We are counting down to our feature race of the season this Sunday 13th October – the £50,000 Dragon Bet Welsh Champion Hurdle. Last year’s renewal went to Nemean Lion (photographed) trained by Kerry Lee and ridden by Richard Patrick. The gates open at 12.10pm and the first race is off at 2.10pm. Tickets are available in advance and on the day.
This meeting follows Chepstows two-day Unibet Jump Season Opener, where the big race on Friday is the £50,000 Persian War Novices Hurdle. Potentially it features Wales’s leading novice this summer, the Bowens’ triple winner Flying Fortune. Other entries come from the stables of Paul Nicholls, Dan Skelton, Olly Murphy, Fergal O’Brien, Philip Hobbs, Sam Thomas and there are two from Ireland.
One Welsh-trained winner at Uttoxeter on Sunday was offset by frustration for two jockeys in particular.
Sean Bowen was a fast-finishing second on Rambo T, the outsider of three in a 2m novice chase, losing by a short head. His jumping was a little sketchy to begin with, but all of his winning form when hurdling was over further and he will appreciate a sterner test of stamina. Bowen’s mount in the finale was the second favourite, but he had to pull up after jumping just one obstacle.
Hardy Boy, with Ben Jones on board, cruised into the lead two out in the long distance hurdle but was outbattled in the last half-furlong to go down by three quarters of a length.
Jones’ day got worse when he was unseated in the three-mile chase by one of his rivals colliding with him on the approach to the penultimate fence. The beneficiary was Ballyrashane, trained by Christian Williams and ridden by Nick Scholfield. Ballyrashane is owned by Sue Howell, whose Win My Wings did so well for the yard a few seasons ago.
Monmouthshire trainer Thomas Faulkner’s first winners since taking over the training licence from his mother Deborah were at Wolverhampton a fortnight ago, he had two in the space of half an hour. Back there on Saturday night, there were hopes that Big Impact would live up to his name but the 7/2 shot was unplaced. Instead, the less fancied stablemate Renoir won an earlier race.
The five-year-old Renoir was having only his seventh career start, but for his fourth trainer. He started in bumpers last year before running in two maidens on the flat. He then spent six months with another yard without seeing a racecourse before being moved to Deborah and then Thomas, with whom he showed signs of a revival last month. Passing the post at the end of Saturday’s mile and a half contest at Wolverhampton, he was pricking his ears as if he had more left in the tank.
A length and a half away in second was Tim Vaughan’s Opticality. It was her first run for the yard. She was one of a group of horses her former handler Mitchell Hunt brought when joining Vaughan in the summer as assistant trainer.
She was ridden by Sean D Bowen, the current leader in the race for the flat apprentices’ title. This young man is no relation to the Pembrokeshire Bowens, but his father comes from Carmarthenshire so Wales can take some credit from his achievements.
