Speaking of long journeys, in May 2022, the Tomlinson clan were at it again. This time a trip to Ffos
Las racecourse in deepest, but certainly not darkest, Wales. On this six hour
jaunt I was very conscious of my terrible betting record at Welsh racecourses.
On my only two other visits, to Bangor-On-Dee and later Chepstow, I had backed
an unimpressive total of no winners. To be fair I had no bets at Bangor in
those patient days were I was happy to have no bet if the price was not right.
At Chepstow though my efforts had been particularly miserable. Surely I could
do better at Ffos Las where the card contained only a limited number of runners
at this national hunt fixture. We were attending a beer & cider
festival race night and then staying for a couple of nights at a nearby hotel
in Llanelli. More on that later.
The racecourse is remotely
located but on arrival I was fairly impressed with the set up though it was, to
a large extent, very much what I expected. The positive difference perhaps
being the beautiful Welsh countryside that surrounded it and the very warm
bright sunny evening that we were treated to that night. In truth the
facilities are somewhat standard. One main reasonable stand with ample space in
front and behind it. There is good viewing of a perfectly flat oval shaped
left-handed course which holds both flat and jump racing. What was absent
though was course character. It was almost like the quirkiness I love about
courses like Brighton had been straightened and flattened out. As we were
taking some initial photos of me at Ffos Las, the real theme of the evening
began to show itself. Behind me in the first photo we took, around an hour
before the first race, is a middle aged man dancing away merrily on his own to
non-existent music! The number of drunken racegoers would increase as the night
went on. Our plan was always to have our evening meal at the track before
racing began. The choices were not as good as hoped for but we soon got stuck
into a variety of burgers, chicken, chips and soft drinks. The quality was
average for this kind of thing but the high price point was the most
interesting. Just low enough to actually pay for the food rather than spending
the evening hungry. Not quite high enough to report the incident to the nearest
security team member to complain of being mugged!
My daughter Rachel would be
heavily engaged in the racing activity with me whilst wife Claire and son Jake
now seem to form a duo of reluctant attendees, only occasionally showing
interest in the proceedings. Rachel had done her prep and was confident with
her first race analysis. She had the winner clearly identified and the most
likely danger also earmarked. I agreed with her and ultimately the first race
result was just as expected, our selection beating the main danger. Leading
Theatre won for trainer Fergal O’Brien and jockey Max Kendrick, though the duo
had to work harder than expected to seal the deal after the final hurdle. A
good start and my first ever Welsh winner. It only took one more race though
for my traditional Welsh luck to return though! In the second race the best I
could do was second, as did Rachel. The winner Boston Joe was winning its first
race though for an out of form trainer Rebecca Curtis. I can handle those kind
of results as I was never considering backing this winner. In the third race
though I made a classic mistake, I switched from the most obvious winner,
backed by Rachel, to the well backed bottom weight trained by the now resurgent
Rebecca Curtis. Rachel’s selection Balkardy outstayed the outsider of the field
despite looking held between the final two fences to give her two winners from
three races. We were down the course adjacent to the final fence which gave us
a close up view of Balkardy jumping the last well two lengths behind then within
yards of the fence seizing the lead.
Having missed an obvious winner, I
was now a bit frustrated, tired after a long day, whilst Rachel was considering
whether she had had her last bet of the night with a good profit now secured.
Races four and six were very tricky and in my preparation I had not nearly
solved the puzzles presented by these handicap hurdles. The racecard offered me
little new information and the historical form shown normally in betting shops
or in a Racing Post were not available. Displayed newspaper form had been
replaced by digitised screens which offered no detailed information. In a vain attempt to get a winner a spread my
stake around following the odd gamble, sticking with some initial inklings and
generally guessing. Meanwhile Rachel had no bets and watched my selections
never really get competitive. In hindsight I could maybe have backed both
winners. A 22-1 handicap debutant winner trained by no less than Nicky Henderson
and a Sam Twiston-Davies ridden winner on his only ride of the night! A winner
at Salisbury helped my confidence and morale a little but racing wise the main
drama of the evening was in race five, another hurdle race but with just five
contenders.
Confident of victory from John Betjemen,
Rachel invested some of her profits in what would be her final bet of the evening.
I was on the favourite John Betjemen too but also had a bet on Chasamix, for
the Henderson and De Boinville combination, who had just won the previous race.
The bright and low sun meant the hurdles in the home straight were dolled off
and not to be jumped, with the runners having to compete in the small gap
between the hurdles and fences. This adjustment would have a big impact on the race.
Turning for home it was clear the race would be fought out by our two
selections. John Betjemen was ridden by the less experienced conditional jockey
Fergus Gillard. The two horses and jockeys fought out a thrilling finish with
ultimately John Betjemen getting the better of things close home, much to
Rachel’s delight. A twist was coming though as quite quickly the claxon
indicating a steward’s enquiry was sounded. The head on replay was shown on the
big screen and the two protagonists were very close together all the way up the
straight in the small gap between courses. It was clear the winner had also bumped
the second horse at least twice. I thought the result could easily be changed,
though the outcome of these enquiries can sometimes defy logic. In this case
the fact that the inexperienced jockey had bumped the established professional
jockey made me quite confident the result would change. It took a good while
for them to decide but ultimately the first and second places were reversed by
the stewards. Rachel was annoyed and also very unlucky to have a winner disqualified.
I have been racing and betting for thirty plus years and have only lost a
handful of races in this way.
Despite this being a jump racing
fixture the only fallers on the night were humans not horses. The beer and
cider festival focus meant there were drunken people everywhere. I witnessed
two very drunk people taking bad tumbles. One in particular fell right in front
of the packed stands and comically failed to get back to his feet without the
help of his slightly less drunk friends! There was no bad drunken behaviour on
show to be fair. Sadly, because of the drinking focus there was little crowd engagement
in the racing itself. This was not helped by the tanoy system failing to be heard
over the noise of the crowd, many racegoers not realising a race was on until
the horses went past on the first circuit. It was also difficult to move around
the betting ring, with groups of drinkers and many discarded disposable pint
glasses impeding free movement. All this contributed to what in a few senses
was a disappointing night. Racing seemingly is failing to attract a crowd
engaged in its core product and that saddens me. Also the tired Tomlinsons were
not at their harmonious best. Worst of all, I had failed to adequately prepare
in my ongoing battle with the bookmakers. Approaching the final race, a bumper
with limited form clues, instead of assessing the race, I engaged with the
theme of the evening and had a locally brewed pint of cider. It was very
refreshing to be fair. If you can’t beat them join them! So I did, briefly before
leaving prior to the final race. Horse racing definitely needs to do better,
but reflecting on this evening, so do I. I had been schooled in the art of betting
by my teenage daughter who, despite bad luck, had profitably negotiated this
tricky racecard. Rachel’s interest in horse racing as a fun day out is a real
positive for me and gives me some hope for the future. She is in a significant minority
though and the following day, the death of racing legend Lester Piggott made me
reflect more on the problem. Simply the very presence of Lester himself at the
racecourse would swell crowd numbers massively from the 1950’s into the 1990s. What
can racing do to get crowds to the races without the need to attract them with
non-racing activities? This is something I will ponder and write about further
as I complete my journey to all the racecourses of Great Britain. Four courses
left.
A positive footnote to this story
is that the rest of our stay in Wales was a delight. The best selections of the
weekend were actually made by Claire, the choices of staying at the Diplomat
Hotel in Llanelli and our visit to Pembrey Country Park the day after the Ffos
Las meeting. The hotel was very traditional, family owned and I really liked it
compared to the standard offering of a chain hotel. The staff seemed to really
be engaged in you having a good stay, the rooms were good and facilities
excellent. Best of all, we were even entertained by their own female version of
Basil Fawlty running the Sunday morning breakfast. She was both impressively
attentive and comically forgetful! The rest of the Sunday was spent at Pembrey
Country Park on what was mainly a beautiful sunny day. A walk round a car boot
sale, followed by cycling on hired bikes and then a skiing lesson for Jake. An
amazing council owned space with fabulous facilities right next to the beach. A
Welsh weekend break with a difference for sure but it was certainly nice to finally
back a couple of Welsh winners.
