We are counting down to our first summer evening meeting of the season on Saturday 10th June – it’s Abba Race Night with seven races and the excellent Abba tribute band Waterloo playing live after racing. Tickets are £26 in advance and £31 on the night. The racing starts at 5.45pm and the band will be on stage just after 9pm. There are no restrictions when can customers arrive so if you want to catch the last few races and then see the band, that’s fine.
We also race this coming Friday 2nd June with the first race off at 1.20pm. Tickets are £18 in advance and £23 on the gate. Places are still available for lunch in The View Restaurant.
Leading Welsh flat jockey David Probert returns to action this week after a few days on the sidelines. He was kicked by his mount in the parade ring at Windsor last Monday and was taken to hospital. The noise made by the impact raised concern that his leg had been broken, but X-rays revealed no such damage. He was left with severe bruising.
David Evans’ filly Lady Goo Goo must like the Lancashire air, as she stormed to her third win of the month there on Saturday. As a two-year-old she’d run consistently but lucklessly, finishing second six times. This season she’s made up for lost time, scoring at Wolverhampton in March and at Chester on the 10th of May, when the going was soft. At Haydock on Thursday rearing in the stalls didn’t prevent her from an easy win on good to firm. She came out of that race bouncing and went in again at Chester on Saturday.
At Ffos Las on Saturday, Peter and Sean Bowen won the 2m handicap hurdle with the evens favourite Gavin who was having his first outing for the yard since being bought out of a Fakenham seller for £8,600. He won by a nose.
The card concluded with a two-horse bumper in which Whatawit sent off at 1/100, the shortest price winner in Britain and Ireland since 1903. Further novelty value was due to it being a first runner at Ffos Las for Sir Mark Prescott. Sean Bowen did the steering, coming home by 31 lengths to overtake A P McCoy as the winningmost jockey there (he’s photographed with his family).
On Sunday at Uttoxeter Ben Jones was in the saddle on the 11/10 favourite Ooh Betty, who won for his main guv’nor Ben Clarke. The forecast was easy to find, for the runner-up Manimole had finished second to her in a mares’ hurdle at Ludlow last time out.
On the same day Christian Williams had a winner with Not Long Left to Fontwell – he was a £200,000 purchase 18 months ago and was left with a straightforward task in a three-runner novice hurdle when his only serious rival on form fell halfway round.
