Everyone at the ROA and Owner Breeder magazine was saddened to hear of the passing of renowned racing journalist Howard Wright. He was 79.
Born in 1945 in the racing town of Doncaster, where he was first introduced to the sport, the St Leger was one race that Wright never missed throughout his life.
Having started out writing for Timeform in the 1960s, he went on to the Sheffield Morning Telegraph and The Daily Telegraph before in 1986 he joined the newly-launched Racing Post, a direct competitor to The Sporting Life, the long-established racing broadsheet.
Wright was initially News Editor at the Post, late becoming the paper’s Industry Editor, developing a list of contacts the envy of every other journalist in the profession.
Having retired from writing full time for the Post in 2012, he became a regular contributor to Owner Breeder magazine; invariably, his column – which wouldn’t shy away from tackling controversial subjects – was the first thing most readers would turn to each month.
Edward Rosenthal, Editor of Owner Breeder, said: “Howard Wright was an outstanding journalist who had a deep love of horseracing.
“Very few possessed his in-depth knowledge of the sport, which enabled him to get to the heart of stories and explain them to his audience.
“Racing remained his passion even after he stopped writing full time, and you would never be surprised to see Howard at an industry lunch, AGM or even further afield – he loved to travel, whether that was for a racing conference in Paris or to see Equinox run his final race in Japan.
“Howard was a true friend of racing – his work as a Trustee of the National Horseracing College was very important to him – and he will be sorely missed by many people across the sport and industry.”
