In like Flint: Welsh hope lands big race
IT was brilliant to see Bridgend-based trainer John Flint win last week’s Potters Canter Carpet West Wales National with Amateur at Ffos Las.
The race is one of our feature events of the season and it attracted a competitive 14-runner field. Amateur is a horse on the up and he won easily by seven lengths under jockey Jamie Bargary.
The good form of jockey James Bowen continued when Landofsmiles followed up last month’s Chepstow victory with success in the three-mile handicap chase. Evan Williams rarely leaves Ffos Las without a winner and his Arcade Attraction took the final race of the day.
The retirement of Richard Johnson took most people by surprise last Saturday.
The four-times champion jockey rode an incredible 3,819 winners in a career spanning 27 years. He won most of the biggest races in the sport including the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Stayers’ Hurdle and the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
Frustratingly, an Aintree Grand National success eluded him despite 21 rides – a record for a jockey – and two second-placed finishes on What’s Up Boys in 2002 and Balthazar King in 2014.
In his early days he rode regularly for Milton Bradley, the recently retired trainer who was based near Chepstow. For the majority of his career he was most closely associated with trainers Philip Hobbs and Henry Daly but also rode regularly for Vale of Glamorgan-based Tim Vaughan.
In recent years he has been an ambassador for Chepstow, a track where he is the most successful jockey and has won the Coral Welsh Grand National twice, on Edmond in 1999 and Native River in 2016.
He will be remembered not just as a brilliant jockey and role model but also as a friendly and helpful person who always had time for people.
The race that eluded Richard, the Grand National, takes place this Saturday and James Bowen will be looking forward to his ride on this year’s Coral Welsh Grand National winner Secret Reprieve. He is usually ridden by Adam Wedge, but he has failed to recover from a back injury.
Potters Corner also lines up for the biggest prize in jump racing for Ogmore-by-sea trainer Christian Williams.
Finally, I was delighted to see racehorse owners back on course at Chepstow on Easter Monday.