I HAVE a fairly anxious few days ahead.

And it’s not because I’m worried that Father Christmas will forget me.

Our biggest race meeting of the year, the Coral Welsh Grand National, is due to take place on Thursday, 27th December, and in recent years the weather has spoilt the party on several occasions.

In 2017 torrential overnight rain (on top of an already wet December) put paid to the meeting. I was photographed next to the track standing in water inching over the top of my wellington boots. Not a good day.

This year I am hoping (well, praying) it’ll be different and the meeting will go ahead. The vibes are positive and the current forecast looks to be in our favour.

So much hard work from our 26 full time staff goes into the organisation of this fixture and when it goes ahead it is a truly great patriotic sporting occasion for Wales.

In 2016, we had a record attendance of 12,000 and the crowd cheered home Native River to take the prize. This tough chaser then won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the ultimate prize in jump racing, in March earlier this year. He’s due to line up in the famous King George at Kempton on Boxing Day.

One of the biggest challenges for my team is to judge how many people to cater for in a variety of different areas – car parking, cleaners, safety stewards, food, drink, race day programmes, toilets, etc, etc – the list goes on.

We have a ‘live’ operational plan that will be reviewed daily this week as we keep an eye on the weather and ticket sales. The staff will have Christmas Day off but the office will be open every other day in the run-up to the meeting. They are a dedicated bunch!

One of the highlights is the singing of the national anthem as the horses line-up for the start of the race and this year it will be performed by Welsh opera singers Rebecca Evans and Wynne Evans.

We look forward to welcoming them on the 27th.

Finally, next summer Madness are back at the racecourse for another show after racing – it’s all happening on Saturday, 8th June, and details are on our website.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all Free Press readers.