Valerie Embrey: A SHOW SECRETARY FOR THE AGES

Valerie Embrey: A SHOW SECRETARY FOR THE AGES

“My interests have always been horses, gardening, needlepoint.” –Valerie Embrey

By Vicky Moon

Valerie Ann Archibald Embrey was secretary of the Upperville Colt & Horse Show from 19761987. She came to the job after Mrs. A. C. (Theo) Randolph, a great force behind the show who lived and owned Oakley adjacent to the grounds, called Valerie and, after a visit, offered her the job of show secretary.

“I’d previously worked at The Hill School for five years and had taken time away from work to start my family,” Valerie said, adding that she started immediately and worked from her home nearby.

Her first year, the secretary’s stand was located in the lower section under the judges and annoucers stand at the side of the main ring. She cleaned out old boxes filled with rider numbers, folded chairs and tables along with cobwebs, spiders and bugs. And then, “To my horror, out slithered a humongous black snake and made his way up the closest oak tree in the main ring. As I was shrieking, Tommy Stokes’ comment was, ‘At least you won’t have to worry about mice.’”

Valerie described her responsibilities as “enormous.” Each April, she began with the printing of the prize list which was then sent to 3,000 on a mailing list. It’s now online and totally digital. Entries closed May 1 and then the program went to print with many entries, advertisements, sponsors, and photos of past winners the last week in May.

There were and still are: contracts to all officials such as judges, stewards, ring personnel, jump crew, course designers and announcers along with arrangements for hotels and housing. And, add to this: concession contracts for shops and food stands and ordering all the ribbons, trophies, blankets, and other prizes. Prize money checks were hand-typed for all winners and given to the treasurer to sign.

Valerie came to her horse interests at birth. She was born in the horse haven of Newmarket, England into a multigenerational family of jockeys, trainers and blood stock agents.

“My maternal great grandfather, George Blackwell, trained Rock Sand, the sire of the dam of Man o’ War. He also was one of the few trainers of winners of the English Triple Crown: Derby, 2000 Guineas, St Leger plus the Aintree Grand National. That is why it was such an honor. Very few trainers have achieved this. My paternal grandfather, George Archibald, was leading jockey in England, Spain, and Germany. He rode horses for three kings and was known as “El Jockey de los tres reyes” (jockey of the three kings – King Oppenheimer, King Alphonso and King George VI). He was also successful in the U.S., winning the Kentucky Derby in 1911 aboard Meridian. He died in 1927 at the age of 37 after riding five horses that day in Newmarket.”

In 1952, Paul Mellon, who owned Rokeby, a large Thoroughbred horse farm in Upperville, asked her father, George William Archibald, to escort horses he had purchased at the horse sales in Newmarket back to the U.S. They all traveled via airplane, a novelty at the time and now a standard mode of transportation.

“My father was an American citizen, so he rented a house in Middleburg. We waited for another year for our immigration to be confirmed,” Valerie recalled. “Our sponsor was William Haggin Perry. I went to Middleburg Elementary School and graduated from Loudoun County High School in Leesburg. I attended Chowan University in North Carolina and graduated from Trinity College in Washington, D.C.

Valerie rode in the Middleburg Orange County Pony Club, horse shows, and hunted with the Middleburg Hunt. “I was lucky being tiny (4-foot11 at age 18) and rode ponies for Stephen and Jane Clark, Dorothy Lee and Forrest and Ethel Mars in Middleburg,” she said.

She also galloped race horses at the Middleburg Training Track, Belmont and Saratoga for her father. This led to another job at age 15 when Forrest Mars asked her to teach riding and swimming to his grandchildren for three years at his Middleburg area estate, Marland. Her riding experiences included stints with Wilhemina Waller, who owned Tanrackin Farm in Bedford Hills, N.Y., and with Mikey and Dot Smithwick one summer in Old Westbury, Long Island. “I was so lucky being farmed out as free help and enjoyed every minute,” she said.

As secretary of the show, Valerie and others since, then prepared all the signage for ringside and grandstand parking and the Jumper Classic.

Every year, Valerie hired young girls to help in the office--Walker Richardson, Nelia Niemann, Missy Sperow, Blake Sperow, Mary Hunter Sperow to name a few. “I think the funniest year was when Pimm’s helped sponsor the Jumper Classic and we served Pimm’s Cup cocktails to throngs of thousands on the hill,” Valerie said. “I’m sure many had bad hangovers the next day.

“The biggest challenge before computers was getting the results recorded and sent to the national and state governing bodies within seven days,” she said. “This was of the utmost importance to retain an ‘A’ rating and maintain membership with these groups. To keep an accurate class list was the biggest challenge. I hired a company to computerize the entries in 1983. When I started in 1976, we had under 500 entries. When I resigned after the 1987 show, we had over 1,800.”

“In 1976, the show consisted of A-rated Hunter Classes, Juniors, Ponies, Local Hunters, Breeding, Founder’s Cup, and then the Jumper Classic on Sunday. In 1977, a complete section for Jumpers was added. This increased the entries three-fold and made the show what it is today.”

Valerie now lives across the Shenandoah River in Berryville in Clarke County about a 25-minute, 17-mile drive from the show. She follows horse racing, cooks fabulous meals and makes other delectable goodies and visits the show each year. From time to time, she sips a Pimm’s Cup. She was inducted into the Upperville Colt & Horse Show Wall of Honor in 2013.