rebelfm

The further you go west in Wales the happier the people seem to become. Here in Carmarthenshire with Wexford and the mighty metropolis of Corcaigh only a boat ride away you can see why they have plenty to be happy about. So today I made my second ever visit to the brand new racecourse some 10 or so miles west of Llanelli at Ffos Las. It was an evening meeting and was absolutely full for what was an entirely uninspiring racecard of only five jump races. If we have to have a bumper let's make sure there are six jump races to support it. Maybe it was the jazzband put on by the executive to bookend the evening that enticed the welsh out of their endless choir practice and apron making. However despite the ragtime melodies on offer many racegoers were out the traps quicker than Ravage Again following a particularly poor class 5 seller to take advantage of the one gate left adjar by the officious or completely mardy men in green coats. Clearly they haven't been able to secure a ticket in the bunks for the Swansea ship to paradise. The facilities are not bad although the crowd was lucky with the good weather tonight as the stands and bars cannot really accommodate under cover this size of a crowd. It is in fairness a well laid out spacious track which has a bit of character, something new football stadia soulessness in design to accommodate utilitarian cost effectiveness fails to do.I quite like the statue which is a bit different. I was not keen on the quality of food on offer, chip van fare and I was unlucky enough to chance upon purchasing a cheap colonel saunders clone. Biting into the crisp coating of peppered breadcrimbs a spurt of molten lard spewed out onto my jacket like projectile vomit from a needy toddler. My advice; don't be enticed by the trap of cheap food unless you like reconstituted fat mascarading as meat heated to just the right point that rather like a persistant boil your incisors wil liberate the puss (copyright Egon Ronez). The paddock is big enough and because the track is so flat there is ease of viewing. A tip for the tight fisted is park in the car park, use your laptop to log into betfair and watch in spendthrift spendour at the furlong pole in the secure luxury of your private box / motor vehicle, all for free. I for one would be the first to support the mardy ones using their clear brooding menace to root out these ne'erdowells and expel them physically from the private grounds. Otherwise you can see the day when the car parking area which I got into comfortably for precisely £0 being subject of a charge. I hasten to add that I paid the required £10 at the gate to obtain conventional accesss. The atmosphere was very casual and warm with plenty of the locals speaking in their strange language disconnected from most mainstream eurpoean tongues which sort of emphasises the unique nature of the Welsh. The english myth is that (particularly in Noth East Wales) that locals when in their pub come stone lambing parlour on hearing a scouse intruder will grunt in a sing songy phlegm coated stacato some nonesense to each other and thus destabillise the already maladjusted scally who will report back to base the ignorance of the Wrexhamite. Image my shock that the Welsh really do speak welsh to each other in the same way as Iexperienced when working in The Black Isle where the highlanders north of the great glen speak gallic to each other. Mortifying when my own gaelic only extends to recalling the words of the soldiers song and the sign of the cross from my schooldays (not much use when trying to ask for directions when west of Tralee). Ffos Las deserves to succeed, deserves trainers / owners support and deserves English racegoers support. Perhaps a bit better racing might help a bit because this is a very fair test of a galloping horse and being West Wales and on reconstituted sub strata there is enough rain to ensure it is unlikley to ride firm and the resulting drainage is unlikely to ride heavy.



Someone turn these ladies around and tell them the racing is behind themFfos was build on the site of an old opencast coal mine run by Celtic Energy and restored by big hitter muckshifters Walters. When we built Silverstoone by pass Walters were our partners and they were a top rate outfit to work with. The results were that contact went like a dream. Despite foot and and mouth stopping work for several months the contract ran to time. This part of Wales has intersting geology. The sedementary rocks are silica in nature rather than the limestone that predominated across the water and further east on the welsh coast. The mixture of sandstone, shale and coal provides good drainage and useful rock. The coal is obvious but the sandstone is transported all around England and Wales for surfaces of the motorway network because of the grip and therefore safe aspects it proivides. Restoration is an important planning aspect of a quarrymans life. Generally there needs to be an environmentally leant plan rather than the old fashion route of fill the hole with rubbish and then build a housing estate on top. Now old works are more likley to become a nature reserve, particularly if flooded and landscaping for birds and fish to populate, with leisure apects such as sailing and mountain biking bolted on as business opportunities. The trade bodies hold big flash meals to celebrate examples of excellence in restoration. Generally they are won by boring biodiversity ideas. Usually centred on some close to extinction newt or a falcon's nest being protected. Something like Ffos Las is akin to the football ground in Braga, Portugal where an old quarrry has been converted into a sporting venue. Quite brilliant.

However the racing was not brilliant. There were no horses of note to take forward on a positive level. I will consult my notes on friday and compile a summary when I getback from The Craven tomorrow night and upload the photos.

The card opened with a selling three mile hurdle. It was won by a horse I saw at Uttoxeter being Sun Tzu who has well beaten by a horse who then went up over a stone. He has now picked up a couple of moderate races in quick succession, was bought for 6,300 at the subsequent auction and may be a due a hike in the weights having been on 103 for a while. Quite where the new owner thinks he will get his return over hurdles is baffling to me unless chasing. Only  aspect of note is that the Don McCain plodder Always Bold stuck at the back of the field  today was mysteriously claimed for six grand. What recession?

We then had a procession for the second in the form of a maiden hurdle over 20f There was only two horses in it from a long way out with favourite Mountainous (good points form but mainly with a cut and today's ground may have been a little too quick) comfortably held by another debutant from between the flags Beneficial Reform (won well enough but I doubt he beat much and will find shouldering a penalty difficult.



Whoa there neddy next stop Barry Island

A three mile novice chase was reduced to only four runners when Gotoyourplay was pulled up lame in what looked like his near hind. It ws won but a reasonable round of jumping by Ballyvesy who held off the renewed challenge of odds on favourite and habitual runner up The Rainbow Hunter. The nett conclusion is that this was a low level novice event, Ballyvesy will struggle to find as easy an opportunity and there must be a real problem in getting the rnner up to putting his head in front if he couldn't do it today. There were two other finishers apparently but I was in the bar before they were sighted.


A wide open handicap hurdle class 3 over two and a half miles. They ran round like a herd for most of the race until Pure Faith got first run and went on to win has ben prolific and appears to have escaped the handicappers wrath and won four of last eight runs and rated 124 for three of them! The joint favourites were second and third. William Hogarth (often close up and stuck on 125 despite only winning once from last 12 runs) and Open Day ( a stone off his handicap entry pint of 135 but still cannot win a handicap

The last jump race was a very moderate class 5 handicap chase. The Isle of Inishmore is yet another of these horses who the handicapper must have lost their formbook. He has won three of his last four and is on only 4lbs higher than his first winning mark. The gambled on favourite was Mr Bond who has never won often fails to complete and has been on basically the same mark for the last few runs. If he had won I would personally gone up to the stewards box, held my own enquiry and warned off each and every one of the punters who put their faith in a horse for which the term moderate at best is a complemnet and the fantastic one liner used in the old days when Timeform was brutal 'of little account'. The Racing Post's comment on runner (kind term) up Lucky Dasncer 'failed to quicken flat' can be interpreted that just failed to quicken at any stage of this race and is clearly going to need a very very modest event to win.paceless.



Framed by the magnificence of the sandstone spoilheap feature in full pseudo  mediteranean scrubland splendour

The meeting was closed off with a bumper which most of the racegoers appeared ambivalent to preferring to get some more alcohol down their necks, get out of the packed car parks and thus home before midnight or limber up for some toe tapping appreciation of the resident jazzband. The short priced favourite Wheres The Hare won by a comfortable two lengths with the pair clear for Rebecca Curtis who has a good bumper strikerate. How  good is he? I am not sure but did cost over £100,000 at the Cheltenham April sales. Only Sentimental journey gave him a race. He is modestly bred and probably fair. On balance I am not sure if Wheres The Hare is much more than moderate

Notebook

Beneficial Reform(Negative) up £30
lost next three runs and was then sent handicapping which was when I folded my hand on him. His prices were often short so was a good laying medium.

The Rainbow Hunter (Negative) up £20
Managed to fall next two runs. Not seen out since and I have now closed the book on him

Always Bold down £10
Beaten next run but then dropped 5pounds and won at 2/1. Looked to have improved and I ended my involvement from a laying perspective.