Death Of Racing Journalist Alan Lee

Alan Lee, racing correspondent for The Times has died aged 61. Lee, who joined The Times in 1999, was a highly respected racing journalist and a frequent guest on At The Races. He underwent heart surgery in November and had seemingly made a recovery and was racing at Ascot as recently as last Friday. A hugely talented writer, Lee was voted Horserace Writers & Photographers Association Racing Writer of the Year on three occasions, most recently in 2014. He was also an accomplished author and among his published works were biographies on jockeys Richard Johnson, Pat Eddery and Peter Scudamore. Paying tribute to Lee, Cornelius Lysaght, racing correspondent for the BBC said, “Alan was just the most brilliant and most natural writer. He was a huge fan of racing but he was absolutely passionate about jumps racing. He lived in Cheltenham and loved not only being at Cheltenham and Aintree, but also all the real jumping places like Ludlow, Perth and Sedgefield. He had a heart operation in early November. There were initial complications but nothing to panic about. We all saw him at Cheltenham a week on Friday and then he was at Ascot a few days ago. He was in positive form, and he had every right to be in positive form, so we were all left shattered by the news.”