Clare Balding in soup after Grand National

Did the BBC's doyenne of sports broadcasting, Clare Balding, overstep the mark on Saturday when she welcomed the winning jockey Liam Treadwell (pictured) into the winners' enclosure at Aintree after the Grand National? As the TV cameras trained on the victorious 100-1 outsider Mon Mome and the grinning jockey, it was clear for all to see that Treadwell has several teeth missing.

After congratulating the horse's owner Vida Bingham and trainer Venetia Williams - with the exception of the jockey, this was an all-female affair - Balding turned to 23-year-old Treadwell and asked him to give a smile for the camera. "Liam, just give us a big grin to the camera," she insisted.

When he refused, she said: "No, no, let's see your teeth."

And when the reluctant jockey finally obeyed, Balding said: "Not exactly the best teeth in the world, but you can afford to go and get them done now if you like."

The former jockey and trainer Charlie Brooks, writing in the Daily Telegraph, said that if Balding's comment had caused offence in some quarters, it shouldn't have. "Balding was just making the point that jockeys aren't very well paid," he wrote. "Think of them the next time a footballer prangs one of his Bentleys or gets caught in a night-club brawl."

Treadwell, who picked up £50,000 prize money for the ride of his life, said yesterday he was not upset by Balding's behaviour while his fiancee, 19-year-old Emily Warner, said: "I love him whatever Clare Balding says".

Balding knows the racing business inside out: she has been a leading amateur jockey herself and her brother Andrew Balding is a trainer. Their father Ian Balding trained Mill Reef. Amid complaints from BBC viewers, Balding has declined to comment on what happened on Saturday but is understood to have apologised privately to Treadwell.