PPORA presented five awards during the National Point to Point Award ceremony at Hatherley Manor, Gloucester on 29 June.
Josh Parker took the Champion PPORA Rider Award for the most points won in PPORA races, beautifully collected by his mum Sherri, whilst Josh is riding winners in New Zealand.
Champion PPORA Owner went to Gunshot Paddocks Racing Club, a group of friends who have horses in training with Champion Small Yard, Rob Varnham (pictured). Gunshot Paddocks RC collected their award led by David Young (far right), the grandfather of Keagan Kirkby who had won on Imperial Esprit contributing to this award. It's been an incredibly tough time for connections so it was nice to see this award provide a small bit of joy.
The Wilkinson Sword presented to the male rider with most winners having not ridden a winner prior to the start of the season, went to Ed Vaughan who had a record breaking season with 31 winners between the flags.
The female equivilant award, the Princess Royal Trophy, was presented to Shropshire’s Abi Henry who rode a winner and four placings on her mare For Rita. Giving full credit to the horse, Henry said: “She just carried me around.”
PPORA also presented the Jim Mahon Award for services to Point to Pointing, nominated and chosen by the committee was Jim Squires from the Mildands area. Jim is well known for his huge contribution to preparing and maintaining point to point tracks such as Chaddesley and Maisemore.
The PPORA refurbished three vintage silver trophies to present for the Owner, Rider and Jim Mahon award 2023-24. Upcycling some previous PPORA race trophies that had been in storage for a few years. These will now become annual prepetual trophies given a new lease of life.
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