We have an additional fixture this Thursday 22nd December – it follows the abandonment of our meeting last Thursday. This week’s meeting has seven races with the first one off at 12.40pm – gates open at 11am. Tickets are £10 in advance and on the day.
Our opening fixture of 2023 is Thursday 5th January.
Don’t forget it’s the biggest race in Wales next Tuesday, the Coral Welsh Grand National at Chepstow. Gates open at 10am and the first race is off at 12.30pm. It’s the first time since 2019 that spectators will be allowed so a bumper attendance of around 10,000 is expected.
As we head towards the end of 2022, I thought we’d take a look back at some of the highlights of the year for Welsh trainers and jockeys.
Christian Williams’ nine-year-old mare Win My Wings won a brace of four mile chases; Newcastle’s Eider Chase in February and the Scottish Grand National in April. This season connections entertained hopes that she might tackle the Aintree National or even the Cheltenham Gold Cup, but an injury has meant her premature retirement.
Stablemate Kitty’s Light was runner-up at Ayr, the second 1-2 for Williams in big handicap chases earlier this year. In February Kitty’s Light had finished second to Cap Du Nord in Kempton’s Coral Trophy (formerly the Racing Post Chase).
Evan Williams and Adam Wedge started 2022 in great style, with Prime Venture winning the Veterans Chase Final at Sandown. At Cheltenham another old stager, Coole Cody, won the Festival Plate, his fourth course win. The Last Day returned to form at Aintree by taking the Red Rum Chase.
Sam Thomas collected decent handicap prizes for Welsh owners Dai Walters and James and Jean Potter with Good Risk At All, Stolen Silver and Our Power.
Peter Bowen maintained his fine record with the big Aintree fences by training Mac Tottie to win the Topham with his son Sean aboard, five months after he’d won the Grand Sefton. And he continued his dominance of Market Rasen’s Summer Plate by taking it for the eighth time, with James riding Francky Du Berlais.
In the autumn Sheila Lewis’s novice chaser Straw Fan Jack notched impressive wins at Ffos Las and Cheltenham.
On the flat David Evans trained Rohaan to win a second consecutive Wokingham Handicap at Royal Ascot and after a Group 3 victory there in October he signed off with a fourth place in the Champions Day Sprint. In terms of prize money, with over £800,000 earned 2022 has been far and away his best year.
David Probert has also broken his prize money record, with 140 winners yielding over £2.75 million. A Group 1 continues to elude him, but his Group 2s included Coltrane in the Doncaster Cup and King’s Lynn in the Temple Stakes, the Queen’s last Group winner.
John Flint had a good year, with his first Glorious Goodwood winner in the form of Lyndon B. Nine of the eleven horses he ran on the flat more than once won races, and his chaser Blaze A Trail won five consecutive handicaps.
