”
In the meantime, fronting programmes for the likes of Channel 4 and Racing TV has made Nick one of the best-known, best-liked and most respected faces of racing. He has covered most of the sport’s major events and even hosts his own chat show, Luck on Sunday.
His knowledge of horses is encyclopaedic. When I test him on Grand National winners he is right every time, even remembering that in 1992 he was in Hereford to watch his brother ride when Party Politics – “huge horse, about 18 hands” – sneaked home. He and his mother had bet on “about 25 horses”, he says. “Not one was Party Politics!”
On controversial subjects, such as drunken brawls at race meetings and equine deaths on the course, he is engagingly open.
“I think the truth about drinking is that there’s always been the odd scrap at the racecourse, but if it’s captured on camera it goes viral. Then people start to think that there’s an inherent issue with fighting. To be honest, 99 times out of 100, your day is going to be pretty safe.
“That said, all tracks need to look at how much booze they serve. We don’t want to discourage people from having a good time, but we have to build a bigger fan base. We want to get more families and young people to the tracks; to democratise the sport; for the atmosphere to be pleasant.”
In terms of equine safety, Nick is passionate in his defence of Aintree which, he says, has worked hard to eliminate the unnecessary danger.
“The Grand National was seriously threatened back in 2012. They’d had two horses killed that year, and the year before, and the year before that. The scrutiny was mounting. But they did an awful lot to enhance safety without subtracting from the essence of the race.
“The distance was cut by half a furlong and there are now more restrictive conditions of entry. Bad jumpers are politely asked not to turn up; there is pre-race testing for lameness and better post-race care; and the core of the fences was changed so that horses could go through them, rather than hitting tightly packed stakes.”
And does Nick still have the odd flutter? Is he allowed to?
“Yes! I’m very much allowed to bet. But a lot of us find that our betting reduces in volume or frequency when we have children. The trouble is that the less you bet, the less good a judge you become. Your eye gets out – and you do need to keep your eye in!”
I nod, remembering with a shudder the fifty quid I lost last year at Kempton. Only after Nick has left, however, do I realise that I’ve forgotten to ask the most important question of all. Who exactly is going to win the Derby?
Nick's most memorable moments:
There have been so many. I saw every single one of Frankel’s wins, all of Desert Orchid’s at King George, all the Gold Cups between Kauto Star and Denman. But I think the most memorable was the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs when a mare called Zenyatta – who had become an unbelievable folk hero in the States – was beaten on her last ever start. She came from an impossible position and the crowd went ballistic. It was under lights, it was dusk and incredibly dramatic and she just got beaten. Her only defeat was probably the most valiant effort of her whole career.
Bucket list meet
The Melbourne Cup – it’s about the only major I haven’t done. And Japan… racing is huge there. The jockeys are like Premiership footballers here in terms of their status.
Favourite racecourse
It’s probably a tie between York and Goodwood, but there’s no doubt that Ascot is the most amazing facility.
