Flint & Denbigh
Bangor-on-Dee
Saturday 29th May 2010
by Arthur Shone
The Flint & Denbigh Hunt have attracted 118 entries for their fixture between the flags at Bangor on Dee (LL13 0DA) this Saturday May 29th 2010. This fixture brings the curtain down on a very successful season in the North Western Area, which has resulted in not a single meeting being lost to the weather (the Tanaside fixture had to be rescheduled for the following week due to snow).
Racing comes under starters orders at 2.00pm with the Open Maiden race and is set to conclude at 5.30pm with the PPORA Club Members conditions contest.
Clerk of the course Ed Gretton has been watering the course ahead of this Saturday’s fixture to ensure decent racing ground on the day.
Admission to this popular Welsh course is £25 per car, regardless of the number of passengers with single occupancy charged at £15 and pedestrians £8.
The feature race on the card is the Mixed Open for the James Griffith perpetual challenge cup. The race is named after the late rider from Trefnant, who tragically lost his life in a car accident some years ago. He will always been associated with the prolific winning hunter chaser Eastern Destiny who was trained by his mother Jill Griffith at Trefnant. Heading the 23 entries is the David Easterby trained My Old Piano who runs in the well known colours of Tom Bannister. His last victory came at the Cheshire meeting at Alpraham last month when he beat the Richard Hewitt trained Le Seychellois by three parts of a length; an interesting rematch could be on the cards as the runner up has since bolted up at Tabley, when accounting for the notable scalp of the 2007 Cheltenham Foxhunter winner Amicelli. David Easterby’s sister Cherry Coward has entered the useful Cottam Phantom, who is unbeaten in all three runs this season. Also entered from the Coward stable is Sonevafushi, another prolific winner pointer owned by Tom Bannister. Gary Hamner's horses are in good form at present and his charge Proud Andes is very useful on his day, a good race in prospect.
The Flint & Denbigh hunt is steeped in history and tradition. In 1896 they held a point to point meeting at Brynffynon, Rhyddlan on a Tuesday afternoon, which featured just three races. The second race on the card was a match, oddly enough both horses were called Nancy. This race was over two miles and Henry Robert’s Nancy finished ahead of Percy Haywood’s mare of the same name.
