A tribute to Howard Wright

By the time I joined Timeform in March 1968, Howard Wright had already been there for four years, having joined the company at eighteen. Even as a twenty-something, he was already regarded as one of the elder statesmen, having worked on the ‘Racehorses’ annual and edited Timeform’s pocket-sized, half-a-crown magazine The Racing Week for fourteen months after the death of the legendary Arthur Shaw.

The content of The Racing Week was lively and varied and included access to hand-picked selections for the week’s racing, which appeared each day in the principal newspapers attached to a code published in The Racing Week. Howard maintained the outstanding success of the selections which showed a level stakes profit in each year of the magazine’s existence.

Timeform’s owner Phil Bull pulled the plug on The Racing Week after 156 editions, the year before I arrived, citing the magazine’s costs of production and distribution, and saying that a major mistake had been that Timeform had not set out to make The Racing Week a vehicle for large advertising, relying too much on circulation revenue. Timeform never again attempted a mass-market publication.

'A hard worker all his life'

Writing for Timeform was traditionally anonymous in those days, publications like ‘Racehorses’ presenting a corporate view rather than the view of the individual. One of the first things that  became apparent in my early days at Timeform was that the rule didn’t apply to Howard whose byline seemed to be everywhere (including on a review of the Flat racing season which appeared in the hallowed ‘Racehorses’ each year).

Howard was a hard worker all his life and his rather dingy side office on the editorial floor of Timeform House, desk piled high with papers, was a place of wonderment to this young recruit. I usually found the chain-smoking Wright on the phone to a pivotal racing figure, or arranging or conducting one of his ground-breaking ‘Inside Information’ interviews with a leading trainer. I thought this was what working for Timeform was going to be like. I had cut my journalistic teeth at The Journal and Evening Chronicle in Newcastle and Howard’s lair resembled the busy newspaper office I had worked in (I was soon to learn that the main Timeform editorial department was much more like a university library than a newspaper office!). 

Ambition was always likely to lead Howard to pastures new, especially when the demise of The Racing Week left him without a clearly defined role. In 1969 he became racing correspondent of the Sheffield Morning Telegraph and also began to contribute to the variety of racing magazines that were around in those days.

Furthering his reputation as an astute commentator on racing issues, Howard’s next move was to the Daily Telegraph as deputy racing editor in 1980, followed six years later by his career-defining switch to the Racing Post where, as associate editor, he was one of the founding staff members. His ‘Fly On The Wall’ column became compulsory reading for anyone who followed racing politics. The frequent industry ‘scoops’ were testament to the contacts Howard built up and to his discretion and trustworthiness. Like all the best journalists he never betrayed a source or a confidence.

'A masterpiece among racing biographies'

Howard never forgot his roots and was among a large group of distinguished ‘old boys’ who returned to Halifax for a final reunion when Timeform House closed its doors for the last time (the operation is now in modern offices in Leeds with The Sporting Life). Howard also spent many hours at Timeform House leading up to the publication in 1995 of a biography of Timeform’s founder.

Researching the wealth of Phil Bull’s published work and his extensive correspondence and taped telephone conversations was an onerous task but the no-holds-barred memoir – much of it in Bull’s own words – was something Howard could truly be proud of. It remains a masterpiece among racing biographies. When Howard agreed to present the Phil Bull Trophy at Pontefract a few years ago, he turned up with a copy of the long-out-of-print work for the winning owner, having searched one out on eBay! 

Tributes arrived from around the world when Howard Wright died on Friday August 16th at the age of 79. He continued working long after retiring from the Racing Post – his column in Owner Breeder was always the first I turned to - and, even in his final days, as he lay in hospital with pneumonia, his family had to bring in his laptop so he could write. His widow Anne, whom Howard met and married while both were at Timeform, will present the trophy for the Betfred Howard Wright Doncaster Cup, in the company of the couple’s two daughters Andrea and Karen.

Howard was born within a two-minute walk of Doncaster racecourse and was first taken to the St Leger by his parents when he was just three. He attended no fewer than seventy-six successive editions of the final classic, keeping up the sequence by special arrangement when the 2020 Covid edition was run behind closed doors. The press room at Doncaster is to be dedicated to Howard in a special ceremony on St Leger day. His funeral will be private.

So many pundits these days have no journalistic background, and it shows. Howard Wright never formed a judgement about people he was interviewing until he’d first heard what they had to say. He asked the questions and listened to the answers, the secret of good and fair journalism. His Yorkshire stubbornness wasn’t always to everyone’s taste but it was an asset when pursuing a story or creating one of the knowledgeable comment pieces for which he became known. He was ‘the journalist’s journalist’ and will be much missed by his colleagues, as well as by the many who have enjoyed reading his work over the years. How many of them can still recall The Racing Week, I wonder?