UP-and-coming Welsh jockey Connor Brace recorded the biggest victory of his short professional career when he won the £105,000 Scottish Champion Hurdle at Ayr on Verdana Blue last Saturday.

It has been a fantastic first season for the teenage rider whose family own the successful Dunraven Windows business based at Pyle near Bridgend. He has ridden winners for many leading jump trainers having served his apprenticeship riding winners on the point to point circuit around the country.

It was Connor’s second ride for champion trainer Nicky Henderson and given the polished ride he gave his mount, there could be more opportunities to follow.

The Brace family will be at Chepstow for their annual Dunraven Bowl meeting on Friday, 26th April. The Dunraven Bowl race is a novices’ hunter chase for point to point horses, and is a prestigious and popular event in the point to point racing community.

We’ll be really busy that night, the popular local band Rusty Shackle will be playing after racing and we’re offering four free tickets per household if you book in advance.

Another Welsh rider knocking in the winners is Lorcan Williams. He rode a treble at Fontwell Park last Friday for ten times champion trainer Paul Nicholls. Then, on Saturday, he scored on Gone Platinum at Bangor for Pembrokeshire trainer Dai Rees. It was the horse’s second victory inside a week having won at Ffos Las the previous Sunday – again with Williams in the saddle.

Brecon trainer Sheila Lewis trained 20/1 shot Change Ur Tune to win at Bangor on Saturday. With just a handful of horses it’s a couple of years since her last winner. She’s quite probably the only person in the country to run a beauty salon alongside training racehorses!

We’re fast approaching the end of the jump racing season. Our final jump meetings at Chepstow are on Easter Monday (Family Day) and the Dunraven Bowl racenight already mentioned. The final big meeting of the season is the Bet365 race meeting at Sandown on Saturday, 27th.

Our racecourse ambassador Richard Johnson is on course to be crowned the champion jump jockey for the fourth consecutive season.

Flat racing has been under way for the past couple of weeks, and at Newbury on Saturday we saw some of the first trial races for this year’s classics. Chepstow’s first flat meeting takes place on Friday, 3rd May.