Paul Miller Pre-season Interview

Since Paul Miller began as Chief Executive in June 2024, the sport of pointing has undergone a complete rebranding. With a background in recruitment, marketing, business strategy and resource management, Paul, along with his small team, has seized opportunities to secure the future of pointing with new national sponsors, new race series, innovative marketing methods to engage new audiences and by cementing relationships with wider racing stakeholders. We look ahead to the 2025/2026 season to see what changes are being introduced and how he is adapting to the role now that he has completed a full season. 

Paul described himself as starting the role with “An open mind and fresh eyes, working by a forward-thinking board.” Recognising that in his role as CEO, he “doesn’t need to know all the answers, but needs to work with the people who do”. Paul has now completed one full pointing cycle, from the Awards Night through to race planning and the fixture calendar. Ultimately, he has stated that he wants “ as all CEO’s, to hand the sport over to the next person in better shape with a secure future”.

Paul has described a crucial part of his role as “getting pointing in front of as many people as possible”. One of the ways he and his team are securing a future for pointing is by launching the new GB pointing website. The new platform combines Go Pointing and Point-to-Point into a single, user-friendly site for all participants. The sport itself has undergone a complete rebrand, featuring new logos, sleek social media content, and a tagline: The grassroots of British jump racing. Paul echoed what Tiggy Vale-Titterton said during a recent interview with Nick Luck on Racing TV, in that pointing offers a ‘different product’ to racing under rules, and pointing “means different things to many different people depending on what you are doing on the day. You get up closer to everything and you’re more involved.”

Another new marketing initiative to launch in the 2025/26 season is the Pointing Pod. This pop-up interview marquee will travel to selected fixtures across the country, capturing post-race interviews. Branded with sponsors and national partners, the Pointing Pod will give Tiggy and her team the chance to capture the ‘amazing stories’ on the day and ‘celebrate the successes of participants by providing more airtime to their achievements. Paul anticipates that the Pointing Pod will create an atmosphere at fixtures and allow the PPA to celebrate further the stories from the sport to share across social media. 

Miller was keen to highlight the work of Tiggy, Digital and Content Marketing Manager, particularly her drive to secure more national sponsors and strengthen relationships with The Jockey Club and other key organisations. Following strategic meetings with The Jockey Club, BHA, HBLB and other national partners, new initiatives, including the Hands and Heels race series, the 0-110 rated series, and the GB Pointing Bonus Maiden series, were announced. Paul describes it as “crucial” to retain and attract national sponsors from outside of racing, such as Venatour racing Around The World and Isuzu UK. 

To showcase the unique experience that is a Point to Point, Paul and Tiggy have driven behind-the-scenes content on social media to generate a new audience and put pointing on the map for family experiences. In the same instance, Paul touched on the need to “get people into Pointing that wouldn’t necessarily have an opportunity”. One of the major schemes the PPA is supporting this season is Jockey Start, a new initiative to help aspiring jockeys secure their first rides in Point-to-Points. The scheme is seeking new jockey recruits and is keen to expand beyond the Northern area. If you are interested in being involved, please contact will@wills-art.com. 

‘70% of jump jockeys have ridden in Point to Points’, says Miller. Keen to encourage growth in jockey numbers and retain skilled jockeys, the PPA have ‘kept costs as low as possible”, but also want to educate riders at the start of their career via various subsidies. These include rider assessments costing just £20 and Rider Qualification Certificates for first season riders costing £95 and second season riders £140. Announced this season is a free bonus Jockey Coaching lesson for every first-season rider. The new bonus is on the back of Paul wanting to ‘encourage regular jockey coaching lessons. It shouldn’t just be a slogan that pointing is the grassroots of British jump racing; we must take it seriously and provide education.’

Paul has introduced improved training for stewards, secretaries and officials, trialing a newconference approach for officials and raceday team training. This involves training days with specific workshops for fixture secretaries, clerk of the course, stewards, course inspectors, and incident controllers, delivered by industry professionals. Paul is delighted with the positive feedback so far on these training days and plans to roll out the exact format next season. 

In response to feedback, the PPA will aim to distribute monthly communications to participants and remain open to feedback throughout the season. The PPA is excited as a team to implement numerous positive changes to our historic sport and to work more collaboratively with those involved in racing under rules to create cohesiveness across the board.