This week’s column has to start with Welsh jockey David Probert’s amazing achievement at Ffos Las last week when he rode eight winners at our two-day fixture – including six victories in a row (he won the last five races on Wednesday and the first race on Thursday).
David, who was born in Bargoed, is enjoying his best ever season and currently lies in 4th place in the jockeys’ championship with only Tom Marquand, William Buick and Oisin Murphy above him.
The 32-year-old’s Ffos Las winning spree came just a day after he’d secured his 100th winner of the calendar year with a success at Nottingham.
We’ve been looking through racing’s history books and we can’t find another jockey who has ridden six winners in a row since Frankie Dettori’s ‘Magnificent Seven’ at Ascot 25 years ago. If any reader has better information, please let me know!
This week David will be in action at York’s prestigious Ebor meeting where his rides include the unbeaten Sandrine in the Sky Bet Lowther Stakes. He’s ridden the two-year-old filly to all three of her career victories including the Group 2 Duke Of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket.
It was great to see Carol Vorderman visit Ffos Las last week for a race named in her honour.
The ‘Carol Vorderman Loves West Wales Nursery Handicap’ was one of our seven races on Thursday – and was won rather appropriately by David Probert to keep the Welsh theme going! Carol is a big horse racing fan and has shares on horses with trainer Kim Bailey and Christian Williams.
Subway Surf the horse Carol has with Kim Bailey won at Chepstow in March 2019 and has been very consistent since finishing second on four occasions.
As we all know, she is a very popular TV and radio presenter and the publicity of her Ffos Las race reached The Sun, The Express, The Daily Mail and Hello magazine among other publications – which was positive news for Ffos Las.
We are now gearing up for our next two-day meeting on Thursday 26th and Friday 27th August (Ladies Day) when there is a £500 Style Award for the Best Dressed Lady. Don’t forget if you buy six tickets or more, you’ll receive a £10 discount per ticket. Leigh Jones from The Wave Breakfast Show will be presenting a DJ set after racing.
The first race on Ladies Day is off at 1.20pm with the gates opening at 11.20am. The music starts after the final race at 4.40pm. For details of our race day bus service from Llanelli Railway please see our website.
Just as a reminder, the Kaiser Chiefs concert after racing – originally scheduled for Ladies Day – is now taking place on June 2nd next year.
There’s a meeting at Chepstow this Thursday 19th August with six races from 1.10pm.
