No doubting Thomas with Ascot double
SAM Thomas trained a double for Dai Walters – the former chairman of Ffos Las – at Ascot on Saturday.
The Cardiff-based trainer is having a fine season and this was another red-letter day.
Good Risk At All had been regarded as a mediocre jumper when finishing second three times in a row. This time, upped in trip, he travelled nicely in the very soft ground, jumped well and won with ease under a typically confident Charlie Deutsch ride.
The runner-up was the only other horse to finish within 43 lengths of the winner.
Earlier on the card, Thomas’s Skytastic had to battle hard to win the novice hurdle. Aintree is more likely to be on the agenda than Cheltenham.
Two of Wales’s highest-profile horses ran disappointingly on Saturday. Waiting Patiently was having his second outing for Christian Williams in the Ascot Chase, but he was pulled up. Despite working well at home, he cannot reproduce it on the racecourse and he has now been retired.
Evan Williams’s Coral Welsh Grand National hero Secret Reprieve was pulled up in Haydock’s Grand National Trial. The victor was The Galloping Bear, ridden by Ben Jones who was riding one of the biggest winners of his career.
The horse is an out-and-out stayer who had to give everything to overhaul longtime leader Bristol De Mai. It was five years to the day since Jones, the son of Ffos Las clerk of the course Dai Jones, rode his first winner, in a point-to-point at Howick.
Following their success in the Scottish County Hurdle a fortnight ago Adam Wedge and Laura Morgan returned to Musselburgh on Sunday with three runners, all of whom won. Wedge passed the 50-winner mark for the season during the afternoon.
Champ Is Real took the novice chase at 5-4 as he left his previous form well behind. Much the same thing happened with Seemingly So, who won the three-mile handicap chase at 7-2. Then Clear The Runway broke his duck in his first steeplechase at 11-8.
David Probert avoided Storm Eunice in favour of Qatar, where he rode two horses for Andrew Balding at the Doha track at the weekend. They finished fourth and second, neither getting the run of the race but earning £174,000 in prize money.
Our next meeting at Ffos Las is on Wednesday, March 23. We are offering a £20 admission package including a ticket, a drink, pie and racecard – advance bookings only.