Ffos Las gets ready for a busy October

THE jumps season in Wales is about to take off.

Ffos Las hosts its first meeting since March on October 1, when the action gets under way behind closed doors at 2.08pm. All the races are live on Sky Sports Racing.

The trial earlier this year of departing from conventional five-minute intervals for race starting times is being put into practice permanently on days when there are several meetings.

The Carmarthenshire track has two other fixtures in October, the last of them on the 18th featuring the Welsh Champion Hurdle. It is usually won by one of the big English stables, but in 2018 Evan Williams’s Silver Streak broke the sequence.

The grey has proved himself top class by finishing third and sixth in two Champion Hurdles at Cheltenham.

A newcomer to the Williams stable, Coole Cody was second in a good Newton Abbot novice chase on Saturday, having won on his fencing debut on his previous outing.

Coole Cody could go to Chepstow for a race at its Unibet Jump Season Opener on October 9-10, a fixture that Williams has targeted in the past.

Silver Streak won a handicap there in 2017 carrying 10st 4lb. Prize money for the two days has been boosted and the big stables should be out in force.

A test fixture with crowds went ahead at Warwick on Monday with a capacity of only 474, after initial plans for 1,250 had to be reduced to 1,000 and then 800. There is still no news about a similar trial at any of the three Welsh courses.

Another trial is scheduled for Newmarket this weekend with 1,000 people.

Monmouthshire-based Grace Harris has done very well with Bungee Jump since claiming her for £10,000 two years ago, scoring four times at Chepstow and once at Newmarket. Rated 95 after her latest win, she was entitled to her place in last Saturday’s Ayr Gold Cup field, but the competition was too hot and her stands side draw wasn’t the place to be.

The week before last Ron Harris’s Union Rose won twice in the space of four days. He carries a four-pound penalty in his bid for a hat-trick at Goodwood on Wednesday.