“It was only because my gran died, I had nobody to talk to about racing.”
Before the millions of views, before the viral reaction videos and before becoming one of racing’s most recognisable online voices, Stephen Power was just another fan wandering into Kempton with a racecard in his pocket.
Speaking on The Paddock, Power opened up about how he first fell into blogging, a journey shaped as much by loss as it was by inspiration from one of the sport’s most divisive characters.
Growing up, Power was captivated not just by the horses, but by the theatre of racing itself.
“I used to see John McCririck bouncing around the ring with all this jewellery. That stupid big beard that he used to have. He was a great character.”
For Power, McCririck embodied something racing has often struggled to protect.
“One of the things I’ve been a big advocate for in horse racing is… people work in racing, but you have to remember it’s showbusiness and it’s a sport,” he said. “It needs to sell itself. It needs to be sexy. It needs to be glamorous.”
McCririck, for all his excess, did exactly that.
“He was somebody who added to that in his own unique way. Probably wouldn’t fit this modern era now with the woke PC world we live in, sadly. But yeah he was a bit of an inspiration to me.”
Yet Power’s move into social media wasn’t driven by ambition or strategy. It came from grief.
Power explained that it was his grandmother who got him into horseracing when he was a small child, and after she passed away, he took to social media so that he had somebody to talk to.
More specifically he explained: “When I eventually joined social media, it was only down to my gran dying. I had nobody to speak to about racing.”
At the time, racing didn’t have the digital ecosystem it enjoys today. Twitter was still emerging as a platform for the sport, and the idea of independent creators building audiences around racing was virtually unheard of.
Until Power went to Kempton.
“I went along to Kempton one day and on the back of the racecard there was a picture of AP McCoy,” Power explained. “It said, ‘Join Us On X’.”
“I just joined and picked up the phone. By the end of the day I had 200 followers and they were all saying, ‘Who the f*ck is this guy?’”
What started as an outlet, somewhere to talk racing when he felt alone, quickly became something bigger. Power found that people weren’t just interested in his opinions, but in his voice, his reactions and his willingness to show emotion in a sport that often keeps it hidden.
As Power explained on The Paddock, he never set out to become a brand or a disruptor. He just wanted someone to talk racing with.
The Paddock is hosted by Oli Bell, with regular contributions from Rishi Persad and Nick Luck, and features weekly discussion, tips and guests from across the world of horse racing.
Catch The Paddock on YouTube, or listen via podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
