The curtain comes down on the winter game at Ffos Las this week.
The Carmarthenshire course stages its jumps season finale on Wednesday (May 20) with a quality six-race card. It is headlined by the Francky du Berlais Novices’ Handicap Chase. Run over three miles, it honours one of the most popular horses to be trained in Wales in recent years.
Trained in Haverfordwest by Peter Bowen, Francky du Berlais won 10 of his 62 races and was twice victorious in the valuable Summer Plate at his beloved Market Rasen. The Bowens are likely to be represented in the race, with Mickey having entered three horses at the six-day stage.
The home team looks set to be out in force at Wednesday’s meeting, with Welsh-based trainers Cath Williams, Rebecca Curtis, Bowen, Dai Rees and Barry Murphy among those poised to have runners.
It was Murphy who provided one of the highlights of the jumps season at Ffos Las, saddling a winner with his first runner after a seven-year break from the training ranks when Jack’s Jury landed a two-and-a-half mile handicap hurdle. Murphy, the son of Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer Ferdy, now trains just a few miles from Ffos Las.
Wednesday’s card gets under way at 2.50pm. The next meeting at Ffos Las is on the flat on Thursday, June 4.
Sean Bowen will surely have a solid book of rides at Ffos Las, and he has moved into top gear as he launches his quest to overhaul AP McCoy’s record tally of 289 wins in a season.
Wales’ champion jockey rode 10 winners last week as his travels took him from the Midlands to the West Country, then to Merseyside via Scotland. Nine of those victories were on board horses trained by Olly Murphy, who has started the new season in blistering form.
Perhaps the most noteworthy of the lot was the win of Road to Wembley, who carried the familiar colours of Sir Alex Ferguson to an impressive success in a novice hurdle at Aintree.
Brother James made the trip to Perth worthwhile by riding a double on Castle Ivers and Sir Carnegie, while at Hereford he enjoyed a walkover as Queensbury Boy’s only intended rival in a novice chase couldn’t make it to the track because of traffic problems.
Mickey Bowen, who trains Queensbury Boy, was also in winning form at the sales. He picked up two promising juvenile hurdlers in the sales ring in France as part of the inaugural Aktem Grand Steeple Selection Sale.
Brecon jockey Charlie Price’s (photographed) good start to the campaign continued with winners at Aintree and Uttoxeter, while Sam Thomas saddled a winner with his first runner of the term as Special John was a comfortable winner of a three-mile handicap at Bangor-on-Dee.
Away from the jumps – and away from the high-profile card at Newbury on Saturday – David Probert landed a two-year-old novice event on the promising Jolivette for Andrew Balding.
The Juddmonte-owned filly could be set for a date at Royal Ascot next.
