My Race Days

Eliza interviews Grand national winning jockey and fellow explorer Richard Dunwoody

Eliza is a geographer and so shares a common interest with Richard Dunwoody in exploration as well as horse racing. Richard is a former champion national hunt jockey who has won the Grand National (Miinehoma) and Gold Cup (Charter Party) as well as he explains here, the Welsh National on Riverside Boy who passed recently at the grand old age of 28. Richard is involved with an adventure travel company called Wild Frontier. read about it here if you want the adventure of a lifetime. Like Richard; Eliza has been to Jordan, Argentina and the Arctic but has a fair way to go to catch Richard Dunwoody in the travel stakes - including an amazing Mongolian adventure!

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About Eliza Cook

Hi! I'm Eliza. I am a Geographer by profession, and am currently studying for a PhD in Geography at Swansea University. I will be investigating ice core records from Greenland pretty soon. But you don't want to hear about those.

On top of this, during a year out, I fell into working as an in-house model for Agent Provocateur. Strange but true! This experience heightened my appreciation of fashion - especially the eclectic and eccentric fashions of the races.

I've been a racing fan for two years. I love all racing, but a day at the jumps is where I really feel the most excitement. Having grown up in Gloucestershire, with two great racecourses on the doorstep - Cheltenham and Chepstow - it is a wonder that I didn't find racing sooner.

I've been privileged to be a part of some of the 'behind the scenes' elements of racing, from photographing frosty morning breeze-ups to attending the post Cheltenham Festival jockeys' celebration in the Weighing Room!

I am thrilled to be a 'Voice of the Races'. To me, the most striking feature of racing is the accessibility of participants - and the fact that everybody attending has a part to play. A day at the races has it all; wonderful horses, spectacle and fashion, in an adrenaline soaked atmosphere where people from all walks of life come together in mutual appreciation of the sport.

I can't wait to tell you all about my experiences at the races, the people I meet and the adventures I have, as well as the fashions I encounter and the stories I uncover.

I hope you enjoy it!