Probert stars with stylish win on Valley

OUR next meeting at Ffos Las is this Saturday (May 28). There is a beer and cider theme and the meeting is sponsored by Gower Brewery.

Racing starts at 5.50pm with the last race at 9pm. Tickets are £17 in advance and £22 on the night.

We also have tickets available for the Kaiser Chiefs Race Night on Thursday, June 2 priced at £37.50. Just go to the website to book.

David Probert was in great form at Bath on Friday where he rode a double, and he fared even better at Haydock on Saturday, riding three winners in races shown on ITV4.

Valley Forge’s victory in a two-mile handicap needed all his skill and determination, for the horse repeatedly lugged to the left, risking interfering with his opponents. Probert straightened him up and got him going despite dropping his rein briefly.

He took the lead in the last few strides to win by a head. He’d ridden the horse to win the prestigious Melrose Handicap at last year’s Ebor meeting in York.

He then won the £100,000 Silver Bowl over a mile on Whoputfiftyinyou, coming from last to hit the front in the last halffurlong. The horse has now won all his four races, never by very much – half-alength was the verdict here – and the Britannia Handicap at Royal Ascot is next on the agenda.

Then came triumph in the Group 2 Temple Stakes over five furlongs on The Queen’s five-year-old King’s Lynn. He came from behind to lead inside the final furlong and then held on by a head. King’s Lynn is in three races at Royal Ascot.

One of his other mounts came second and three came third.

As usual, a strong Welsh contingent made the cross-country trek to Fakenham on Sunday, but the best of them was Adam Wedge’s second place on Laura Morgan’s hat trick-seeking Percussion.

Monmouthshire’s Nikki Evans trained her first winner of the year at Bath on Friday. More Than Likely’s odds of 40-1 indicated she was an unlikely winner, but clues were there.

Her latest run was her best for some time, while she had won four times earlier in her career when trained by Richard Hughes and had dropped significantly down the handicap.

Winners can be like buses: you wait ages for one and then another comes along straightaway. Evans has entries at Warwick on Wednesday.