The TV presenter’s path to becoming one of our leading broadcasters has not been an easy one

Clare Balding comes through the pub door at top speed and full of apologies. She is a bit late but explains that she couldn’t resist pausing on the banks of the Thames to watch the final stages of the annual Women’s Head of the River Race.

“I just felt so heartened seeing those girls and knowing the effort they’ve had to put in – getting a boat, getting a team of eight together, getting up early to train.” She’s speaking from personal experience but also from a passionate belief in the importance of sport in general.

“I care very much about it. It gives huge pleasure and it filters into other parts of our lives. The sad thing is that we don’t teach sports particularly well in schools. We only teach it as PE whereas it could also be part of history, biology, nutrition. If it were then kids who aren’t talented at kicking a ball could still have an input.”

Clare is one of the BBC’s most prolific presenters. Her background in racing makes her a natural for all the live racing coverage but she’s also presented both Summer and Winter Olympics, tennis, rugby league, swimming, golf, bowls and even darts – “My dad nearly had a heart attack when I did that,” she laughs. Then there are national events such as Trooping the Colour, the Lord Mayor’s Show and hers was the first voice on BBC One to welcome in the New Year in 2006. She has even read stories on CBeebies.

On radio she seems to pop up everywhere, always happy to stand in for other presenters on Saturday Live, Pick of the Week, Broadcasting House and Woman’s Hour. “I need to keep doing things that challenge me and make me a better broadcaster,” she says. “Woman’s Hour was really daunting. You’re walking into a programme that has been going for nearly twice as long as I’ve been alive (she’s 38), so it’s hallowed ground.”

Ramblings is the radio programme Clare has been most closely identified with and the one that really allows her to use fully her natural ability to communicate, chatting in a relaxed way to a huge range of people as they guide her through the countryside on walks that they enjoy or that have a special meaning for them.

“I couldn’t do it if it wasn’t fun. You spend a lot of time with your guests and it is much less confrontational than a face-to-face interview. Most of the time you’re walking side by side talking about sights, experiences, sounds, going through it together.” When it comes to sports presenting, what she really loves is to sell a sporting event to an audience that might not be interested. “I want to give them a reason to tune in and stay there. In a way it’s a bit of a marketing job – I am saying, ‘this is interesting, come on, come with me’. So that if there is a particular horse running, like Denman in this year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup, I will tell people this horse’s heart stopped last year, that he is a champion, he could win again. I want people to care whether he does or not.”

Racing, inevitably, given her father is a trainer, remains the sport she still enjoys the most. “It’s so beautiful. You can watch it in slow motion and there’s an innate, artistic beauty to it – no wonder there are so many paintings of horses and racing. But there is hardly a sport I don’t like – it’s all about the context, so if you are doing the Winter Olympics and there is curling then suddenly it’s the most important and fascinating sport. For me there is always a story, a reason, a passion, a technique and, of course, the unexpected.”

In the year Clare was born, 1971, Mill Reef won the Derby and went on to win two other classic races in the same year. The horse was trained by her father, Ian Balding, who trained horses for the Queen and the Queen Mother, and who has been a huge influence on Clare’s life.

She was barely walking when she was put on her first horse and at the age of two had her first serious fall, breaking her collarbone. “I think bones are very soft at that age so I can’t remember it hurting very much. I adored riding and was terribly happy. My ponies were my friends and taught me about unconditional love very early on.” It wasn’t all horses and racing at home at the Kingsclere Stables near Newbury in Hampshire. “My father was very, very sporty and still is,” says Clare.

Her childhood was ruled by major sporting events and not just the National and the Derby and Ascot. “For instance, we were never allowed to interrupt him during a test match so sometimes you couldn’t talk to him for five days.”

Clare went to boarding school where she became head girl and when her ‘A’ level results weren’t quite good enough, she took two years out before getting a place at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she was president of the union in her second year.

“I was desperately trying to prove something I suppose, but I’m not sure what,” she says now with a short laugh. She left with a degree in English knowing she wanted to be a journalist and through her mother, Emma, was introduced to Cornelius Lycett, the racing commentator, who asked if she’d thought about doing radio. It led to a successful voice test and early morning bulletins on Radio Five and then to proper training and a job covering all sports – except racing. “I had a boss who wanted to push me out of my comfort zone.”

Ian Balding was clearly a demanding father, making few allowances for his daughter and what he wanted her to achieve. Earlier this year, on Saturday Live, during an interview with a guest talking about coming to terms with weight problems, Clare revealed that she often had to battle to lose weight before a race and that on one occasion, when she had lost a fair amount, she had asked her father whether he loved her more as a result. And his answer was a straightforward ‘Yes’.

“I know some people were shocked to hear that and of course it made me feel horrible at the time, but I had said it deliberately to provoke a reaction. After all who says, ‘Do you love me more if I lose weight?’ knowing you might get the wrong answer? So, I had stoked the fire and, true to form, he said the wrong thing. But,” she points out, “I wouldn’t still get on with my dad if he’d really hurt me that much and don’t forget, he was the one who gave me a chance to be in races, the one who said I could ride those horses and win on them, who made it all happen.

“So my part of the deal was to be a certain weight. That comment actually came some time after I’d stopped racing but I think he’s just unnaturally obsessed with body shape,” she laughs.

She describes her father as “definitely an unreconstructed male” but he surprised her by being far more understanding than expected when she finally plucked up the courage to tell him that she was gay and would be entering into a civil partnership to formalise her relationship with the Radio 4 newsreader, Alice Arnold. “They were much less angry than they should have been given that I was brought up never to tell lies. And it wasn’t any harder for me to tell him than it is for anyone else telling their parents something like that. The one thing I hope is that in 20 years’ time no one has that fear, that they don’t think it’s a massive secret of which to be ashamed.”

Clare and Alice have a home in London but there’s also a base in Kingsclere to escape the city. Clare’s younger brother Andrew announced at an early age that he wanted to train horses and although she still loves to ride, there was never any possibility in her mind of taking on the business. “I’m not very good with authority so I would have found it hard to deal with the owners plus I am too emotional so I wouldn’t deal very well with injuries. And it’s not as if I’ve ended up doing something I don’t enjoy.”

She likes to take risks in interviews occasionally, as was evidenced with her interview with Grand National winning rider Liam Treadwell. “I think listeners quite like it when you stop being the interviewer and become the conversationalist so, in a sense, that’s why you have to peel back a bit and become a bit more exposed sometimes. But I’m not an actor, taking on a role, I’m me, so I am vulnerable and although I try not take the negative stuff too seriously it does matter what people think of you – they’ll turn off if they don’t like you so it is very personal.”

If there is one ambition it is to have time to do more writing. “Sports events give a structure to your year but some years are busier than others. I would absolutely love to write a novel. I started a children’s book last year but I didn’t finish it. I have a very long-suffering agent who has finally asked me for the outline of the first four chapters so maybe I will manage that this year.”

Despite the awards and the plaudits Clare is highly critical of herself. “I do get nervous before a show and I also get very cross with myself if I’ve done things badly – if I’ve stumbled in an announcement or said something stupid. You are in a state of high alert and you should be performing at your best but sometimes you may rush things or react a bit too fast or too slowly. I don’t think you ever do the perfect programme and I don’t think you are ever the perfect broadcaster. I also think that the day you stop trying to improve yourself is the day you start going backwards.”