Brough Scott honoured with Sir Peter O'Sullevan Annual Award

Brough Scott, co-founder of the Racing Post and one of the best-known figures in horseracing, was honoured for his decades of work in the sport when he became the latest recipient of the Sir Peter O'Sullevan Annual Award in London on Thursday.

Scott is the 24th winner of an award created by O'Sullevan, the late journalist and broadcaster known as the Voice of Racing, and joins a who's who of previous winners alongside luminaries such as Vincent O'Brien, Michael Dickinson, JP McManus, Sir Henry Cecil, Martin Pipe, Sir Anthony McCoy, John Gosden and Aidan O'Brien.

"To be honest I am very overwhelmed by all this," Scott said after receiving an ovation from guests at the awards lunch held at the Dorchester Hotel.

"Racing has been a real family for me right across the board but I also have my own family and I have got all of them with me today, my wife and my four kids."

A graduate of Oxford University and the rider of 100 winners as an amateur and professional jockey, Scott was anchorman for ITV and then Channel 4 Racing for 30 years.

Aside from his work for the Racing Post, which he co-founded with Sheikh Mohammed in 1986, Scott has been a journalist for the Sunday Times, Independent on Sunday and Sunday Telegraph, covering not only horseracing but also Wimbledon, the Open, the Olympics, the football World Cup and a rugby Lions tour.

This week he chaired his last meeting of the Injured Jockeys Fund, having been chairman of the charity since 2007 and a trustee since 1978.

Of O'Sullevan, Scott said: "He was terrific. The thing about Peter is he was a player, he loved life. He cared about people."

Scott added: "The thing about racing is it's all very lovely but it's all about competition, getting there. It's about taking risks.

"We live in a dangerously risk-averse society. You have got to be prepared to play and Peter played but he also gave back and I think that's a great motto to have."

The event is a key fundraiser for the Sir Peter O'Sullevan Charitable Trust, which for 20 years has backed six of O'Sullevan's favourite charities, including Racing Welfare, World Horse Welfare and Blue Cross, as well as a number of other causes such as Peter O'Sullevan House in Newmarket and the Ebony Horse Club.

Since being set up by O'Sullevan in 1999, the Trust has distributed more than £10 million to those causes.

A further £132,000 was raised from the eight lots auctioned following the lunch, which included a solid silver statue of Lester Piggott, sculpted by Willie Newton.

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