TRAINERS TARGET FFOS LAS RICHES
BRITAIN’S top trainers will be eyeing Ffos Las’s biggest pot as they cast their eyes towards the highlight of the course’s calendar.
Declarations are due to be made early next week for the Welsh Champion Hurdle, which is held on Sunday, October 18.
Last year the prize was worth more than £31,000 to the winner, and there is set to be around £100,000 on offer across this year’s card for Ffos Las’s signature meeting.
The winner last year was Monsieur Lecoq, who held off the persistent challenge of Le Prezien to prevail by a short head.
It was the second year in a row Le Prezien had filled the runner-up berth.
In 2018 he was a three-length second to Evan Williams’s stable star Silver Streak, who later that season went on to finish third in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.
Le Prezien has been absent since last year’s race through injury, but his trainer Paul Nicholls looks poised to be represented once again as he chases his third victory in the race.
The first of those came courtesy of Vol Solitaire in 2002 when the race was run at Chepstow, while Saphir Du Rheu and Silsol triumphed in the 2014 and 2015 renewals at Ffos Las.
Among the horses the former champion trainer could call on is Calva D’auge.
He won three times last season and ran a creditable fourth in the Grade 1 Tolworth Hurdle at Sandown.
He will appreciate the likely soft conditions at Ffos Las.
Dan Skelton and Nigel TwistonDavies are other leading trainers who could make the long trip west to the Gwendraeth Valley for the contest.
Six-day declarations for the race are due to be published on Monday.