DragonBet Welsh Racing Festival - Chepstow - Day 2 11/10/25

Yesterday's first day of the DragonBet Welsh Racing Festival was a huge success but not so much for the bookmakers though luckily the sponsors did show a profit. Today promised to be a different story altogether with a large Saturday crowd expected to keep the betting ring and no doubt the bars, busy. Expectations appeared to be high as there was just one bookmakers pitch remaining vacant to 51 layers turned up to ply their trade. 

Yesterday the ring harboured several betting 'faces' that were conspicuous by their absence today. The DragonBet pitch was manned by the same teams as yesterday with one of the bosses, James threatening to make an appearance. Things got lively very quickly on the rails for the opening dragonbet.co.uk Bet 10 Get 20 Juvenile Hurdle when a punter asked a bookmaker for a monkey each-way Wolf Rayet at 66/1. After the layer had picked himself up after falling off his stool, metaphorically, no bookmakers were physically hurt in this story, he laid the punter half his requested bet, DragonBet ended up with the rest. Meanwhile the 4/6 jolly Ammes was also popular and a £700 loser in the book at the off. Two out there must have been some trepidation with those that laid the Samuel Drinkwater outsider as he cruised into contention, eased as he made a rick at that obstacle, ultimately the jolly won doing handstands for James and Sean Bowen, but the each-way money was landed with Wolf Rayet back in second. DragonBet blew £5000 in cold blood. They got some back in the next heat, the DragonBet Real Bookmakers Novices' Limited Handicap Chase which was sadly reduced to a match in which 2/5 jolly Alastair Ralph's In The Air under Ciaran Gethings beat 15/8 All The Glory as the market expected, it appeared DragonBet had a lean-up as they copped £1352 from a £2200 book. Andy Gibson gave me a copy of his new book '50 Eyecatchers' between races, I'm looking forward to reading that, I got a free copy as I'm chuffed to say had the honour of writing the foreword. Andy's written work is always highly recommended

The third heat on the card, the DragonBet / Native River Handicap Chase was preceded with Native River parading, the race had been reduced to a seven runner field after six had been withdrawn. The one that they wanted to be on with DragonBet was Ile De Jersey which was a loser for £8474 but wasn't the only one backed, Evan Williams' Ask Brewster was 11/2 into 10/3 and did the business for his punters under Adam Wedge landing a nice touch. For whatever reason those punters left DragonBet out, the book copped £3700 which put them in front on the day. I spoke to Chutney Dave Massey after the race, Dave's Trackside firm had put the winner up to their subscribers, see my X account for plenty of video interviews taken during yesterday and today. There were only four non-runners in the Wasdell Group Silver Trophy Handicap Hurdle which looked like a good betting heat and so it proved with plenty of money flying around the rails albeit no lumps that I heard of.  The race went to Olly Murphy's 12/1 chance Rambo T under James Bowen which would have been a result for most of the ring, though not as good as the 50/1 runner-up Paggane would have been. Speaking to James Lovell after the race, all smiles as his firm on course had just copped £2600 on the heat told me that their total donated so far to children's cancer charity LATCH had reached £2100 and he'd never been more delighted to pay out, the firm are donating £350 to the charity for every Welsh winner, equine or jockey,

The race before the penultimate, was the Paul Ferguson's Jumpers To Follow 'Four Years Old' Hurdle (another excellent book if you don't have  copy yet) where all 13 ran, well they did until Hope Rising whipped around at the start and didn't take part but was still deemed a runner unaffected by the new rule to appease cry-babies that shouldn't be betting. James had been up on the DragonBet pitch taking bets and appeared to be enjoying it, sadly the result didn't go the firm's way. It would have done had my old pal Nigel Hawke's 22/1 chance Torrent won as he threatened to turning for home but was sadly ultimately not good enough for Tom Lacey's 9/2 winner Gibbs Island which delighted his RaceShare owners here in numbers.  Their presence may have accounted for a loss of £3050 in the DragonBet book which knocked their steady recovery from their fist race battering bandy, gallant Torrent whose late owner passed away only last week finished runner-up.

By the time betting got underway for the penultimate, the five runner Good Intents Marquee Hire Handicap Chase James had hopped off the stool deeming bad luck in the previous race the reason. As it happened the way things went that may not have been the reason, there had been a tip for Ideallko which was backed accordingly from 8/1 into 5/1 but only managed fourth of the five. The jolly for the race Lightning Flash was backed from 11/8 into 6/5 with a four-figure sum at the top price placed with DragonBet the Twiston-Davies runner did the business for the punter and the firm blew another £3300. The firm were now in the financial mire and unlikely to field enough in the concluding dragonbet.co.uk Best Odds Guaranteed Handicap Hurdle to get out of trouble as Jerimiah managed in the Bible. They did but didn't, Tranquil Sea winning at 4/1 for Harry and Dan Skelton backed from 8/1 was a loser for £1500 in the wind book and plunged DragonBet into even choppier waters, having been £3323 behind before the race,  as they packed the kit the red figure on the day, places taken into account was £5003. Not a great reward for sponsoring the meeting but hey it's Welsh Champion Hurdle Day tomorrow with the added bonus of 3000 students to bolster the crowd. Bring it on. 

Simon Nott 

DragonBet are an independent family firm, born from the betting ring with an expanding portfolio of pitches across the country. Their aim is to carry over the timeless and old fashioned values of betting on-course into the on-line world. With a healthy appetite for risk and an ethos of putting customer service at the forefront of their operation I'd recommend give them a spin and taking them on. Bet £20 and Get £20 via the link below.

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