Simon Mapletoft’s date of birth and parents are not documented , though he has said his grandfather loved a bet and his father took him racing as a child, with the Ebor Festival at York a highlight, and watching Grand National day on the BBC captivated him too.

He worked for the Mansfield Chad newspaper for over 10 years from 1982, and spent 13 years as a football commentator and reporter for the BBC in Nottingham — he was known as “the voice of Mansfield Town” through the 1990s, following the club for BBC Radio Nottingham, the Chad, the Nottingham Evening Post, and the Football Post. He hung up his football microphone in 2002.

He made appearances on the old Racing Channel before joining the original At The Races team that included Mick Fitzgerald and Jason Weaver when the channel launched in 2019. He has since become a fixture on Sky Sports Racing, also writing for attheraces.com as an All-Weather Racing specialist and serving as an ownership ambassador for Great British Racing. He is known on-air as Sky Sports Racing’s All-Weather expert.

In 2013, he released a book, “Meatpies & Microphones – The Adventures of a Football Reporter,” reflecting on his football broadcasting career.