As soon as the dust had settled on December’s Coral Welsh Grand National meeting, we were back up and running for our opening fixture of 2023 last Sunday.
Several Welsh trained and ridden runners competed in the opening 2m4f novice hurdle and it was Richard Patrick who came out on top, aboard the favourite, Kerry Lee’s Atlanta Brave. This Irish point winner’s stamina served him well, overtaking Sam Thomas’s Ed Keeper on the run-in.
Evan Williams’ Zero Tolerance, bearing the Silver Streak colours, led for most of the race and though he faded back into fourth it was a promising effort. The stable was pleased with the second-place finish of L’Astroboy in Saturday’s Grade 1 Tolworth Hurdle at Sandown on Saturday, ridden by Adam Wedge. They finished only two and a half lengths behind the winner Tahmuras.
The 2m4f chase was won in gallant front-running fashion by Moonlighter, owned by the Welshmen Huw and Richard Davies & Friends, though trained in Gloucestershire by Kim Bailey.
Evan Williams and owners William and Angela Rucker introduce many of their good horses at Chepstow. Their dual bumper winner Libberty Hunter got off the mark over obstacles in the 2m novice hurdle.
Racing on the all-weather tracks bubbles along and David Probert has been riding at the top of his game. His mounts at Kempton on Friday produced the remarkable sequence of results of 2211212. On Saturday he rode two more winners there. His main stable Andrew Balding supplied three of those five winners.
Sean Bowen (photographed) produced one of the rides of the season at Ffos Las’s opening meeting of 2023 last Thursday. Riding Best Trition for trainer Olly Murphy and owners Foxtrot Racing, he jumped the last fence in the 3m chase in second place three and a half lengths behind the leader Dentley De Mee who looked to be heading for victory on the testing ground. However, Sean had other ideas and with a never say die ride, galvanised his mount on the run-in to win by a short head.
Our next meeting is Tuesday 17th January. There are seven races from 1pm. We are keeping our admission prices extremely keen for this fixture with tickets just £15 in advance and £19.50p on the day. There is also a Day At The Races package for £19.50p which includes admission, a drink, a pie and a race day programme (this is a limited offer and for advance bookings only). See the website for details of how to book.
There is a total of 29 meetings at Chepstow this year with the first feature fixture on Saturday 25th February. It’s Six Nations Race Day when we’ll be showing the Wales v England game on a big screen after racing. Tickets are tremendous value at £10 in advance
