Luck ran out as we tried to get meeting on

YOU would like to think in this current climate of uncertainty and challenges, a little bit of good fortune might head your way.

But after last week’s events at Ffos Las, I’m not feeling particularly lucky!

After severe weather at Chepstow and the cancellation of the Coral Welsh Grand National on December 27, we entered the new year with Ffos Las racing scheduled for last Thursday.

Preparations went well. We hadn’t held a meeting since November, so the track was in good shape. Covers were laid on the most vulnerable areas to protect the surface from the forecast colder conditions.

On the Wednesday evening, we knew temperatures might drop to -4C, so we called a precautionary inspection for 8am on race day. When we looked at the course, even though the sun was shining, it was obvious we would need more time for the frost to come out of the ground so we called another inspection for 10am.

It still wasn’t raceable so we scheduled another look at 11am when again it wasn’t passable, but was getting very close.

All the horses, jockeys, stable staff and officials had made the journey to Carmarthenshire and we wanted to get racing on if we possibly could.

Just after midday, jockeys and trainers joined stewards to see if the remaining frozen patches had disappeared. After lengthy debate, it was decided by the stewards that the racing surface wasn’t 100 per cent safe to use. The meeting was abandoned just 15 minutes before the first race.

When certain decisions don’t go your way, you can begin to over-analyse, overthink and start blaming yourself, particularly on this occasion when everyone had put in a huge effort and lots of people had travelled long distances.

We felt we had a strong chance of going ahead, but the weather won this time. We have to take it on the chin and move on.

At Chepstow, the team had completed the covering of the track, using around 5,500 metres of fleece to protect the surface from frost for the Welsh Grand National on Saturday. On this occasion, the temperatures didn’t drop much below -2C and the meeting went ahead.

One man extremely grateful was Vale of Glamorgan trainer Evan Williams, who sent out Secret Reprieve to take the prize.

It meant back-to-back victories for Welsh-trained horses following the success of Potters Corner in 2019.