Max McNeill’s daughter Ella advised him ‘that is one we can’t miss’ – and she or he was proper
EXCLUSIVE: Ella McNeill is one of the brightest young talents on horse racing TV and she had a pivotal role in her owner dad Max ‘lucking out’ with jumping star No Drama This End
Ella McNeill has horse racing in her blood
Max McNeill is heading to the Cheltenham Festival with two rising stars in his team. His family not only co-own one of the most exciting young jumpers in training, but he is also the father of one of the brightest talents on racing television.
The horse No Drama This End, owned in partnership with Chris and Giles Barber, has outstanding claims of securing McNeill a long overdue first Cheltenham Festival success in the Turners’ Novices’ Hurdle. Among the entourage will be 28-year-old Ella McNeill who secured her broadcasting break when she landed a full-time presenting role with RacingTV in 2025.
Ella, who studied geography at university, knows her way around the racecourses better than many. “My brother and I were always dragged to the races when we were kids, and for whatever reason it captured my imagination from day one,” she says.
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“My first proper memory was when Dad owned Walkon, who went off favourite for the Triumph Hurdle. He wrote to my headmistress to ask if I could have a day off school, saying it was an educational visit and I wanted a career in racing.”
The McNeills hired a school bus to take their party from their home in Sonning, near Reading, to Cheltenham in 2009. Ella says: “I was 10-years-old at that stage.
“Going to Gold Cup day when you are 10, having the day off school, you can’t beat it. Walkon ran so well but just got pipped at the post by Zaynar. From that moment I knew I wanted to be involved in the sport.”
Ella introduced her Dad to the Barbers through her close friendship with international heptathlete Ellen Barber, daughter of Chris, and Megan Nicholls.
“We always said we needed to get them together in a horse,” she explains. “Meg’s dad would train it and our dads would own it.
“When the Barbers asked us to come into No Drama This End, we were renovating the house and even Dad, who finds it hard to say no, was being reluctant. But I said, ‘Dad, I never say this to you but this is one we cannot miss’. It just felt so right.”
No Drama This End, ninth in last year’s Champion Bumper, is unbeaten in three starts over hurdles, winning the Grade 1 Challow Hurdle in December.
“We cannot believe how we have lucked out,” Ella says. “We’ve never owned a horse that has achieved what he’s achieved in a short space of time.”
Ella owes her first job in racing to the late Richard Morcombe who employed her to manage Chelsea Thoroughbreds’ jumps string. At the same time she started freelancing for RacedayTV and OLBG.
Last year she landed a full-time position at RacingTV, recently earning a regular slot presenting coverage of Kempton on Wednesday nights and working at the Saudi Cup.
She says. “I hosted my first show in January and it’s been going really well. Every New Year I write goals for myself.
“I am an ambitious person and never like to rest on my laurels but I want to nail the RacingTV job, get comfortable with the live environment and improve my skills.”
