Racing commentator Sir Peter O’Sullevan passes away

Veteran racing commentator Sir Peter O’Sullevan has died at the age of 97, BBC Sport has announced.

Famed racing commentator Sir Peter O’Sullevan has died at the age of 97. In 1997 he set up a charitable trust which has since raised huge amounts for animal and racing-related charities.

O’Sullevan was a racehorse owner while he worked for the Daily Express for 36 years and also contributed to the Press Association.

He was born in County Kerry in Ireland on March 3 1918 and educated at Hawtreys prep school before attending Charterhouse and the Collège Alpin global Beau Soleil in Switzerland.

“His honeyed tones were the rhythmic racing backdrop to my upbringing, the comforting BBC voice in the corner calling home thoroughbreds”.

He was recognised for his outstanding contribution to the sport in 2008 when the National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival named the race after him. He was elected a member of the Jockey Club in 1986, and his numerous awards include Racing Journalist of the Year in 1971 (shared with friend Clive Graham) and 1986, and the Royal Television Society’s TV Sports Award in 1986.

O’Sullevan’s commentaries of the Grand National will rank as his most memorable.

O’Sullevan met his wife, Pat, at a ball in Manchester in 1946.