'It's been my whole life and I still love it' – Tommo to give up commentating at end of 2025

Are you well? I thought you weren’t — the big fella is going to hang up his microphone after nearly 60 years. 

Derek 'Tommo' Thompson, the racing commentator who denied the king his only win as a jockey and whose gaffe had a starring role on the Graham Norton Show, is retiring.

He revealed in a post on social media on Christmas Day that he will call his last race at the end of 2025.

It will bring to an end a career that began when he commentated at his first point-to-point meeting at the age of just 15.

“I'm not getting any younger, I'll be 75 in July,” Thompson told the Racing Post on Thursday. "I've been doing it a long time and I've been thinking about it with my wife Caroline for a while.

"There are a lot of very good young people coming through and the difficult part of the job is travelling — I find that hard now.

"But it's been my whole life and I still love it. I still go in the weighing room before each race to check the colours – Michael O'Hehir taught me to do that."

Looking ahead to his farewell tour of Britain's commentary boxes next year, Thompson said: "I like to think I'm a professional but it will probably be quite emotional.

"I've done every track in the UK and when I'm asked which is my favourite I always say 'the next one'; whether it's Kempton or Sedgefield I enjoy them all. It's been an honour to be able to commentate, at big tracks and small."

Thompson started in racing with six months as assistant to Grand National-winning trainer Denys Smith in his native County Durham and rode as an amateur, beating the then Prince of Wales into second place in a charity Flat race at Plumpton in 1980.

He moved into local radio at 18 and then joined BBC Radio Sport, becoming by his reckoning the youngest man to call the Grand National when he became part of the team at Aintree in 1973.

Thompson switched to ITV and then became a major part of the line-up on Channel 4 Racing, alongside the late Alastair Down and John McCririck.

He appeared briefly on primetime BBC1 more recently when Graham Norton featured a clip that had gone viral on Twitter. It showed him in the At The Races studio remarking, “Oh, you’ve been joined by a beautiful lady” as he handed over to Hereford, where a deadpan Robert Cooper replied: “It’s a man actually, Derek.”

Thompson became an unlikely star on social media again thanks to a television advert for the Crown Hotel in Bawtry, in which his line: “Are you well? I thought you were” was picked up by Radio 1 DJ Greg James, leading to branded T shirts and appearances at pop festivals.

He will continue to be seen in his other roles, notably as a raceday presenter, and said: "I can't afford to give those up, I have to work for a living!"

Now read these:

The remarkable story of daredevil Prince Charles's riding career - including a close-up of Derek Thompson's rear end 

He got me into it when I was six years old – we went to Stockton races 

Derek Thompson: 'I simply assumed it was a woman and still laugh about it now' 

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