We have been busy planning our summer race days and we have booked The Wurzels as the post racing entertainment at our ‘Beer and Cider Festival’ fixture on Sunday 25th June. The band have very much stood the test of time having started in the 1960s and scored a number one hit in 1976 with The Combine Harvester. They still attract a sizeable following and it promises to be a fun afternoon. Tickets are £21 in advance.
Well before that fixture is our Superhero Family Fun Race Day on Easter Sunday 9th April. There is a wide range of free family entertainment on the day including fun fair rides, face painters and an Easter Egg hunt. You can also bring a picnic. Admission for those 17 and under is free of charge (accompanied by an adult). Adult tickets are £21.
Our next fixture at Ffos Las is our Proud To Be Welsh Race Day on Sunday 5th March. There is a meeting at our sister course Chepstow on Saturday 25th February – it’s Six Nations Race Day with the Wales v England game being shown on the TV screens from 4.45pm.
David Probert was on duty at Wolverhampton on Saturday night, where he rode Johnny Boom to win a mile and a half Class 6 handicap by three lengths. It was a rare booking for him by Oxfordshire trainer Shaun Lycett. He’s now won six of his 21 races on the level, an excellent strike rate for a horse running in this low grade.
It ended a lean spell for Probert of ten days with 27 consecutive losers – which, statistically, is nothing out of the ordinary for all but one or two jockeys. He didn’t have to wait long for another winner – he was successful aboard Berkshire Phantom at Wolverhampton on Monday night.
Life is harder for some of Wales’s young jump jockeys who have lost their allowances and have suffered with small fields limiting the number of rides for the last year or so. Though both Ben Jones and Connor Brace (photographed) have amassed over a hundred winners, this season they so far have 18 and 21 respectively.
Jones couldn’t have been too optimistic when he lined up at Uttoxeter on Saturday on Ballybegg, a 28/1 shot whose form figures were PP1PP-P7. Yet he won easily, to the delight of the bookmakers. Trainer Kerry Lee could offer no reason to the stewards for Ballybegg’s improvement. Possibly leaving off the headgear he’d been running with was a factor – or perhaps it was thanks to Jones, who was partnering the horse for the first time.
Brace benefits from his association with the prolific Fergal O’Brien stable, which has sent out 572 runners during the current campaign. While Paddy Brennan gets the plum rides Brace faces competition from the conditionals Jack Hogan and Liam Harrison, who have taken 157 mounts between them. Nevertheless, his record for the yard this season is 16-93, a good strike rate, the latest being on Crambo at Bangor-on-Dee on Friday. He struggled in the Challow Hurdle at Newbury previously but found this company much easier to cope with. Connor has ridden Crambo four times and won on every occasion.
Sean Bowen returns from suspension on Wednesday at Hereford. The recent course winner Rooster Cogburn, trained by his father Peter, is likely to be one of his best chances. Ben Jones, who was on board last time while Sean was banned, has to stand aside.
