New club resurrecting horse racing at Monmouth

As early as 1734 horse racing was taking place in Monmouth and at one stage it was at the heart of the National Hunt racing scene, however it was been over 80 years since racing of any sort has taken centre stage at the Welsh river side town.

At the end of 2015, a group of racing enthusiasts and friends got together with big ideas and the decision to resurrect harness racing in Monmouth was under way, albeit in a different guise to that first race back in 1734. And so the Four Shires Harness Racing Club was born.

Harness racing is relatively unheard of in the area as it is in much of Britain, but the new club members are hoping they can redress this problem and are able to showcase this exciting sport to attract a whole new audience come Saturday, June 11.

The club is pleased with the interest shown so far, especially with the uptake by local businesses of their sponsorship packages, with natural animal feed specialists NAF being the main sponsors of day.

The new venture has also seen great support from those within the sport with a number of big names from throughout the UK set to make the journey and help to make this a great success.

There is a lot of variety on the race card with races for 2 and 3 year olds, maidens and novices along with the usual array of handicap races, the highlight of the card will be the Free-For-All race for the top graded horses entered which is sure to create plenty of excitement.

There will also be a 'Le Trot' race for the French trotters bringing a bit of a European flavour to the day.

Amongst those entered in the 2-year-old colt pace division is Rhyds Ideal, who at £48,000 was, the highest priced Standardbred yearling sold in Britain last year.

The club has also introduced an exciting new 3-year-old conditions race for those with a limited amount of winnings up to the beginning of this year. The new initiative has been well supported and some exciting prospects are amongst the entrants.

Treasurer of the club, Sue Young stated, "We're overwhelmed with the support we've received and everyone is lending a helping hand to get the meeting off the ground. We just can't wait for the day to arrive now. And we thank NAF for coming on board with their sponsorship of this meet which has helped us immensely!" 

The club have high hopes for the meeting and are already thinking about making it a two day meeting in the years to come. With such great support for year one it looks like this could be the next big thing in the harness racing calendar.

For anyone looking for a great day out and some brilliant racing get yourselves down to Vauxhall Show Fields, Monmouth on Saturday 11th June for what promises to be an action packed day of harness racing.

by Kayleigh Evans, for the Four Shires Harness Racing Club