Still Believing, a 10-year-old chestnut mare, has been a good servant to Vale of Glamorgan trainer Evan Williams.  Burdened with top weight of 11st 12lbs and ridden by Mitchell Bastyn she came home a nine lengths winner of the £21,665 George Smith Horseboxes Mares’ Handicap Chase at Hereford. A  9-1 chance, Still Believing who is […]

The rearranged Carmarthenshire Hunt Point-To-Point Steeplechases takes place at Ffos Las Racecourse on Saturday, December 22 (writes Steph Rogers). Entries for the first of the West Wales meetings are high in both quantity and quality in what promises to be a fantastic days racing. There are plenty of English raiders among those entered with Sego […]

The Coral Welsh Grand National takes place at Chepstow on December 27 – a race won in memorable style last year by then 16-year-old jockey James Bowen. Since then, the young Welsh rider has continued to give further glimpses of his rare talent, as champion jockey Richard Johnson told Rob Cole. Richard Johnson may have been the champion jump jockey for the last three years, but he knows he has to keep looking over his shoulder at the youngsters lining up to knock him off his perch. Firstly, there was Sean Bowen and now there is James Bowen – a double assault from a Pembrokeshire farm that is threatening to destabilise the old order.

Vale of Glamorgan trainers Evan Williams  and Tim Vaughan both saddled winners at Chepstow (writes Brian Lee). Williams’s four-year-old Secret Reprieve was a 50-1 winner of the Native River Supports The IJF Novices’ Hurdle and Vaughan’s  five-year-old Trixter won the Smart Money’s On Coral Conditional Jockeys Novices Hurdle. The former, ridden by stable jockey Adam […]

Jake Exelby met Welsh racehorse trainer David Brace at his Dunraven Stud, Llanmihangel Farm, Pyle. Former coal miner Brace chatted to Jake, who describes his host as an ‘exceptional character’. Welshman David Brace is a man who moved from coal face to horse race.  The former miner turned businessman, philanthropist, stud owner, racehorse trainer seems to […]

Byron Moorcroft, of Cowbridge, rode his first ever four-timer at the Curre & Llangibby Hunt Point-To-Point Steeplchases at Howick, Chepstow (writes Brian Lee). Byron, 31, took the  Confined Race on Tommy Faulkner’s Black Jack Rover then on the same owner’s Mister Robbo he landed the Restricted.  Then after a walk-over on Jason Warner’s Beneficial Joe […]

The Welsh point-to-point season starts with the Curre & Llangibby fixture at Howick near Chepstow on Sunday (November 25). Brian Lee, who has been reporting on the Welsh hunt racing scene for more than half-a-century, takes a look at one of his many press cuttings books. This time for 1989. My press cuttings scrapbook for […]

Welsh Champion Hurdle winner Silver Streak failed by a neck to catch the bottom weighted Nietzsche in the Unibet Greatwood Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham (writes Brian Lee). The race was worth more than £56,000 to the winner. Ridden by stable jockey Adam Wedge, five-year-old Silver Streak, a 12-1 chance in a field of 20 runners, seemed […]

Ffos Las racecourse in West Wales have their annual Countryside jump racing day this Sunday (November 11). The going for Sunday is soft (heavy in places) following 30mm rain on Wednesday, 6mm Thursday.  Friday is cloudy with 10-15mm rain forecast. Heavy showers on Saturday, while Sunday is brighter. There are seven races, the first at […]

Bridgend’s Connor Brace, aged 17, chalked up his first ever double under rules when winning the opening and closing races at Wetherby (writes Brian Lee). Rugby-mad Connor, who used to play mini and junior rugby at Kenfig Hill RFC, won the Conditional Jockeys Novices’ Handicap Hurdle on the Fergal O’Brien trained Ballyhome and then won […]

By Brian Lee Silver Streak won on the richest race day of the year at Ffos Las. A bumper crowd attended, there were 80 runners in total and more than £100,000 of prize money on offer across the eight races. That included £45,000 for the Dunraven Group Welsh Champion Hurdle feature race.  The Champion Hurdle […]

TUFTS OF THE  WELSH TURF By Brian Lee Bookmakers at the Gelligaer Farmers Hunt Steeplechases in 2004 were hit for six when reigning Welsh champion point-to-point rider Tim Vaughan, now a leading Welsh trainer, landed a massive gamble in winning a confined maiden race on seven-year-old Clear Away. The horse’s owner, Andrew Lowrie from Barry, had […]

dai-sport’s horse racing column – by Brian Lee Garo De Juilley won the Silver Trophy Handicap Hurdle at Chepstow for jockey Paddy Brennan and trainer Sophie Leech, who is based only 20 miles away in Gloucestershire. The winner had been bought out of Paul Nicholls’s stable for just £8,000 in May. Ireland’s Point of Principle, ridden […]

dai-sport’s horse racing column – by Brian Lee Welshman Simon Rowlands has been appointed general manager at the Ffos Las racecourse near Llanelli. Rowlands, from Bargoed, moves from the Chepstow course to Ffos Las and will take up the reins for his new role in November. Both Welsh courses are owned by the Arena Racing […]

Brian Lee’s Welsh racing column Vale of Glamorgan trainer Tim Vaughan was in good form at Warwick The two horses he saddled there both won their races.  Five-year-old Trixster, a 5-2 chance, took the Penguin Pay Maiden Hurdle by three lengths from the favourite Pontresina. Seven-year-old Canton Prince, who was burdened with top weight of […]

By Brian Lee Welsh trainers Dai Burchell, Tim Vaughan and Peter Bowen all saddled winners at Worcester on Friday. First off the mark was Ebbw Vale’s Burchell, whose seven-year-old King Alfonso, partnered by Richard Patrick, took the opening John Burke Memorial Handicap Chase by six lengths from the top weighted Salto Chisco. King Alfonso, 3-1 […]

Brian Lee, Cardiff born and bred, launches his horse racing and point-to-point column Amateur rider Charlie Price, based at Tim Vaughan’s Aberthin yard in the Vale of Glamorgan, is making a bold bid for the Arabian Horse Racing Jockeys’ Championship title.  Charlie, a 20-year-old who is also a successful point-to-point rider, has ridden nine winners […]

Meet the new horse racing columnist for dai-sport.  Brian Lee, a former long distance runner, has been reporting on Welsh horse racing for national and local press for more than half-a-century. He is THE expert on his subject in Wales. Brian’s love of horse racing began at Chepstow after the last war when as a […]

The nation will go all a flutter on Saturday with an estimated £150m set to be gambled on the 171st running of the world’s greatest steeplechase race at Aintree. There will be a global audience of 600 million people joining the 70,000 punters expected at the Merseyside course. Katie Walsh, Bryony Frost and Rachael Blackmore will be bidding to become the first woman to win the race, but there will also be a strong Welsh contingent vying with them for the title.

The Bowen brothers begin their Cheltenham Festival campaign on Tuesday afternoon, with both young Welsh jockeys having rides in the early races. James – who at just 16 became the youngest jockey to win the Welsh National in January – rides Shantou Flyer in the Ultima Handicap Chase at 2.50pm, with older brother Sean, 19, aboard Minella Daddy in the same race. Before then, Sean is also riding in the opening race, the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at 13.30, on Simply The Betts.