Legendary Welsh racing writer Lee pens his final article on point-to-point
WALES’ premier writer on horse racing and point-topointing has announced that his review of the Llangeinor Pentyrch meeting at Ystradowen the previous weekend was his last.
87-year-old Brian Lee attended his first point in 1952 and started reporting on them in the 1960s.
Since then he has written for the Sporting Life, Horse and Hound, Western Mail and any number of other Welsh papers.
In 2002 his book The Welsh Grand National became the definitive history of the race. An updated version followed in 2015.
Brian has also written several books about Cardiff, but the musthave for anyone interested in the sport is his Racing Rogues – The Scams, Scandals and Gambles of Horse Racing in Wales. The title is self-explanatory.
He was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award as the Welsh Horse Racing Awards in 2020.
The start of the new jumps season at the weekend meant business as usual for Sean Bowen, riding a winner for Olly Murphy at Uttoxeter.
It was a fourth victory for Resplendent Grey, all with Bowen in the plate.
The horse has only been out of the first four once in ten starts.
He didn’t run last summer, so this might be his final outing for a while unless soft going lingers.
Stable companion Fiston De Becon was successful for Bowen and Murphy at Warwick on Monday – his third in a row, all two-mile chases.
He doesn’t win by far, so the handicapper may not have his measure yet.
David Probert’s productive partnership with Jack Channon continued when they combined to score with Tiriac at Windsor on Monday.
The four-year-old is quite consistent but his two victories have both been over six furlongs on heavy going.
Probert’s fiancée Megan Jordan rode Dakota Power to win the amateur riders race at Salisbury on Sunday.
She is attached to the stable of
Roger Teal, who owns the horse and keeps it as a schoolmaster for the yard’s less experienced jockeys.
However, Megan is moving out of that category, for this was her eighth winner from 42 rides, and she is 3-5 this year. That healthy strike rate for an amateur bodes well for a challenge for the ladies’ title.
Grace Harris had gone 44 days without a win when Connie’s Rose lost by a nose at Salisbury on Sunday in a five-furlong sprint on heavy going.
Recompense was just around the corner, in a very different type of contest, for the next day stablemate Halifax won a three-mile hurdle at Kempton on good ground.
He had struggled in the winter ground off higher marks but this was his day, given some respite and the right going.
His three previous wins had been on good. Conor Ring was the man on board.
David Evans’ Meet Me In Meraki had been showing little until an improved effort at Lingfield a month ago when trying a mile for the first time.
His second attempt, at Bath on Monday, was a winning one. He had never run on soft ground before, but appreciated it and overcame trouble in running to score by two and a half lengths, completing a treble for
Richard Kingscote in the process. Hoping to strike while the iron is hot, he is due to run at Kempton this evening.
Michael Byrne, who rode for Peter Bowen and Tim Vaughan from 201015, riding 96 winners, has died aged 36.
His best season was 2013/14, when he partnered 34 winners and finished second to Gavin Sheehan in the race for that year’s conditional jockeys’ title.
He stopped riding to return to his native Tipperary and work in family businesses training horses.
Chepstow’s flat season opener is fast approaching, on the evening of Tuesday 14th.
Ffos Las have their next jumps meeting on Wednesday 15th.
Bangor’s next fixture is their Wrexham Day on Saturday 18th, with racing scheduled to get under way at 3.55.