How a retired engineer's fun tipping idea turned into a successful hunter chase sponsorship deal

A group of people, many of whom have never met, are now Britain’s most prevalent sponsors of hunter chases.

They interact through the discussion forum of a website dedicated to point-to-pointing called Jumping For Fun (JFF), which is also the title attached to the seven races they hope to back this season.

The site was created 19 years ago by Dom Bradshaw, a software wizard who lives near Sheffield and has a passion for the sport. However, it is forum member and retired engineer Gordon Phillips who came up with the idea of sponsoring a hunter chase.

Phillips, who turns 74 in June, says: “I created a fun tipping competition with a few friends on Facebook, and then went to Dom and asked if I could extend it to the forum. The idea was to have an imaginary £100 bank and players would bet £2 win or £1 each-way on the season’s hunter chases. I thought I might get 20 entries, but it turned out to be 80.

“Then I went back to Dom and suggested asking forum members if they would like to contribute money towards sponsoring a hunter chase. He said ‘you won’t get enough for one race’, but I would have been happy with just one.”

Bradshaw agreed to let Phillips float the idea and it took off. Some 70 people have contributed for this season, chipping in any amount they could afford and the cash arrived in single-figure amounts and three-figure sums.

Phillips says: “I’m very proud of the way it’s gone. My motto is: it’s better to try and fail than not try at all. It just shows what people can achieve with not too much effort. We backed four races last season and seven this time at racecourses spread around the country. The contributors are all point-to-point enthusiasts.”

Phillips, who lives near Bury St Edmunds and is a regular at East Anglian fixtures, insists it has been a team effort by forum members – permit holder Charlotte Fuller, mother of former jockey Page, acts as cash handler for the project – and through “brilliant” response from racecourses, who allocate a number of tickets to ‘forumites’.

He has a number of happy memories from following the sport, including when handing the winner’s trophy to Fiona Needham after her horse Sine Nomine won a JFF-sponsored race at Stratford last spring. Catterick, where Needham is clerk of the course, stages a JFF race on March 6.

Phillips has backed Sine Nomine to win the St James’s Place Festival Hunters’ Chase at Cheltenham next month. Given his ability to extract money from people, bookmakers ought to pay attention.

Weekend preview

Excessive rain is playing havoc with fixtures, but courses which drain well are staging racing that is invariably rich in quality and quantity.

Larkhill, with 154 entries, is set to serve up some potentially fascinating clashes, and has finally managed to lure Norfolk trainer David Kemp to its wide Wiltshire landscape.

David Kemp: "Larkhill’s a long way to travel"

He says: “Larkhill’s not been on my bucket list because it’s a long way to travel and I don’t know the course. Larkhill regulars are very good horses and then there are those which are coming from far away. I cannot see many other opportunities to run some of my horses in the near future.”

Kemp’s Law Of Gold faces a stiff task in the mixed open against dual recent course winner Grace A Vous Enki. Fier Jaguen's Rebel Dawn Rising is not a certain runner in the conditions race, in which Tom Ellis’s I’m Spellbound is a likely winner, but his Designed To Win impressed when winning at Garthorpe recently, has come out of that race in good order and can take the restricted race. In the last-named contest, David Pipe saddles Castle Daragh, who becomes a second point-to-point ride for staff member Lukke Morris, 19.

Grace A Vous Enki: one of the finds of the season

Olive Nicholls says Viroflay will miss the mixed open and, although eight-year-old Grace A Vous Enki, one of the finds of the season, has jumped to his left in recent wins at right-handed Larkhill, it has not stopped him winning. Trainer Nickie Sheppard says: “James [King] says four strides out the horse picks his spot and over he goes.”

Will Biddick has saddled six point-to-point winners from seven runners and is two from two in hunter chases. His unraced Jambo, who will be ridden by his trainer, has to go on short-lists for the young-horses maiden.

Tomorrow

Kingston Blount, Oxon – abandoned

Sunday

Alnwick, Northumberland, NE66 3AE – abandoned

Charing, Kent – postponed to March 10

Garthorpe, Leics - abandoned

Larkhill, Wiltshire, SP4 8AT – 11.25. 8 races, 154 entries

Howick, Gwent – abandoned

More information at pointtopoint.co.uk & gopointing.com

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