TV broadcaster Clare Balding has unearthed a memory of how she once “nearly killed” Princess Anne during a horse race in the 1980s as she reminisced over her royal connections.
Clare who lives with her wife in West London, was a jockey for five years before she joined the BBC as a trainee in 1994, and she even once raced against Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara Tindall.
In an interview with the Telegraph, she described the details of the near-freak accident. Clare said: “It was in a race when I’d only been competing for a couple of years. I got in her path, we collided and she was nearly unseated. I think she’s forgiven me. She knows I didn’t do it on purpose.”
The broadcaster had previously taken part in The Ladies Handicap race in Beverley in East Yorkshire, in 1989, where she raced against Zara Tindall and her mother before almost colliding with the Princess.
After the race, it is reported she was given a “steely glare” by the Princess for compromising her victory, despite apologising.
The broadcaster recently re-told the story to the Telegraph and Clare also admitted that she was so scared to receive her OBE from Princess Anne in 2013 that she almost messed up her curtsey to the royal and spoke “absolute gibberish” to her.
The sporting TV star has since received her OBE in 2013 and CBE in 2022 for services to sport and charity.
