We are fortunate to have John Hunt in our family a year on from the unimaginable horror visited upon his

A year ago this week the most unimaginable horror was visited upon BBC racing commentator John Hunt.

No-one was left untouched by the scale of the cold-hearted, murderous violence shown by Kyle Clifford and the overwhelming sense of grief that something like this could happen. The shock was palpable. 

The fact it happened to John, truly one of the kindest, most family-oriented people you could come across, made it all the more cripplingly sad. A year on, this remains firmly the case.

At Newmarket’s July festival 12 months ago a minute’s silence was held as racing came to terms with what had happened to one of its own. It was so bleak.

However, people promised to help John and his surviving daughter Amy. They offered their unwavering support and were united in their shock and sadness. Those words and actions in the hours and days after the hateful crime were true, and racing – and John’s many friends, colleagues and admirers – have rallied around him and Amy; our arms wrapped around them in affection and protection.

John returned to commentating at Brighton last September, chosen because it was the last place he had spent a weekend away together with his beloved wife Carol. 

He has since commentated with regularity at the racecourse and on BBC Radio 5 Live, where his brilliance in describing the action to those listening in – bringing to life in vivid colour what people might not be able to see – returned some sort of normality to his life.

In the time since last summer, John and Amy have spoken with tremendous courage, emotion and clarity about the abhorrent actions of Clifford, which continued right up to his cowardly refusal to attend the sentencing hearing, and about how they have taken what has happened to them and are now living their lives.

During Amy and John’s interview with the BBC last month, John said how he still speaks with Carol and his daughters Hannah and Louise, keeping them a part of his day-to-day existence as they always had been. We are fortunate John has decided to keep speaking to us in racing too because it is a richer, better place for having him.

There is no doubt John and Amy will not want to be defined by what happened to them last year and nor should they be. But now, and forever, they can be assured that we will never stop caring about them and doing all we can to always make racing a safe, comforting and fulfilling part of their lives.

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'I talk to them every day' - John Hunt speaks publicly for the first time since the murder of his wife and two daughters  

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