Francesca Cumani is a horse racing presenter working for ''

ITV Racing ''ITV Racing'' is a programme produced by ITV Sport for races shown on ITV (ITV1 and STV) or ITV4 in the United Kingdom. The programme is referred to as ''Racing on STV'' in Northern and Central Scotland. In its previous incarnation, the show ...

'' and ''

Nine's Wide World of Sports ''Nine's Wide World of Sports'' is a long running sports anthology brand on Australian television that airs on the Nine Network and streaming service Stan. All major sports, events and series covered by the network are broadcast under this br ...

''. She has previously been part of the coverage of the

Melbourne Cup The Melbourne Cup is an annual Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia, at the Flemington Racecourse. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and older, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club that forms part of the ...

with

Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...

and

10 Sport ''10 Sport'' is the brand that all sporting events broadcast on Network 10, an Australian free-to-air commercial television network. Sports streamed on Paramount+ in Australia since August 2021 are also broadcast under the 10 Sport banner. Al ...

Education

Cumani was educated at Tudor Hall School, a boarding and day

independent school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

for girls, between the village of Bloxham and the

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

Banbury Banbury is an historic market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. The parish had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding ...

, in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

. She left the school in 2001. Following school, Cumani attended the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

, from which she graduated with a degree in French and Spanish.

Career

After attending university Cumani worked in the family business of training and breeding race horses. After taking horses to Australia on a trip, she was offered an opportunity to be a guest presenter on Australia's Channel 7's horse racing broadcast. This led to a permanent job with CNN presenting ''Winning Post''. She presented it in both English and Spanish. Cumani is also a presenter on Australia's Network 10 Melbourne Cup Coverage. Cumani began working for ''

'' in 2016. In February 2019 Ed Chamberlin and Cumani were joint winners of the Broadcast Sports Presenter of the Year at the SJA Awards.

Personal life

Cumani was born in Newmarket, Suffolk, and is the daughter of trainer Luca Cumani. Francesca received her amateur jockey licence at the age of 18 and had four wins. In 2014 Cumani married Australian international polo player, Rob Archibald. In April 2016 their son was born. In 2018 Cumani and Archibald separated. Following their separation, Cumani was in a relationship with fellow ITV Racing presenter, Oli Bell. They split in 2020. In December 2021, she announced that she was expecting her second child with partner Max Johnson. In June 2022, Cumani gave birth to a son, Teddy. Cumani gave birth to her third child in 2023.

References

Living people People educated at Tudor Hall School, Banbury Alumni of the University of Bristol ITV people Sports commentators People from Newmarket, Suffolk Women sports commentators British horse racing commentators English sports broadcasters English people of Italian descent Equestrian sports commentators 1983 births {{England-tv-bio-stub