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| Cheltenham Festival 2007 |
Seasons Holidays Unveiled As Queen Mother Champion Chase Sponsor 09/01/07
Cheltenham Racecourse announces today that Seasons Holidays Plc is the
first-ever sponsor of the Queen
Mother Champion Chase, which takes place
on Wednesday, March 14, 2007, day two of The Festival.
The announcement took place at trainer Alan King's Wiltshire stables
and he paraded ante-post favourite Voy Por Ustedes. The race is to be
run as the Seasons Holidays Queen Mother Champion Chase.
The ground-breaking new sponsorship by Seasons Holidays sees the total
prize fund for the Seasons Holidays Queen Mother Champion Chase rise
to £310,000, an increase of £20,000 on the 2006 total. The
Grade One race is the third most valuable chase run during the season.
Bristol-based Seasons Holidays is one of Europe's leading holiday ownership
developers, with six resorts in the British Isles and three in Europe,
and has the distinction of being the first sponsor of a race that has
enjoyed an illustrious 48-year history.
Edward Gillespie, Cheltenham's Managing Director, said: "The Seasons
Holidays Queen Mother Champion Chase is the last of the championship
feature races at The Festival to be open for commercial sponsorship.
"We are very pleased to have found a dynamic British-based consumer brand, Seasons Holidays, that we can work with to take the great race forward."
Season's Holidays Chairman Barry Hurley commented: "We are delighted to have concluded sponsorship of such a prestigious race.
"The Cheltenham Festival is the highlight of the racing calendar. I have been buying and breeding racehorses over the last 10 years and this opportunity enables me to combine my lifelong passion for racing with an attractive commercial opportunity to promote Seasons Holidays across the British Isles and around the world."
The two-mile championship contest, run in honour of one of Jump racing's
greatest supporters, the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, is one
of the four major championship events over the four days of The Festival
and consistently produces thrilling contests between some of the best-loved
and admired horses in training.
The race was first run in 1959 and was re-titled the Queen Mother Champion
Chase in 1980 to celebrate the Queen Mother's 80th birthday. Last year's
renewal of the Seasons Holidays Queen Mother Champion Chase heralded
a brilliant nine-length winner in the John Murphy-trained Newmill, who
defeated a stellar field that included Moscow Flyer, twice successful
in the race, and the brilliant Kauto Star.
The great Moscow Flyer triumphed in 2003 and 2005, having unseated Barry Geraghty in the 2004 renewal won by Azertyuiop, to become the 10th multiple winner of the Seasons Holidays Queen Mother Champion Chase.
Since the Dan Moore-trained Quita Que prevailed for Ireland in the inaugural
running of the race in 1959, the Seasons Holidays Queen Mother Champion
Chase has been won by a host of stars including the incomparable Badsworth
Boy (1983-1985) who is the only triple winner of the race, having gained
the prize for trainers Michael Dickinson and Monica Dickinson.
The impressive roll of honour also includes legendary names such as Fortria (1960 & 1961), Flyingbolt (1966), Drinny's Double (1967 & 1968), Royal Relief (1972 & 1974), Skymas (1976 & 1977), Hilly Way (1978 & 1979), Buck House (1986), Pearlyman (1987 & 1988), Barnbrook Again (1989 & 1990), Remittance Man (1992), Viking Flagship (1994 & 1995), the great grey One Man (1998) and Edredon Bleu (2000), who narrowly got the better of Direct Route in a typically pulsating finish.
SEASONS HOLIDAYS PLC
Seasons Holidays plc is an English company, which was established in
1997 and has grown into one of the European leaders in holiday ownership
development.
Membership of Seasons Holiday Club now stands at 23,000 families, representing
70,000 Britons, for whom the company arranges holidays each year.
Each resort offers a choice of different sized luxury accommodation, up to three bedrooms, all fully equipped for self-catering. This timeshare stock forms part of the Seasons Holiday Club, a multi-destination club, where the members collectively own villas, cottages and apartments in 10 Seasons Holidays destinations.
The Seasons Holidays resorts provide major economic benefits to the
local, rural communities in which they are located. They provide regular
employment for permanent and part-time staff, while attracting thousands
of visitors throughout the year who in turn provide a significant boost
to the local economy.
Through Seasons Holidays' connections with other resort developers worldwide, members also have access to a further 70 affiliated destinations around the world, including Australia, Hawaii and the Caribbean. In addition, they can become members of the Interval International exchange network, giving them access to a further 2,000 resorts in more than 75 countries.
Membership of Seasons Holidays is available from as little as £3,750
for a week's holiday every year, and year round club membership until
the year 2069.
Seasons Holidays is a long-term member of the industry's governing body,
Organisation for Timeshare in Europe (OTE), and Seasons' Marketing Director
Leslie McCann is currently on the board of the UK chapter - the Timeshare
Council. In addition, Seasons' Managing Director, Michael Foundly, is
chairman of the OTE Legislative Council.
SALE AND LEASEBACK
Seasons Estates, created in 2004, is a subsidiary of Seasons Holidays plc. Seasons Estates develops and markets new holiday bungalows, cottages or apartments on existing Seasons holiday resort sites on the increasingly popular buy to let basis.
In the past 18 months, 85 luxurious Cottages have been developed and
sold at Seasons resorts in the Lake District and Scotland. During 2007,
Seasons Estates intends to build more investment homes in the Lake District,
34 luxury lodges and eight apartments in Cornwall at the Clowance Estate,
as well as 30 luxury apartments at Laugharne Park in South West Wales.
For further information about Seasons Holidays, please visit www.seasonsholidays.com
