Good Morning Sunday
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Clare Balding OBE |
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| Born |
Clare Victoria Balding 29 January 1971 Kingsclere, Hampshire, England |
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| Residence | Chiswick, London, England | ||
| Nationality | British | ||
| Alma mater | Cambridge University | ||
| Occupation | Television and radio presenter, journalist, former jockey | ||
| Employer |
BBC Channel 4 BT Group |
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| Spouse(s) | Alice Arnold (m. 2015) | ||
| Parent(s) |
Ian Balding Emma (née Hastings-Bass) |
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| Relatives |
Andrew Balding (brother) Toby Balding (uncle) |
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Clare Victoria Balding OBE (born 29 January 1971) is an award-winning broadcaster, journalist and author. She currently presents for BBC Sport, Channel 4, BT Sport and the religious/spiritual programme Good Morning Sunday on BBC Radio 2.
Balding was educated at Downe House in Berkshire, where she was Head Girl and a contemporary of comedian Miranda Hart. Hart and Balding are in fact tenth-cousins, sharing a nine-times-great-grandfather in Sir William Leveson-Gower, 4th Baronet.
Balding 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. Her memoir My Animals and Other Family documents her life growing up in a racing yard. It won the National Book Awards "Autobiography of the Year" in 2012.
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 trained winners in the Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle. Furthermore, her maternal 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.
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