We have a busy week ahead with a two-day fixture on Wednesday evening and Thursday afternoon. Racing starts at 4.55pm on Wednesday and at 1.10pm on Thursday. Advance tickets are £17 and it’s £22 on the day with under-18s going free of charge. As it’s the summer holidays, you can also bring a picnic (no alcohol!). Our bus service is operating from Llanelli Railway Station with timings on the website.
Later this month on Friday 26th August it’s our ever popular Ladies Day fixture. As well as seven races from 1.35pm, there are live performances from Liberty X, S Club All Stars and the Million Dollar Men. More details on the website.
Lancashire was the scene of double Welsh success on Saturday.
David Probert’s record for Harry & Roger Charlton is 4-10 following his success on Whitebeam at Haydock, three of them on this Juddmonte filly. She needs holding up, and is still a little green, but won this seven furlong race easily. Probert admitted they were still learning about her and didn’t know how good she was. Connections have already entered her for a fillies and mares Group 3 over a similar distance at Tipperary on the 26th.
Chris Mason was making his first trip to Haydock and it was a winning one. Liangel Hope, a consistent three-year-old handicapper over seven furlongs, was having his first run for the yard. The Monmouthshire trainer has had a quiet season and that explains why he started at 10/1. On his previous outing at Catterick he was a clear winner and Mason claimed him afterwards for £15,000 on behalf of Brian Hicks. Aquadabra and Jaganory won plenty of races in recent years for that owner-trainer combination.
The Welsh-born five-pound claimer Mollie Phillips got Liangel Hope home in the last stride. 37 of her 43 winners have been for Tony Carroll, but she’s now 2-5 with Mason. She’s in good form, scoring in the finale at Leicester on Sunday.
Mason, along with David Evans, are the two Welshmen among the 16 trainers in the Racing League’s Wales and the West team. They were in third place after week one’s competition at Doncaster. The teams are based on trainers’ locations, whereas the jockeys can come from anywhere. Frankie Dettori is one of the pool of seven jockeys allocated to Wales and the West.
Evans cast his net far and wide on Sunday. He sent his star sprinter Rohaan to Deauville for a six and a half furlong Group 1, the Prix Maurice de Gheest. Held up as usual, he ran on well in the final furlong to finish fourth, beaten just over a length.
Three of his other horses went to Leicester and one to Haydock. At the Midlands track Dora Penny won for the second time in a row to bring her overall record to 5-17. As at Ffos Las on her last start, David Probert was in the saddle. She didn’t take much out of herself and could return to Ffos Las on Thursday for the hat-trick bid.
Probert completed a Leicester double on Ian Williams’ Sarsons Risk, who found this Class 5 company much easier to cope with than the Class 2s he raced against last time. That was the Bargoed-born jockey’s 107th win of the year, twelve of them in the last fifteen days.
