DAVID Evans’ liking for Wolverhampton is as strong as ever.

Not only is he the leading trainer there this year, with a double on Monday taking his score to 21, but he has won the most races there since the all-weather track opened in 1993. His total of 349 puts him seven ahead of Mark Johnston, who has considerably more horses in his armoury.

His Sea Fox was rated in the nineties this time last year, but struggled to get anywhere near that level of form in the first half of 2019. Wind surgery and a long break had the desired effect, and he won off 75 over Wolverhampton’s extended mile on his return to the racecourse in October. He only went up one pound for that short head victory and, refreshed by another seven weeks off, won over the same course and distance on Saturday. He bumped the runner-up in the closing stages, but a combination of it being near the finish and Sea Fox looking like he’d win on merit anyway helped the stewards to decide to leave the result unchanged.

Evans returned to his favourite track on Monday evening to notch two more winners, both sent off at 8/1. Snow Ocean was having his third run for the yard when breaking his duck six weeks ago at Southwell, and he followed up over a furlong and a half further and on a different surface at Wolverhampton. This was only his eighth start and there could be more improvement still in him.

An hour later his stablemate Herm also managed to make it two wins in a row. Running over a mile and three quarters, two furlongs more than last month’s course win, he held on by a neck. He’s never won off a mark higher than his current rating, but he shouldn’t go up too much for this win and this stamina test might mean he could reach a new peak.

Another week, another winner for the Bernard Llewellyn yard. Triple Nickle, a three-year-old filly having her fifth outing for them, took the finale at Wolverhampton on Monday. At 14/1 she was something of a surprise, but their purple patch now extends to six winners in five weeks.

Her stable companion Ginjo could make her novice chasing debut today at Ludlow at the age of nine. She was a close third when reappearing in April after 1,007 days off the course, and was agonisingly denied by a short head on her next outing. Though she’s been off since July, we know she can run well fresh. She has an alternative entry over hurdles at Leicester on Thursday.

Chepstow race on Saturday, where the main event is the Welsh Grand National Trial. Paul Nicholls has Captain Cattistock entered in this and the Welsh National itself. Also on the card is the See More Business Trophy, named after the Nicholls-trained Cheltenham Gold Cup winner whose record at Chepstow was 1111FP14. A good set of entries suggests this could be just as high quality a race as the National Trial.

At the racecourse last week, Milton Bradley received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Welsh Horse Racing Awards. The focus of these awards is on horses and people operating within Wales, but the fact that he trains just over the border at Sedbury in Gloucestershire was rightly disregarded.

Bradley has been a familiar face in the trainers’ ranks for the best part of 50 years. He doesn’t have so many horses in training now, but two years ago this month he made the headlines with a 1,121/1 treble at Lingfield. In trademark style, he had driven the horsebox there after getting up at 5am to feed his horses.