AS the nights are drawing in, we are turning our focus to the autumn activities at the racecourse.

As readers may be aware, we are currently under-going repairs to the flat course which means the final two fixtures scheduled for September 13th and 18th will take place at Ffos Las and Lingfield Park respectively.

There are no problems with the jump course and it’s all systems go for the ‘Jump Season Opener’ on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th October. This meeting has almost £300,000 of prize money.

Chepstow is fortunate that this fixture is viewed as the start of the winter jump season in the UK and it is a high profile event in our industry. The ten times champion trainer Paul Nicholls is a big supporter of the meeting and always enters plenty of good horses. Another great supporter of our jump racing is Colin Tizzard, who has sent most of his very best horses of recent years to Chepstow, including Cue Card, Thistlecrack and Native River.

This year, we are again running our ‘Jump Legends’ charity race in aid of the Bob Champion Cancer Trust on 13th October. This is where a group of retired jump jockeys dust off their saddles for one day and raise money for a great cause. Recently retired riders Andrew Thornton and Timmy Murphy are appearing this year.

It was back in 1981 when Bob won the Grand National on Aldaniti shortly after recovering from cancer. The amazing story was turned into a film called ‘Champions’ starring John Hurt. Speaking of filming, we’ve just produced a great promotional film for the Jump Season Opener meeting with the help of Chepstow based film company Equine Productions. You can now watch this clip via our social media.

Our racecourse ambassador, champion jump jockey Richard Johnson, is due at the racecourse in the next week or two to film some promotional clips we can use ahead of the jump season, and we’re also looking forward to welcoming members of 3rd Battalion the Royal Welsh later this week to do some filming on the obstacles in Piercefield Park ahead of the Chepstow Stampede mud race on 17th November. This race will be run in aid of ABF the Soldiers’ Charity and features 5k and 10k adults and a Mini Stampede over a mile for children.

In local racing news, Penhow trainer Robert Stephens trained Street Jester to win at the big price of 25/1 at Bath last Wednesday. The race was a qualifier for the Bath Summer Stayers Series, and the horse is likely to line up in the 188Bet sponsored series final this weekend.

The Queen’s horse Natural History, which won at Chepstow on 23rd August, was ambitiously targeted at a very valuable handicap at Haydock on Saturday. The three year old took on some more experienced rivals but finished a creditable second in the £100,000 race, picking up an £18,000 prize for Her Majesty. He’s definitely one to follow in staying races.