FESTIVAL BUILDS ON PLATFORM OF WELSH TRIUMPHS

ONE of the richest weekends in the history of Welsh sport is just days away.

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More than half-a-million pounds in prize money will be up for grabs when the tapes go up at the inaugural Welsh Racing Festival at Chepstow.

The three-day meeting gets under way on Friday and comes to a conclusion on Sunday with the 44th running of the Welsh Champion Hurdle.

The meeting launches the core part of the National Hunt season in Britain and is expected to attract a clutch of the best horses from the country’s most powerful stables.

In previous seasons it has been a two-day meeting. But the decision has been made to extend it by a day, stage it under the banner of the Welsh Racing Festival and headline Sunday's card with the Welsh Champion Hurdle, which is set to be worth more than £50,000.

The two-mile contest, which has been won by some of the sport's stellar names such as Night Nurse, Sea Pigeon and Monksfield, was run at Chepstow for 33 years until being mothballed after the 2022 race.

The race was resurrected in 2011 and held at sister track Ffos Las, but is now reverting to its spiritual home.

“The buildup has all gone well,” said Chepstow general manager Luke Admans.