Welsh trainers brought the curtain down on the 2026 flat season at Ffos Las in style. Grace Harris was again among the winners, while the combination of Bernard Llewellyn and grandson Robert Williams capped a fine summer at the Carmarthenshire track by
landing a double.
Gwent trainer Harris got the day rolling for the home team in the opening six-furlong handicap with Macarone (photographed) landing a half-length success under Ben Ffrench Davis. The five-year-old has roared into form in the second half of the summer, and this was his third victory on the bounce, with two of those successes coming at Ffos Las.
Kaleidoscope Eyes is another who needs no introduction to the winner’s enclosure at Ffos Las and he registered his third course success – and second of the season – when finishing strongly to comfortably land the second division of a mile handicap for Llewellyn and Williams.
The combination had already won the first division courtesy of Pebble Dash, who saw off the favourite Rosemary’s Rose to win by a length-and-a-half.
Also in double form were trainer Ralph Beckett and jockey Rhys Clutterbuck, who
teamed up to win with Rhodes Runner and Ghost Raider, the latter shocking the 2-7 favourite Silent Force in what looked an above-average two-year-old novice event.
But one odds-on shot who did oblige was Call Time in a five-furlong dash. He was steered home by Millie Wonnacott who is fast becoming a Ffos Las specialist. Of her last seven rides at the course, four have won.
Meanwhile, a number of changes have been announced for the DragonBet Welsh Racing Festival at our sister track Chepstow, the traditional curtain-raiser for the core part of the National Hunt season.
The summer drought and another dry spell in September has meant time has run out for the chase course for the meeting which starts on October 9. It means the three-day festival now features an all-hurdle programme, with the chases transferred to Ffos Las (October 14) and Worcester, where the ground is set to be softer.
The festival is headlined by the DragonBet Welsh Champion Hurdle, DragonBet Persian War Novices’ Hurdle and the Wasdell Group Silver Trophy.
James Bowen was at the forefront of a fine day for the Welsh at Worcester’s card on Friday.
Bowen took the riding honours with a double, including landing one of the feature races of the day – a £50,000 handicap chase – on Pep Talking. Bowen had never previously ridden Billy Aprahamian’s eight-year-old, but their first meeting was a profitable one as a series of fine jumps kept them at the head of affairs and they pulled clear along the
home straight to score by a decisive 13 lengths.
His victory on Black Eddy for brother Mickey was even easier, the pair winning a maiden hurdle by no fewer than 49 lengths.
Sean Bowen was not about to let his brothers have all the fun as he combined with regular ally Olly Murphy to win a novices’ handicap chase on Little Ledgend, with Ben Jones bagging a two-mile chase with Onehundredneighty.
