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Robin Oakley | |
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| Born | 20 August 1941 United Kingdom |
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| Title | Political editor of BBC News (1992–2000) European political editor of CNN International (2000–2008) |
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Robin Francis Leigh Oakley OBE (born 20 August 1941) is a British journalist. From 1992 to 2000 he was political editor at the BBC and from 2000 to 2008 he was European political editor at CNN International. He is from Kidderminster in Worcestershire.
Oakley was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, and Brasenose College, Oxford.
He started his career on the Liverpool Daily Post where he became political editor. He was then the Crossbencher columnist and assistant editor on The Sunday Express and was assistant editor of the Daily Mail from 1981 to 1986. Between 1986 and 1992, he was a columnist and political editor for The Times . He then moved to the BBC, where he was political editor between 1992 and 2000. During this period he regularly presented political news items on BBC television news. His predecessor as BBC political editor was John Cole.
Oakley was succeeded as political editor in summer 2000 by Andrew Marr, [1] despite having intended to remain at the BBC to cover the upcoming general election. [2] After leaving the BBC, Oakley became CNN International's European political editor. He is also an expert in horse racing, and has written the Turf column in The Spectator since 1994, as well as being the racing correspondent of the Financial Times for several years.
His 2000 book Valley of The Racehorse is about the racing community in the Lambourn valley. His 2001 book Inside Track is based on his experiences as a political journalist.
He was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 2001 for his services to political journalism. [3]
Horse racing is the second largest spectator sport in Great Britain, and one of the longest established, with a history dating back many centuries. According to a report by the British Horseracing Authority it generates £3.39 billion total direct and indirect expenditure in the British economy, of which £1.05 billion is from core racing industry expenditure, and the major horse racing events such as Royal Ascot and Cheltenham Festival are important dates in the British and international sporting and society calendar.
Thoroughbred horse racing is a spectator sport in Australia, and gambling on horse races is a very popular pastime with A$14.3 billion wagered in 2009/10 with bookmakers and the Totalisator Agency Board (TAB). The two forms of Thoroughbred horseracing in Australia are flat racing, and races over fences or hurdles in Victoria and South Australia. Thoroughbred racing is the third most attended spectator sport in Australia, behind Australian rules football and rugby league, with almost two million admissions to 360 registered racecourses throughout Australia in 2009/10. Horseracing commenced soon after European settlement, and is now well-appointed with automatic totalizators, starting gates and photo finish cameras on nearly all Australian racecourses.
Mark Johnston is a Scottish racehorse trainer based in Middleham, North Yorkshire, England.
Christopher John Penrice Booker was an English journalist and author. He was a founder and first editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye in 1961. From 1990 onward he was a columnist for The Sunday Telegraph. In 2009, he published The Real Global Warming Disaster. He also disputed the link between passive smoking and cancer, and the dangers posed by asbestos. In his Sunday Telegraph section he frequently commented on the UK Family Courts and Social Services.
Eclipse was an undefeated 18th-century British Thoroughbred racehorse who won 18 races, including 11 King's Plates. He raced before the introduction of the British Classic Races, at a time when four-mile heat racing was the norm. He was considered the greatest racehorse of his time and the expression, "Eclipse first, the rest nowhere" entered the English vernacular as an expression of dominance.
Sir Simon David Jenkins FLSW is a British author, a newspaper columnist and editor. He was editor of the Evening Standard from 1976 to 1978 and of The Times from 1990 to 1992.
Peter Alan Oborne is a British journalist and broadcaster. He is the former chief political commentator of The Daily Telegraph, from which he resigned in early 2015. He is author of The Rise of Political Lying (2005), The Triumph of the Political Class (2007), and The Assault on Truth: Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism (2021), and along with Frances Weaver of the 2011 pamphlet Guilty Men. He has also authored a number of books about cricket. He writes a political column for Declassified UK, Double Down News, openDemocracy, Middle East Eye and a diary column for the Byline Times.
Kelso was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who is considered one of the greatest racehorses in history. He ranks fourth on the Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th Century. He defeated more champions and Hall of Fame horses than any other racehorse, and he often carried great handicaps. Some of the champions he defeated are Carry Back, Gun Bow, Bald Eagle, Tompion, Never Bend, Beau Purple, Quadrangle, Roman Brother, Crimson Satan, Jaipur, Ridan and Pia Star.
Matthew Robert Ralph d'Ancona is an English journalist and editor-at-large of The New European. A former deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph, he was appointed editor of The Spectator in February 2006, a post he retained until August 2009.
Dominic Green is a British historian, columnist and musician. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts, he is editor of the US edition of The Spectator and a commissioning editor of The Critic. He is a columnist and film reviewer for The Spectator, and a columnist for The Daily Telegraph. He also writes frequently on books and arts for The Wall Street Journal, The New Criterion, The Spectator (UK), Standpoint, The Literary Review, and The Oldie. He has also written for The Atlantic, Commentary, The Economist, First Things, The Weekly Standard, CapX and the antiquities magazine Minerva.
Thomas Stanford Lyle was an American comics artist, best known for his work on Starman and Robin for DC Comics, and Spider-Man for Marvel Comics.
Peter George James Jenkins was a British journalist and Associate Editor of The Independent. During his career he wrote regular columns for The Guardian, The Sunday Times as well as The Independent.
Around 1998, The Blood-Horse magazine polled a seven-person panel of distinguished horse racing people: Keeneland racing secretary Howard Battle, Maryland Jockey Club vice president Lenny Hale, Daily Racing Form columnist Jay Hovdey, Sports Illustrated senior writer William Nack, California senior steward Pete Pedersen, Louisville Courier-Journal racing writer Jennie Rees and Gulfstream Park steward Tommy Trotter. Each of the experts compiled a list of what they considered to be the top 100 Thoroughbred racehorses of the 20th century, which was then combined into a master list first published in a special issue of the magazine in February 1999. The controversial list, which named Man O'War number one and Secretariat number two, was expanded into a 1999 book which included complete biographies of the horses.
Round Table was an American Thoroughbred Hall of Fame racehorse. He is considered the greatest turf horse in American racing history.
John M. Oxx is a retired Irish trainer of thoroughbred racehorses. By the end of the 2009 season Oxx had trained 35 Group One winners over his career, including the winners of 11 Classic races. He is best known as the trainer of Sinndar and Sea The Stars.
Thayil Jacob Sony George is an Indian writer and biographer who received a Padma Bhushan award in 2011 in the field of literature and education. The fourth of eight siblings, TJS was born in Kerala, India to Thayil Thomas Jacob, a magistrate, and Chachiamma Jacob, a homemaker. Although his roots are in Thumpamon, Kerala, he lives in Bangalore and Coimbatore with his wife Ammu. He has a daughter, Sheba Thayil and a son, Jeet Thayil. American TV journalist Raj Mathai is his nephew.
Harry Bassett (1868–1878) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse, winner of the 1871 Belmont Stakes and an outstanding racehorse of the 19th century. He also won a number of other stakes races, and was named the Champion male of his age group in 1870, 1871 and 1872. He was retired to stud duties in New Jersey when his five-year racing career ended, having recorded 23 wins from 36 starts. Harry Bassett died in New Jersey in 1878 and was inducted into the United States Racing Hall of Fame in 2010.
Darlan was a British Thoroughbred racehorse who competed in National Hunt racing. In a nine-race career that lasted from April 2011 until February 2013, he won six races, finished second once, and fell twice. After winning his only National Hunt Flat race, he was one of the leading novice hurdlers of the 2011/2012 season, winning four races including the Top Novices' Hurdle. In the following year, he established himself as a leading contender for the Champion Hurdle by winning the Christmas Hurdle, but was killed in a fall in his next race.
Beauchamp King was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. After finishing third on his racecourse debut he won his remaining four races as a two-year-old in 1995, including victories in the Autumn Stakes and the Racing Post Trophy to establish himself as one of the best staying juveniles of his generation in Britain. He upset Alhaarth in the Craven Stakes on his three-year-old debut and went on to finish fifth in the 2000 Guineas and third in the Irish 2,000 Guineas. He won one minor race in 1997 and the Spring Trophy in 1998 before being retired from racing at the end of the 1999 season. He made no impact as a sire of winners.
Mr Jinks was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He was one of the best two-year-olds in England in 1928 when he won five of his seven races including the New Stakes, July Stakes, Lavant Stakes and Prendergast Stakes. In the following spring he took the Severals Stakes before recording his biggest success in the 2000 Guineas. He failed when favourite for the Epsom Derby but returned to form to win the St James's Palace Stakes. His performances subsequently deteriorated and he was retired from racing at the end of the year. He made little impact as a breeding stallion.
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