Bowen bags a double for Henderson
WE are delighted that all customers will be allowed to return to Ffos Las for our fixtures from February onwards following last Friday’s Covid update from the Welsh Government.
The Government has issued a four-stage roadmap to get back to alert level zero providing Omicron cases continue to decline.
This means the first meeting where all customers can return will be on Tuesday, February 1. At this stage rules regarding social distancing and tables of six inside will also be removed. Covid passes or a negative lateral flow test in the previous 24 hours before the fixture will still be required.
Nicky Henderson saddled four winners at Kempton at the weekend and James Bowen rode two of them. He is now on the 50 mark for the season.
His first winner was the classy Mister Fisher, who ran out a convincing winner of the four-runner Silviniaco Conti Chase. The horse is owned by our leading sponsors James and Jean Potter.
Later Bowen piloted Caribbean Boy to victory in the three-mile chase, deputising for his regular pilot Daryl Jacob. He could be back at Kempton for a more valuable race next month.
James’s brother Sean scored earlier on the card on young hurdler Ree Okka for Harry Fry. He won on the horse last time at Chepstow and this move up to three miles suited him. His easy success prompted connections to aim for a race at Haydock next month.
David Probert’s 12th winner of the new year came in Lingfield’s finale on Saturday and number 13 followed at Southwell on Sunday, riding Ducal Crown for Andrew Balding. Probert is the leader in the Allweather Jockeys’ Championship, his 42 winners giving him a lead of 11 over Hollie Doyle.
Last week the death was reported of Taffy Thomas, Wales’s leading lightweight jockey in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
Thomas was born in Caernarfon in 1945. He didn’t have a racing background, but his father wrote to trainers in Newmarket seeking an apprenticeship. He started there in 1961 and went on to ride 878 winners, the final one in 1990. His full name was Myrddin Lloyd Thomas, but it was somehow inevitable he would be nicknamed Taffy.
Thomas won the Lincoln, Chester Cup, Northumberland Plate, Stewards Cup, Cambridgeshire and Cesarewitch. The closest he came to Classic glory was in 1969 when he finished second in the 2,000 Guineas on Tower Walk.