UP-and-coming Welsh jockey Ben Jones recorded the biggest success of his career when the five-year-old grey Gumball won at Ascot last Saturday.

The Sodexo Handicap Hurdle, worth £34,000 to the winning owner Terry Warner, will forever stay in Ben’s memory because it was a ‘listed’ race (which in layman’s terms means high quality).

Gumball just held off the late challenge of Red Force One, ridden by leading female jockey Bryony Frost and part owned by Sir Alex Ferguson.

It was Ben’s 18th winner of a season which is becoming a big success.

Last month at Hereford he rode the first treble of his career, and as he’s based with one of Britain’s leading trainers, Philip Hobbs, he’s in good hands to rise through the jockey ranks.

Ben’s father, Dai, is the clerk of the course and head groundsman at Ffos Las, and in a previous life was a leading point to point rider, so it’s great to see his son carrying on the family success in the saddle.

Also at the weekend, but further afield, a Chepstow-born horse lined-up in a big race in the USA. The two-year-old Daahyeh, bred by John Deer at Oakgrove Stud in St Arvans, came second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita in California. She’s now won £332,000 in prize money from the six races she’s contested for trainer Roger Varian.

The next race meeting in Wales is at Ffos Las this Sunday, 10th November, when it is Countryside Race Day. There are seven races from 12.55pm and the gates open at 10.55am. Admission is £15 in advance and £20 on the day with children aged 17 and under going free of charge.

On Wednesday, 20th November, there’s a meeting at Chepstow with a fixture at Ffos Las two days later on Friday, 22nd November.

Racing is going to hit the big screen next year with a new movie based on the rags-to-riches story of racehorse Dream Alliance winning the 2009 Coral Welsh Grand National at Chepstow.

Starring Toni Collette and Damian Lewis, Dream Horse depicts the story of a syndicate of owners who strike lucky with a horse reared on an allotment in the Welsh valleys.

The film is due to be released in April and will provide great publicity for horse racing, particularly in Wales.

Finally, there is still time to make the leap into racehorse ownership by joining the Racing Club being formed by Chepstow and Ffos Las racecourses.

Indeed, there’s a chance to see the horse in question on the gallops at Tim Vaughan’s Pant Wilkin yard, near Cowbridge, this Friday morning, 8th November.

Existing and potential members of the club are invited to come and see Baboin, a five-year-old gelding, and enjoy a tour of the facilities. Shares for six months, running from November until April 2020, are £495. For more details contact Martin Higgs, the manager of the Racing Club, on 07831 752056 or email martinhiggsracing@gmail.com.