Ffos Las Racecourse

 

Racecourse number: 57

First visited: 2022

Number of visits: 1

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.

Wolverhampton Racecourse

 

Racecourse number: 25

First visited: 1991

Number of visits: 2

My two visits to Wolverhampton racecourse in the 1990s marked some very big changes for both the racecourse and for myself. In November 1991 Wolverhampton racecourse was a traditional, solid, left handed national hunt grass circuit. When I returned in May 1995 the surface, like the lighting, was now artificial. The racecard promised “Racing as you have never seen it before,” at Europe’s first floodlit racecourse! The Queen had opened the new course in 1994. By my second visit my time spent around Leicester was coming to an end and a key aspect of my future was about to be agreed. More on that later. Back in November 1991 I was really excited to attend Wolverhampton for the first time. It was my twenty-fifth racecourse and being aged just twenty I was literally on course to visit them all. Like Nottingham the racecourse is quite a walk from the train station and also passes a local football stadium, in this case Molineux, home of Wolverhampton Wanderers.

I did some lengthy wandering of my own to get to the course, eventually following some bloke carrying a Racing Post to get to my destination. Once there I was ready to explore these wonderful new surroundings and perhaps place just one bet. Whatever You Like, trained by Nicky Henderson was a favourite horse of mine from around that time. If I could get the price I wanted that was my bet. If not, I was confident that the Martin Pipe Racing Club runner Passed Pawn would win the claiming hurdle a little later. When I was offered even money on Whatever You Like I snapped it up and almost felt sorry for the hapless bookmaker who had clearly lost focus. I was very much minded that if he got round OK in this two mile chase he would win. Indeed, I felt he was far superior to second favourite Highfire, trained by Kim Bailey. As the race developed my runner sat in second place behind Highfire, initially jumping well. However as they jumped what would be the last fence in a circuits time, my certainty blundered badly, clouting the fence. It was a seriously good piece of horsemanship from Richard Dunwoody to stay on board.

As the contest developed, avoiding that fall looked like a race defining moment. As the field began the turn for home Whatever You Like was starting to get the better of a protracted battle with Highfire and Sikera Spy. It would take a major effort for any of the others to get involved, who were now a little way behind and had already dismissed by me pre-race from a form point of view. My leader was now four lengths clear three fences out. At this point I was already planning my route back to my foolish bookmaker when I noticed one of the also rans from the back of the field starting to gather some serious momentum. Two out we were still leading but Dunwoody’s previous confident aura was now being replaced by a forceful drive on a clearly very tired favourite. The strong pace combined with the bad mistake was starting to take its toll. I was still hopeful that the leader’s class would come into play as he approached the last now being challenged by the well named Major Effort! The two briefly dueled after the last but my bet was soon destined to be a loser as Whatever You Like was unable to quicken after his staying on rival.

A fairly dramatic race resulting in a three length defeat. Whatever You Like would likely have won without the bad mistake but that is very much the nature of the game, so I had no complaints really. A month later he did win a similar race at Lingfield. Of course, just an hour later Passed Pawn won the claiming hurdle with ease, ridden from the front, as usual, by Peter Scudamore at 8-13. The race in between was actually a grade two contest, The Reynoldstown Cup, a hurdle race won by Bollin Patrick. I am so glad I went to this meeting prior to the massive change that was coming at Wolverhampton racecourse. I may never have backed a winner at the old set up but I have really fond memories of that day. Incredibly, the trainers of the first three home in Whatever You Like’s race namely Oliver Sherwood, Nicky Henderson and Kim Bailey all still train as I write in December 2021, over thirty years later!

Four years later I was back at Dunstall Park, the newly created Wolverhampton racecourse which now featured an all-weather surface, floodlights and an on-course hotel. The original old stand was still there at this point, awaiting demolition, looking lost and lonely way beyond the new winning post location. Accompanying me on this visit was my long term girlfriend Claire. We had a meal and hotel room booked for the evening which would allow a very unusual combination – a night of watching The Eurovision Song Contest on TV in between some live low grade all-weather flat racing! Not for everyone I am sure but we both shared an interest in Eurovision, at a time when the structure meant the United Kingdom were still competitive. The new racing set up at Wolverhampton was quite impressive and certainly different. Watching racing under floodlights was indeed a new experience. However, the low grade racing, even on a Saturday had not really captured the imagination of the local racing fans. The attendance was low and the atmosphere could only be described as soulless. Low grade racing and only a small number of spectators is not a great combination. No surprise then that I have no great tales of excitement from the nights racing. I do remember we showed more speed than my selections to keep nipping back to our room between races to watch various song contest entrants. Claire remembers fondly the Lasagne she had that night but little else! Looking back at the racing results winning jockeys included John Carroll, Simon Whitworth, Jason Weaver and Franny Norton who like the trainers noted above is still active on the racing circuit. For completeness I can report Norway won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Nocturne by Secret Garden. The United Kingdom performed respectably with Love by City Groove back in tenth place. An unusual but very enjoyable evening.

Looking at the racecard from 1995 quite a bit of focus was given to the trotting racing taking place at that time. There also seemed to be a tight grass circuit in place. I have vague memories of an abortive attempt to stage national hunt racing again there in these early days of the new Wolverhampton circuit but I could definitely be making that up. The course these days seems entirely focused on all-weather flat racing and with around eighty annual fixtures has become a significant feature of our eclectic racing heritage. I am so pleased to have seen this transformation of the course first hand. The day following my second visit to Wolverhampton racecourse Claire and I made a significant decision. Following the upcoming end of her time as a student in Leicester we agreed she would come to live with me here in Lancashire, but not before we were engaged to be married. A few weeks later I popped the big question, as instructed, in the romantic setting of the botanical gardens in Leicester. However, in reality this key decision was really taken at a Pizza restaurant not far from the new all-weather racecourse at Dunstall Park, Wolverhampton!