Chepstow centenary highlights storied history of Welsh horse racing

Greyhound racing in Wales may be facing a total ban but the equine equivalent is enjoying a boom and the country’s most famous track at Chepstow celebrated its centenary this week.

Conca D’Oro won the first race run there on 6 August, 1926, and since then the racecourse has hosted many great days, and not just over fences since National Hunt racing arrived in 1927 just months after the 370-acre estate had opened for business.

Chepstow is best known for the Welsh Grand National run every year during the Christmas holidays but the 20th century great Sir Gordon Richards famously rode 11 consecutive winners on the Flat over a two-day meeting in 1933.

The now defunct Ely racecourse in Cardiff had hosted the National from its inauguration in 1895 to 1939, with the race moving to Chepstow in 1949 with future bestselling novelist Dick Francis aboard the winner, Fighting Line.

The race has since grown in stature with Bindaree, Corbiere, Earth Summit, Rag Trade and Silver Birch among those to complete the Aintree and Chepstow double. Burrough Hill Lad, Cool Ground, Master Oats and Native River have proven their pedigree at Chepstow before Cheltenham Gold Cup glory.

A general view as runners make their way down the straight at Chepstow racecourse in 2015. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

“You’ve got fight your way in and fight your way out on Welsh National day,” said 14-times champion trainer Paul Nicholls, who guided Silver Birch and L’Aventure to wins in 2004 and 2005 and also won the big race as a jockey on Playschool in 1987.

“It’s always been won by good horses and Chepstow is just a great place to come to. My first memory was in a hunter chase at the start of my career at 16 or 17 on a horse called Energy Saver and Nigel Twiston-Davies actually beat me.

“To win the Welsh National, and living locally, was a brilliant day – the first big winner I rode. I had a real battle with Rhyme ‘N Reason over the last three fences and he went on to win the [Grand] National.”

Chepstow eventually featured on the big screen when Dream Alliance’s uplifting 2009 Welsh National victory was told in the 2020 film Dream Horse.

The movie told the tale of how a small Welsh syndicate invested in a foal which overcame serious injury, hours of surgery and stem cell treatment before his triumph at Chepstow.

Dream Horse, a 2020 film starring Toni Collette and Owen Teale. Photograph: Kerry Brown

“It was a real fairy story,” said Jan Vokes, the barmaid and supermarket worker who had the idea of raising a racehorse on her allotment near Blackwood.

“Dream Alliance was working class like us, he came from nowhere. He was just a special horse.”

Greg Wood’s Saturday preview

Ryan Moore returns to the riding line-up for the Shergar Cup at Ascot on Saturday for the first time in 20 years and his Great Britain & Ireland team, captained by Saffie Osborne, should justify short-priced favouritism and see off its rivals from Europe, Hong Kong and the Rest of the World.

All five of Moore’s rides on the card are priced up at single-figure odds and he is a solid 11-4 favourite to win the Silver Saddle for the day’s leading rider.

Osborne and Dylan Browne McMonagle, the third member of the team, also have obvious winning chances on the likely favourites Hoseki (3.55) and Night Breeze (2.45) respectively.

Ascot 1.35 Hold-up horse Kendall Roy should get the unrelenting pace he needs and a repeat of his close third at Cork last month could be enough to give Frida Valle-Skar a win on her first ride in Britain.

Newmarket 1.55 A Group Three with a couple of future Group One winners on the honour roll in recent seasons and Charlie Appleby’s Dubawi filly, Graceful Song, has obvious potential to rise through the ranks after an impressive winning debut over track and trip last month.

Ascot 2.10 The lightly raced Hermetic is progressing nicely since joining Ian Williams’s stable over the winter and should be well placed to strike in a race with little obvious pace.

Haydock 2.25 Sallaal posted one of the most impressive handicap wins of the year at Epsom in June and should take this step up to Group Three company in his stride.

Ascot 2.45 Last year’s winner, Night Breeze, has remained competitive off marks in the 90s this season and stands every chance of improving his impressive record at this track.

Haydock 3.00 A somewhat limp return to action slightly dampens enthusiasm for Fallen Angel but Karl Burke’s mare has a stone or more in hand of this field on her best form and will be very hard to peg back if that run brings her on.

Ascot 3.20 Thunder Call was doing all his best work at the finish when third at Newmarket last time and should appreciate the stiffer finish here.

Ascot 3.55 The fast-improving Hoseki showed plenty of determination to squeeze home by a short-head over track and trip last time and can complete a four-timer off a 5lb higher mark.

Ascot 4.30 Ozat endured a nightmare passage at Goodwood last time and deserves another chance to back up a fine run in the Royal Hunt Cup in June.