Gina Bryce set for landmark moment with Grand National commentary

Gina Bryce will be responsible for a significant milestone on Saturday as the first woman to commentate on the Grand National in more than 70 years.

Bryce will take the third leg of the commentary from Aintree for BBC Radio 5 Live’s coverage of the world’s great steeplechase.

The 41-year-old broadcaster said: “Never in a million years did I think I’d get the opportunity to do something like this.

“It’s a first for me and very exciting, although slightly terrifying as you can imagine.”

Bryce, who also works for Sky Sports Racing and was previously with Channel 4, will hand over to lead commentator John Hunt and said she would be “surrounded by great colleagues” for the race.

She said: “I couldn’t be in better hands, as I’ll take over from Darren Owen and Gary O’Brien before passing it on to John Hunt.”

It will not be the first time Bryce has commentated on racing, having been called into action at very short notice when working for AtTheRaces, the forerunner to Sky Sports Racing.

She added: “I did a whole card at Compiegne once on AtTheRaces when there was no commentator, and it included an Arabian maiden and a cross-country race. I didn’t know any of the Arabian horses, obviously, and in the cross-country race I didn’t know the course they were taking, how many circuits there were, or when they were finishing, so that was challenging to say the least.

“I’ve been very much thrown in on days when the commentary has gone down, including for greyhound racing, but that’s the nature of the job. There were a lot less listeners though on AtTheRaces on a Tuesday than there will be on 5 Live Sport on Saturday.”

Bryce is only the second woman ever to commentate on the race, after Mirabel Topham, whose family owned the racecourse, employed her own commentators and joined them on the microphone following a dispute with the BBC over copyright in 1952.