LOCAL COMPANY SUPPORTS YOUNG RIDERS
In these difficult economic times, it is comforting to note that local businesses are still supporting local interests and even more so when they are encouraging youngsters to gain vital race riding experience.
Point-to-Pointing is lucky to have the assistance of Eldersfield Businesswoman Belinda Sparey who provides Novice Riders prizes at each of the 13 meetings in the West Midland Area.
At the end of each season, the exploits of all of the successful jockeys is put under the microscope and the overall winner is presented with their award at the Area Dinner Dance at Cheltenham Racecourse in September.
These awards are unique to the West Midlands because none of the other Point-to-Point Administrative Areas have anything comparable, and it is obvious at all the presentation ceremonies how well these awards are received by the participants.
Following up an advertisement for sponsors in 2003, Belinda and her husband Adrian contacted Robert Killen, who was then Chairman of the local Point-to-Point Secretaries Association and together they came up with this new concept.
Under the banner of her company “The Best of Taste Catering Services” the Novice Riders Awards have been won by local riders Emma Phillips, Liam Payter, Hannah Watson and this year by Jack Watson and Sam Drinkwater.
It is acknowledged that all of these riders have the attributes to progress further in the sport, and that is due in part to the higher profile they have gained as winners of these awards.
Bill never rode in Point-to-Points herself “I was not brave enough”, but she recalls that her father Harry, who used to ride in glasses, rode his last winner at Andoversford in 1969 on a horse called Polar Legend.
Harry is the brother of Dick Baimbridge, one of the most successful Point-to-Point trainers the sport has ever known, while her mother Bridget is one of the stalwarts of the Ledbury Hunt.
Bill and her brother and sisters were brought up via the normal Pony Club and Hunting background, where she was outshone by the likes of Eastnor based Julian Pritchard, the most successful Point-to-Point jockey this side of the Irish Sea.
Educated at a Catholic School in Cheltenham, she started to develop her culinary expertise as a teenager on family holidays in Exford and then spent time at The Cottage in the Wood in Malvern and also went travelling.
Belinda and her husband Adrian moved in similar social circles so kept bumping into one another at these events, but it was a number of years, before they set up home together in Malvern where he popped the question on Boxing Day in 1995.
Bill set up Best of Taste in 2000, and like most of these enterprises it had humble beginnings as she worked from home. The company was just starting to find it feet when it suffered a setback when the Foot and Mouth crisis struck in 2001.
Most of her business comes from recommendations, of which there are many, so sponsoring at Point-to-Points provided an opportunity to widen her niche market from weddings and christenings into Hunt Balls and shooting parties and a wide range of other activities.
The company now employs 35 people on a part or full time basis and they have been kept busy with almost 30 weddings during the summer, and no doubt part of its appeal is that all its food it locally sourced. Although based in Gloucestershire, Best of Taste has now expanded into the surrounding counties.
Adrian and Bill’s commitment to the sport they both enjoy socially as well as sponsors was shown in March this year, when with the help of their close friends Andrew Elliott of local Auctioneers Brightwells and Point-to-Point legend Julian Pritchard they purchased a 6-year-old mare called Beautox to run in their colours during the 2009 campaign.
The Sparey’s picnics at these events are legendary so they can be assured to plenty of vistors should the mare make it into the winners enclosure during the coming months.
