AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW POINT
GLAMORGAN
YSTRADOWEN
SATURDAY 13 APRIL 2002

by Alison Morris

Looking at Jumping For Fun this morning, I can see that a review has already been posted for this meeting, and as it was one of the longest and least entertaining days racing I have ever attended I'm quite glad not to have to write a full review of it!

Having said that I think there are a few extra things that could be commented on after reading Ian's review.

Firstly, the attitude or otherwise of the Glamorgan Hunt, had nothing to do with owners not running their horses; I should know I was one of them! The over riding factor was the state of the ground which was not only rock hard, but rough, and anyone who watched Marc Barber taking Tiger Bell to the start and saw the horse hit an uneven patch of ground on the downhill run and shoot Marc up his neck, will well understand why owners didn't want to risk their horses on such going. The thing that no one could understand was how the Jockey Club passed the course in the place! The original course inspector had failed the track using the downhill run, yet the one who attended the course last week found it acceptable!

Having said that all the boys riding the track said that it rode a lot better than it looked, even Dai Jones who only got around the bend because the kids sitting on the cross-country fence sat up and frightened his horse. Two local jockeys had ridden the course before hand and nether found any real problems with it, but the safety factor was ludicrously high and no one could picture a maximum field going round the bend. Tim Jones, who's ridden some tracks in his time, said it was the worse course he had seen in all his years at point to points, and as he was one of the jockeys who rode at Llanwonno, he knows what he's talking about!

The men's open looked like a carve up (and was if the truth be known), but that sort of thing has been happening for years (Peter Bowen at Moorlands when Damien Duggan was fighting for the national title). The only loser out of the scene was Tom, but he will have plenty more winners in their own right and what long term pleasure would he have got from having his first ever win recorded as a walkover?

Finally, the Ystrad Taf Fechan hunt who are due to run on the course in May are ALTERING THE COURSE, and are not running down the hill. Hopefully this will encourage people to enter.

A full and busy card looks in prospect at Bonvilston but, as is happening in many meetings in this area, there is no maiden for older horses so many of the entries in the restricteds and even the four miler are in fact maidens. Come on secretary's, we lost a whole year through foot and mouth and now we are penalised because our horses are over eight!