Hat-trick for jockey James, 16, and horse
COED Parc’s Gwyn Brace and his daughter Jayne had good cause to smile all the way home from Market Rasen recently after their Get Home Now won for the third time on the bounce following wins at Fontwell and Bangoron-Dee.
Their nine-year-old bay gelding has been ridden on all three occasions by 16-year-old James Bowen, son of Haverfordwest trainer Peter Bowen.
Both Gwyn and Jayne are full of praise for everyone who looks after their horses in the yard and said that James gave their horse a super ride.
They also have another horse with Bowen called Lord Bryan which will soon be reappearing after having being placed in bumpers and hurdles last season.
Gwyn and Jayne have been involved with horses all their lives. Jayne has competed very successfully for Wales with her working hunter ponies and she is currently chairman of the British Show Pony Society Wales area, as well as being a respected judge on several showing panels.
Gwyn, who has been recovering from a recent operation, used to commentate at a number of point-to-point meetings in the 1980s and continued to do so until the late 2000s. He is one of the original founders of the South Wales Point-To-Point Injured Jockeys Fund and also one of the trustees.
Get Home Now is not the only successful horse they have owned as in 2002 their hurdler Red Canyon also recorded a hat-trick of wins, and one of their home-bred horses Willows Roulette was also a three times winner. In one of those wins, Willows Roulete was ridden by the famed A P McCoy.
Meanwhile, congratulations to Bonvilston farmer and former point-to-point rider Tudor Harris on selling a yearling ram for a record 4,400 guineas at the recent NSA Ram Sale.
Tudor, who with his wife Janet farms the land the Pentyrch Hunt used to hold their annual point-to-point races on up until a few years ago, said of the prize-winning Blueface Leicester Ram: “It was also Reserve Supreme Champion at the Vale of Glamorgan Show and was also a winner at the Royal Welsh.”
I remember reporting on Tudor riding his first winner at the Pentyrch Hunt Point-To-Point at Llanharry back in 1966.
He rode a 13-year-old mare called Old Beauty which had not seen a racecourse fence in two years yet romped home in a seven runner field.
And those few lucky punters who backed it on the tote were rewarded with a dividend of £6 9s 6d for their two-shilling stake.