Lydia Hislop crowned Broadcaster of the Year for fourth time

Racing TV’s Lydia Hislop was named Broadcaster of the Year Award for the fourth time in seven years at the 58th Derby Awards in London on Monday.

Lydia has formed part of the presenting team at Racing TV for many years and is revered for her excellent interviews plus work with Ruby Walsh on the weekly Road To Cheltenham shows.

She also writes the weekly Road To Cheltenham column on racingtv.com and provides media training for aspiring jockeys at the British Racing School. 

It means that Racing TV presenters have won the award for six years running. 

Lydia was not present to pick up the Peter O'Sullevan Trophy at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, where about 500 people from the industry gathered. Her friend and colleague Eddie Fremantle picked up the award on her behalf.

Nick Luck and Ruby Walsh were also nominated for in the category, while 24-year-old Josh Stacey, also of Racing TV, shared the Emerging Talent Award with ConorFennelly, from their Irish team, of the Racing Post.

It was a good day for the Racing Post as they picked up wins in all seven categories for writers and photographers, only the tie in the Emerging Talent category preventing the paper from claiming a clean sweep.

The Post's best previous tally at the Derby Awards, which are sponsored by Hong Kong Jockey Club, World Pool and Coral, was four winners in 2019, the first year with the current seven categories. 

The Post's winners were led by Edward Whitaker and Patrick Mullins. Patrick was gaining a first win on a first nomination in the Racing Writer of the Year category. His victory means that Post writers have now won this award, for the Clive Graham Trophy, every year since 2014. 

Two of those ten victories were secured by the late Alastair Down, who won the Trophy five times in all, and it was announced at the Awards Lunch that the Trophy would be renamed in Alastair's memory from next year. 

In contrast to Patrick, Edward Whitaker became the first to collect a tenth win in a single category at the Awards when he landed Photographer of the Year for the first time since 2019. His colleague Patrick McCann, last year's Photographer of the Year, this year scooped the Picture of the Year, his fourth success in that category, which was first given in 2012. 

The John Oaksey Trophy for Reporter of the Year went to Jonathan Harding. Jonathan was winning a third Derby Award, the first to be successful in three different categories, having won the Emerging Talent and Specialist Writer trophies previously. This year, the latter went to one of the Post's bloodstock team, Tom Peacock. 

The George Ennor Award for Lifetime Achievement went to another celebrated broadcaster, with Robert Cooper, who retired in the summer from Sky Sports Racing, receiving the honour. 

Finally, in the awards for participants, Patrick Mullins collected the Trainers title on behalf of his father Willie, Oisin Murphy was named Jockey of the Year and Bluestocking's owner Juddmonte garnered the trophy for Owner of the Year. The IRB's International Trainer of the Year was Ralph Beckett, while James Owen won the ARO Arabian Racing Achievement Award for the second successive year.