Ken Pitterson has gone from would-be pastry chef to doyen of the paddock

Ken Pitterson is a very familiar face on British racecourses – but if his early ambitions had been realised he would have continued down a very different career path.

The 60-year-old is a renowned paddock expert, learning the trade from former journalist Gerald Delamere among others, but before that Pitterson tried his hand at what some may think was a surprising trade.

“Believe it or not, I was a pastry chef and my dream was to open up shops all over London!” said Pitterson.

“I have no family link to racing at all. My only family member who watched racing was my uncle and I used to watch it with him.

“Our first actual bet together was on Troy in the 1979 Derby, 50p win, and that got me hooked into watching his career. But I knew nothing about what was actually going on, given the races he was winning, until later in life, like the King George and Irish Derby. But that Derby was something which caught my imagination.

“There’s a lot of talk at the moment about attracting new fans to racing and that is where the star horses like Constitution Hill and the like come into it. People need a horse to latch on to, they don’t even need to back it, you just follow their career.”

Pitterson’s edge is going racing several times a week and intently viewing horses in the paddock, a far cry from being a chef.

“I soon realised that was very hard work, but I was working near Fleet Street and all the old journalists used to come into our patisserie and talk about racing,” he said.

“At the time, I knew nothing about racing, but I got to go racing with a couple of mates who understood what was going on and I then met Gerald Delamere (formerly of the Sporting Life, Racing Post and Weekender). I learned a lot from him and then I knew what people were talking about which fuelled my interest.

“As time went on, the four of us who went racing became three, then two, and then it was just me. I had to decide if I wanted to keep going on my own, but I’d met loads of people and then Gerry asked me if I could help him out taking notes when he was on holiday.

“I didn’t know if I was doing it right, but I learned on the job and it all went from there. Gerry told me to learn to type because he thought I had the potential to do his job. Fleur Cushman (ex-Weekender editor) said she thought I could do the job and I did it for nearly 17 years.

“I met Gerry through a guy who was Victor Chandler’s paddock judge and it all fell into place, I’ve just been very lucky to fall into jobs and meet people at the right time.”

Pitterson is a regular presence on William Hill Radio, giving his on-the-spot opinions from the paddock, and he says you never really know who will be listening, despite it being a niche audience.

“I’ve been working for William Hill Radio for 23 years. I met someone who used to write for a magazine called In The Know and he had a contact with William Hill. I was fishing for work on his magazine but he suggested the radio. I had a go at it with no expectations but they liked it, I did it for a couple of months and they said they would pay me to go racing, not much but an excuse to do it, and from there things have snowballed,” he said.

“I do that three or four days a week. I’ve had people from Australia, India, Antigua, so many have come up to me on track saying they listen to the radio and recognise my voice. It’s amazing the people that listen to it, if I say something about a horse, someone usually comes up to me about it.

“A great example is one of my pet hates in red hoods, so I went on a bit of a rant about them. The very next race William Haggas came up to me at York and said ‘you don’t like red hoods, Ken?’ so you never know who is listening.

“I’ve been doing a bit for ITV for three or four years now and that only started by chance. I went racing at Lingfield one day and their feed went down, so Oli Bell asked me if I could do a bit to camera. I was surprised, but didn’t have much time to think about it. I put up a horse called Scope who got beat but ran well and I never thought anything else of it.

“The next day my phone exploded and shortly after, I went to York. The first person I saw was Oli and ITV asked me to do all three days at York and it just snowballed, I do all the big races for ITV Flat and jumps and the Opening Show now and again, but it all came from being in the right place at the right time.

“I’m lucky the trainers trust me. I went to Sir Michael Stoute’s for 17 years, the only year I missed was covid, I knew all the staff, I go to Ralph Beckett’s, Richard Hannon’s, Warren Greatrex’s – I’m lucky these people let me go.

“Myself and Ralph are Leeds supporters, so we get to talk about that most of the time.

“I always say it’s not a job going racing for a living. If you do something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”