Contributors and Supporters
It would not be possible to bring you the volume and quality of our information without our host of dedicated and truly tremendous contributors from the UK and beyond, so please find below our little 'thank you' gallery to highlight their support and work for Eclipse Magazine:
CLARE BALDING Eclipse Magazine is the only company Clare has put her name to as Non-Executive Director. This renowned sports presenter responded instantly to our begging letter when we were researching our start-up, and has been a hugely enthusiastic supporter and contributor ever since. You can read more about Clare at www.clarebalding.co.uk
PHOTOGRAPHERS:
SARA WATERSON Probably our most dedicated photographer, Sara is a huge racing fan and travels the country taking photos and writing reports for our Out & About section. She also launched our Girls with Guts series with three well-researched articles...and she's not finished yet!
JOHN MINOPRIO John is a lovely photographer who took the shots for our first ever front cover, and as a professional fashion and equestrian photographer his skills are the perfect combination for us. You can see more of his beautiful work at www.minophoto.co.uk
IAN YATES Like Sara, Ian discovered Eclipse in the early days and has stuck with us ever since, providing terrific pictures of the 2008 Epsom Derby, as well as other scenes from racecourses for our Out & About section. You can see more of his work at www.eyewhy.co.uk
CHARLOTTE HOULBROOK Another keen photographer, and a former point-to-point rider, Charlie likes to focus on the fashion side of things and you can always spot her Out & About photos because they have a description of the clothing manufacturers along with the people wearing the outfits! You can see more of Charlie's work at www.charliehoulbrook.com
GRAHAM FLACK Graham is an award-winning photographer who contributes regularly to the national papers and is sought after by high-profile clients including members of the Royal Family. He is also another expert at gorgeous fashion shoots and he has been kind enough to shoot some of our front covers of our Pocket Guides.
LEE ANN DAY-WHISTLER Lee Ann and her husband John love to go racing and are enthusiastic followers of the sport and its horses - in particular Yeats, about whom they provided some fabulous reportage from 2009's Royal Ascot. They have their own website dedicated to the equine champions of racing: www.famousracehorses.co.uk
BLOGGERS & WRITERS:
JOHN TIMPSON This former shoe-shop and now key-cutting & shoe repair business guru is, along with his wife Alex, also a keen racehorse owner and jump racing enthusiast. In addition, he's a very entertaining writer who generously documents his monthly racehorse owner experiences just for us in his monthly blog: Timpsonian
GEORGE BAKER He quit the media industry to train racehorses but the urge to write remained, so he satisfies the itch with his (almost) daily blog recording the highs and lows of life on his racing yard. Don't miss this great read at: Baker's Blog
MEALLY THORNTON Formerly Meally Greenwood, the new Mrs Thornton is now married to top jump jockey Robert 'Choc' Thornton - yay! - and her (approximately) fortnightly reports about life with a jockey make highly entertaining reading: The NagWAG Diaries
ALEX BROWN He's actually a Brit but he moved to North America to work with racehorses and documents his experiences as he goes along. His energy on the ground is matched with a prolific writing output, channelled to us via his weekly blog plus the occasional interview with American racing superstars such as Chantal Sutherland – we can hardly keep up! : Letter from North America
CHLOE FROM HATASTIC She set up her own business making gorgeous affordable headwear from found and recycled materials...then we asked her to write about her inspirations and her brilliant blog was born: Hatastic!
KARL QUINNEY This professional freelance journalist amazingly finds time to jot down notes about Family Days at the races for us as he flies around the country.
EIMEAR CHANCE When she's not rushing around working at racecourses or helping her father Noel Chance to train racehorses, Eimear pins down famous racing folk for a quick interview for us – her ad hoc '60 seconds with...' series appears in our Interviews section.
BEHIND THE SCENES:
ANTHONY WAKEHAM MBE He founded BETA and the National Riding Festival, and then we came along...he should have been sitting down to retire but this former Gurkha (and keen racehorse owner) rose to the challenge and marched us through the hugely exhausting launch of our business without breaking a sweat. He continues to interrogate us regularly - and we are eternally grateful.
JAN GREEN This professional journalist, Treasurer of the Horserace Writers and Photographers Association and Business Lecturer is also one of the loveliest people you could ever hope to meet. She contributes the occasional feature but helps us in so many other ways as well - we've lost count of how many bottles of wine we owe her...
NICHOLAS WHITTLE With his own highly successful Marketing company, Nicholas is really far too busy to help us - but he helps us anyway, constantly, generously, and always with a huge smile; we just can't thank him enough. More wine...
JOHN MAXSE This Director of Communications and Special Projects for the Jockey Club is probably the nicest 'official' racing industry person we've ever met. He puts up with our questions, mistakes, requests and even a spectacular coughing fit (long story) without ever a sign of impatience, superiority or despair... we might crack him yet...
BHA At a time when Eclipse Magazine was still just a glint in our eye, various people in the British Horseracing Association - including the MD Nic Coward - agreed to support us and give us their official approval. How amazing is that?
STUART KING This founder of Turf Legends is also a networker extraordinaire with bags of energy and a tremendous enthusiasm for making racing more accessible to everyone. We like to return his plugs for Eclipse with one of our own...: http://www.turflegends.co.uk
We also thank all others who have contributed articles, photos, interviews and ongoing support, including racecourses, racing associations, media agencies and amazing individuals. Plus thank you to the many Eclipse Magazine readers who send us their comments, offers and suggestions and who continue to stick with us in spite of the glitches!
The Eclipse team – Karen, Alli, Tony and Ro
