Lesley Welcome helps to ensure racing goes ahead in the south of England.

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that if she failed to arrive at a meeting there would be no racing at all.

She provides the numbered saddle cloths without which any horse is not allowed to run under Jockey Club rules.

Lesley said: "Luckily that hasn't happened yet and I hope it never will, although I'm sure they'd get round it somehow and find an alternative if my cloths didn't turn up one day."

Lesley, 40, is based at Southbourne near Chichester, and services 15 courses from Wincanton in the west to Folkestone in the east, including Ascot plus Aintree in the north west.

She was thrown in at the deep end when her husband, popular racing personality Graham, was killed in a motor accident two years ago.

"There was no alternative but to carry on with the business.

"Perhaps, in a way, it is lucky that his death made me concentrate and the business helped me to get over the loss and go forward."

Lesley had been involved anyway, making the cloths on an industrial sewing machine and applying the vinyl numbers.

Graham had been a part-time clerk of the scales for the Jockey Club when the BBC asked him to provide number cloths for the meetings covered by their television team.

BBC meetings have white numbers on a black background, while Channel Four chose white on red, and meetings not covered by television have white on blue.

Sponsorship of jockeys, owners and trainers, as well as races, has grown, so Lesley's business has become involved in making name plates and logos.

"Velcro is a blessing for us because we can change the name or a logo in seconds from race to race."

The team includes Lesley's father Mick and Shaun Fletcher who works part-time.

Having reached the racecourse, the cloths are laid out at the dressing room door so jockeys can pick them up and weigh out with the number visible to the clerk of the scales.

A fresh set is used for every race, which means there is a fair bit of washing to do at the end of a day's racing.

Lesley said: "Industrial machines are the only ones that can cope and I have a contract with a local launderette to do the washing overnight."

That still leaves the ironing and Lesley employs staff to carry out the task.

"I do all my own paperwork and life is pretty frantic, although I love it because it is what Graham and I did together for 16 years or more."

In the early days, numbers were allocated five days before every race, which means horses were running sometimes numbered 100 or more.

"Luckily for us the Jockey Club realised the impracticality of that system and now runners are numbered when they are declared overnight to run."

Lesley runs two big cars, a Mercedes and a Toyota because sometimes she and Shaun have to cover more than one meeting in a day. The annual mileage is enormous and the number cloths for either six or seven races can take up a lot of space. In addition, in the last few years horse rugs and advertising banners have been added to the load that has to go to the races.

"Sponsors love to have a rug or sheet for the winner of their race and we make a lot of those, while advertising banners and even the horse shoes that go on the winning post are part of the business now."

The Tote is a major client with dozens of sponsored races and even the Derby winner, in the days of Ever Ready sponsorship, has walked away with a Welcome-made sheet after his victory.

"Shaun and I aim to arrive at the races two-and-a-half hours before post time for the first and we're often not away until an hour after the last. It can be a long day.

"Holidays? They are not easy to arrange, but sunshine and no driving are the two essentials and this autumn I went to Cyprus. I was ready for it too!"

Lesley does love her racing. She originally met Graham at Goodwood and, although she doesn't ride these days, she used to do so as a child.

"I support point-to-point racing as well. They can't afford to pay realistic fees, but they are the backbone of jump racing. They are very important."

Now Lesley lives alone with her two border collies, but she is never lonely after making so many friends through her work which she describes as 'a way of life'.

It is a sure thing that Graham would be proud of the way in which his wife has carried forward the business he created more than 30 years ago.