MANY of the most promising young jockeys seem to come from South Wales in recent times, and Charlie Price, a young jockey from Brecon, is the latest rider to show his potential.

The youngster rode a double at Uttoxeter on Saturday, on Dovils Date for his boss Tim Vaughan, and on Twycross Warrior for Robin Dickin.

In a less than conventional route into jump racing, Price had never ridden a horse until he went to Newmarket College at the age of 15 and he has been working for trainer Tim Vaughan at Cowbridge since. He was successful as an amateur riding in Arab races on the flat over the last couple of seasons and only late last year did he gain his conditional (jump jockey apprenticeship) licence.

Tim Vaughan describes him as an excellent rider with valuable experience of race riding from his Arab racing successes. He's one to follow this season.

Evan Williams' stable jockey Adam Wedge unfortunately suffered a bad fall on Saturday at Bangor races. He was riding the Sheila Lewis-trained Change Ur Tune when it fell, and he has fractured a shoulder blade, broken ribs and bruised a lung. He expects this to put him out of action for four to six weeks. This is the quietest time of year for a jump jockey, with only a limited number of jump meetings taking place during the summer, so hopefully he won't miss too many winners.

Local stalwart Jaganory scored a surprise 33/1 win at Bath last Wednesday. Jaganory is trained at Caerwent in the small yard of trainer Chris Mason, and the sprinter does almost all of his racing at Bath and Chepstow, so he's well known to local racing fans. This was the 7th win of the 7 year old's career. He's entered again at Bath on Friday and is sure to be seen at Chepstow throughout the summer. He won at Chepstow in 2015 and again last July.

Cillian's Well, which runs in the colours of the Belly's Heroes syndicate of my friends and I, lined up as the favourite in a four runner chase at Stratford on Sunday. He had won (somewhat unexpectedly!) at Worcester on 9th May, so we had high hopes. However, he finished third of four this time, seeming to struggle for pace when the speed increased late on in the race.

This race was over 2 miles, while his win came over almost 2 miles five furlongs, so he'll step up in trip again next time to see if that helps. It's easy to be a bit disappointed when you have a beaten favourite, but Cillian's Well has now won four races for us, which is more than most horses ever do.

At Chepstow's race meeting last week there were Welsh trained winners for Bernard Llewellyn and David Evans, plus a Forest of Dean trained winner for Westbury on Severn trainer John O'Shea. It was only fitting that Bargoed trainer Bernard Llewellyn picked up a win as he had sponsored five of the races in support of the cancer care charity Tenovus.

Chepstow's next meeting is tomorrow, 23rd May. We've got plenty of entries despite quick ground, and our grounds team will be out watering to compensate for the predominantly dry weather we've had.