Seasons Holidays Enjoys Second Year As Queen Mother Champion Chase Sponsor

Bristol-based Seasons Holidays is one of Europe’s leading holiday ownership developers, with six resorts in the British Isles and three in Europe, was the first sponsor of a race in 2007 that has enjoyed an illustrious 49-year history. The race was won in 2007 by Voy Per Ustedes.

Edward Gillespie, Cheltenham’s Managing Director, said: “We are very pleased to have found a dynamic British-based consumer brand, Seasons Holidays, that we can work with to continue to take this great race forward.”  

Season’s Holidays Chairman Barry Hurley commented: “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.
 
This year’s race can be seen at 3.15 pm on Channel 4 on Wednesday March 12th 2008. Seasons have also concluded a three year sponsorship deal with the subscription based racing channel Racing UK, now owned by Setanta Sports. One of the first organisations to commence advertising on Racing UK, Seasons will be showing images of various destinations throughout the year, supported by regular mailings to subscribers. In association with Channel 4 and Cheltenham race course, more than one million leaflets were distributed around the UK last week, to postcode areas with an above average interest in horse-racing.

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. Sales of fractions were launched in the Autumn of 2007 with great success, and plans are now well in hand to commence construction of a further 60 three bedroom homes at Brunston Castle near Turnberry in Scotland to support the sales of the ‘Seasons 4 keys’ product.

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 and Seasons Chief Financial Officer David Clarke is on the main board of OTE.