Ffos Las is a happy hunting ground for Evan

IT’S now 11 years since Ffos Las opened for business.

A crowd of almost 10,000 packed the enclosures on the evening of June 18, 2009 to enjoy the opening of the third racecourse in Wales. The multi-million pound investment by owner Dai Walters finally saw the light of day and has become a popular venue ever since.

The first winner, Plunkett, was trained in the Vale of Glamorgan by Evan Williams. The successful jockey was Donal Fahy and the owner was Hywel Jones, a big supporter of Welsh racing who also owned On Tour and Buywise.

Twenty-times champion jockey Tony McCoy was also on the scoresheet that evening, riding a treble including Danehill Willy, another winner on the card for Williams.

Amazingly, McCoy remains the leading jockey at Ffos Las despite having retired in 2015.

He rode 69 winners at the track from 238 rides. He is eight ahead of Richard Johnson. Number three on the all-time leaderboard is Tom Scudamore, closely followed by Sam Twiston-Davies and Paul Moloney.

The leading jumps trainer is Evan Williams with 106 winners. Peter Bowen is in second with 92 and Rebecca Curtis lies third with 80 successes. It’s fair to say it’s been a Welsh domination.

All of these trainers will be aiming to have horses back in action at the track in October for the Welsh Champion Hurdle meeting.

Flat racing continues behind closed doors due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last week’s Royal Ascot meeting proved to be a hit on ITV Racing but it was slightly frustrating for Welsh jockey David Probert, who came agonisingly close to a winner when second on Kipps in the King George V Stakes on Wednesday.

Chepstow stages meetings throughout the summer and Bath also starts this week. All the races are on Sky Sports Racing.

It remains unclear when crowds will be allowed back on to racecourses but the authorities in France have announced that all sports stadia, including racecourses, can have customers back from July 11 with a limit of 5,000 in the initial stages.

The 2021 fixture list is due to be published next month.