WHAT felt like a Mullins-Elliott monopoly at Cheltenham, plus the return of winter weather, has again meant few opportunities for Welsh trainers and jockeys to shine.

Ffos Las was a victim of the elements on Sunday. How fortunate we were that Cheltenham fell between the two cold spells.

The latest, and hopefully last, snow of the winter has thawed quickly enough to allow Chepstow’s two-day meeting to go ahead.

Today’s meeting is sponsored by Newport County AFC and members of the team will be present.

Tomorrow’s card may see the reappearance of the evergreen fifteen-year-old Paddy The Oscar. The handicapper has put him up eight pounds for his latest win and he’ll have eleven stone eleven pounds to carry, so it’ll be tough for him.

Gold Cup-winning trainer Colin Tizzard has quite a few entered over the two days and his Brynmawr would be an appropriate choice in today’s two and a half mile handicap hurdle at 4.30.

The enclosures will, however, be organised a little differently from usual. After the Beast from the East came the thaw, and when that set in a pipe burst and the resulting leak affected part of the main grandstand. The upshot is that a number of hospitality boxes, Silks Restaurant and two of the bars are undergoing repairs. Because of that, short term replacement facilities are being provided for racegoers. These include two large luxury heated marquees – one for Silks Restaurant guests and one for general admission customers.

The course’s executive director Phil Bell said: “We always want to provide racegoers with an excellent experience when they come to Chepstow.

"Our aim is to ensure the damage caused by the severe weather has as little impact as possible on the upcoming race days. We are contacting all of our customers to update them of the current situation and the team will work hard on the day to meet their expectations.”

Repairs are expected to be complete in time for the meetings on Easter Monday (2 April) and Grand National Race Day on Saturday 14 April, when most facilities will be back to normal, while diners in Silks Restaurant will continue to be relocated in a luxury trackside marquee.

These are interesting times for the clerk of the course Keith Ottesen, who has been appointed to a similar role at Newbury. Though the new job has the same title, Newbury is one of the premier tracks in the country and, with all due respect to Chepstow, it’s a well-deserved step up for Ottesen.

He has a wide range of experience in the horse world both at home and abroad. He will retain his current roles as clerk at Chepstow and Ffos Las until joining the Newbury team in August. There he will shadow the outgoing incumbent, Richard Osgood, whose family has been associated with the Berkshire track for the best part of a hundred years, until taking sole charge at the beginning of next year.