CHEPSTOW’S National Hunt season came to an end on Friday with racegoers having to cross out the names of 22 horses that didn’t take part due to heavy rain that morning and the night before, writes Jim Beavis.

Despite that, there was still each way betting on the 1-2-3 in every race bar one.

The highlight for most was the Dunraven Bowl, for the leading novice point-to-pointers in south Wales. The 2017 runner-up Tinkers Hill Tommy won with consummate ease, taking the lead at the normal fourth last – the next two fences were being omitted – and coasted clear to take the spoils by 19 lengths. Bridget Lewis, who trains in Carmarthenshire, was asked by the stewards to explain the horse’s improvement from a 24 length third at Exeter last time out. As that race was over half a mile less, a distance the horse has never won over, the explanation could have been easily anticipated.

Sponsor David Brace went another year without owning the winner; his two runners finished third and fourth.

Deborah Faulkner’s Beallandendall has been a regular at Chepstow this year and looked ready for his third course win in that period when going clear on the long run before the final fence. Two and a half miles is probably the limit of his stamina on soft ground, as he faded and was run out of it in the last few strides by Lord Bryan, owned by members of the Brace family. Robbie Dunne was riding for Peter Bowen, and he went on to complete a double in the last aboard the front-running Arian for Bridgend trainer John Flint. This six-year-old mare never runs a bad race.

Tom Scudamore rode a double on Molineaux, carrying the Thistlecrack colours, and Inaminna. Any of his followers who put £1 on each of his Chepstow rides this season would have finished almost £25 in profit. Appropriately enough, the racecourse ambassador Richard Johnson came out as top jockey numerically with ten winners.

Johnson has been combining well with Herefordshire trainer Tom Lacey, who had a remarkable six winners from 12 Chepstow races. There were some long prices among them and a fat £50 profit would have been made putting £1 on each of his runners. The word is out now, though, and bookmakers will be more cautious pricing up his horses next season.

On Monday at Wolverhampton Milton Bradley’s Tisa River improved markedly on several unpromising efforts. Her form was so moderate that her average starting price in eleven previous races was 66/1. This day she was close to the pace and even took the lead a furlong out before dropping back to finish second of 12 at 100/1.

David Evans booked Silvestre de Sousa for a couple of rides at Leicester on Saturday and one of them, the 6/4 favourite Bahamian Dollar, obliged by leading all the way. He is a master at front-running in bread-and-butter handicaps.

Watch out for de Sousa on his occasional visits to Chepstow, where his record in the last five years is 10-23.

Chepstow's first flat race meeting of the year is on Friday. They have had to work around hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage caused by a burst pipe when the Beast from the East was rampant. Several major repairs have been necessary.

Silks Restaurant is open again, though the Premier Bar remains closed for at least another month and a heated marquee overlooking the course about a furlong out serves as its temporary replacement.