The Fife Point-to-Point is galloping back to Fife this summer for the first time since 2019.
However, the popular horseracing fixture won’t return to its traditional home at Balcormo Mains.
Louisa Cheape of Pusk Farm, near Leuchars, has taken over the reins and intends to host a scaled-down event on a brand new course.
However, this will then be followed by a full point to point in 2025.
The annual Balcormo Races attracted horses and amateur jockeys from across the UK for almost 100 years.
And around 2,500 spectators enjoyed the spectacle every spring until Covid hit.
Louisa described the event’s resurrection as extremely exciting.
And she added: “It was really a choice between having it disappear from Fife altogether or to create a new racecourse.”
Fife races were moved to Lanarkshire for two years
The Fife Point-to-Point was held 60 miles away at Overton in Lanarkshire in 2022 and 2023 following two years of cancellations.
However, Louisa says: “That wasn’t much good for Fife and it didn’t work because nobody wanted to drive for two hours to go to a meeting.
“It was going to fold and we really didn’t want that to happen.”
Louisa founded a pack of bloodhounds last year, which hunts human quarry rather than foxes with no animal scents used.
And she decided now was the time to bring back the racing event for hunting horses.
“To go along with the bloodhounds a race meeting in Fife is really important for rural infrastructure,” she said.
Railway station close to event will be ‘massive help’
Louisa is a the wife of St Andrews businessman Henry Cheape, who has just returned home after spending 10 weeks rowing solo across the Atlantic.
She spent much of his absence drawing up plans and said: “We’ve started completely from scratch.
“It will revive point-to-point in Fife. It’s a great day out, especially if it’s a beautiful sunny day.
“We’ve put in a new course at Pusk, which is between Leuchars and Balmullo, and it will be a massive help to have the railway station half a mile away.
“It’s on the main line between Edinburgh and Aberdeen so people can come and have a drink and not have to worry about driving home.”
When is the Fife Point-to-Point?
The 2024 meeting on April 13 will be informal and involve a cross country scurry.
Anyone with a horse can enter without the need for qualification.
“It helps to test the course without the pressure of horseracing,” said Louisa. “It will also test the car parking and other infrastructure.
“The plan then is to go back to the traditional late April date for a full Fife Point-to-Point in 2025.
“It’s at the end of Perth week, which ties in quite nicely.”
Conversation