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Katie Featherstone’s victory in the Highflyer Bloodstock leading novice women’s award should be an inspiration to many point-to-point riders.
A contender for the same championship 12 months’ earlier when Clara Brewitt took the no.1 spot, East Sussex-based Featherstone teed herself up for another go last season and with a solid push after Easter took it in grand style. Her 11 winners meant she finished six clear of runner-up Molly Legg. She is also a capable trainer who has been regularly scoring at around a 40 per cent strike rate over the past three seasons.
So a plan came off and at the age of 30 Featherstone proved that novice championships are not solely the domain of teenagers. Lucas Murphy, 16, winner of the novice men’s title also sponsored by Highflyer Bloodstock, is another example of talented youth, but Featherstone’s win puts down a marker for riders in their 20s, 30s and beyond.
She says: “I did Pony Club and rode in pony races, and I’ve team chased and hunted with the Mid Surrey Farmers’ Draghounds, which is a big jumping pack, but Dad wasn’t keen for me to race ride. Then at 23 I decided to do it anyway, didn’t tell Dad and rode Winola [who she trained herself] in a race at Cocklebarrow. We finished second [of 16 behind Sam Waley-Cohen in a maiden race]. I think I told Dad the next day and he was a bit put out that I hadn’t told him in advance, but he’s so supportive and is always there now.”
John Featherstone and his wife Nicky, who is South East Area secretary, will be representing their daughter and collecting her title memento at tomorrow evening’s national awards dinner run by the Point-to-Point Authority and held at Cheltenham racecourse. A long-planned and pre-booked holiday in Canada and the USA means that Featherstone and boyfriend/fellow rider Seb Mead are regretfully absent.
After that first foray in the 2018/19 season Featherstone and the mare Winola teamed up six more times and reached the winner’s enclosure on each occasion, including a walkover. Yet the rider’s first proper win took several more seasons until she scored on home-trained Imperial Acolyte at Charing in March 2024.
Speaking from Wyoming on the latest stop in her transatlantic road trip with Mead she says: “I really enjoy training – it’s what I would like to do more of in the future and I would like to train for other people. We use the gallops at Brightling and take horses to the beach at Camber [Sands]. In the meantime it’s good to ride in races and prove that you can do it.”
Featherstone rode in 48 point-to-points over seven seasons on horses she owned and trained until in January this year she gained an ‘outside’ ride on Count Simon at Larkhill for Surrey trainer Rob Varnham, who has regularly used Mead in races. She says: “I’d been in to Rob’s yard a few times schooling and riding out and Seb had put in a word for me. My record at Larkhill wasn’t very good, but we got round. I just tried to ride it like any other race.”
When Mead suffered a concussion and had to miss part of the season Varnham turned to Featherstone again. He says: “Katie had ridden a number of horses that weren’t that good, but last season she showed what she could do. She’s very confident, she gets horses jumping and she’s a very good judge of pace.”
A win on Varnham’s Imperial Esprit at Parham in late April formed part of a double that had bearing on the championship. Featherstone says: “At that point it was quite close for the novices’ title, but I rode that double and then picked up some late wins on Rob’s Empire De Maulde and one on Island Run for David Phelan who is Seb’s boss. Sometimes the championship can be won with about five winners, so it was good to get 11 by the season’s end.
“Next season I’d like to get more outside rides and while I’ve not yet ridden under rules I’m going to apply for my Cat A licence. Petite Mike [who is owned by her parents] and Commander Of Ten are two from my yard that could run in hunters’ chases.
“I hope that by winning the title I’ve shown people that if you work hard and put in the hours you will be rewarded.”
