Horse racing returns to capital

Seven harness races were run at the park, watched by 2,000 people

Horse racing returned to Cardiff for a day with a meeting of harness races at Trelai Park in Ely for the first time in eight years.

Four dozen horses took part in a free event to promote the Welsh Festival of the Horse, at Margam Park at Easter 2005, involving 50,000 participants.

Around 2,000 people turned up at the city park, which was once host to the Welsh Grand National.

Organiser Martyn Williams said: "Ely is an ideal setting for harness racing."

Hundreds of adults and children were treated to a taste of the country with a race circuit which brought the horses just feet away from them on the final straight.

For the horse owners, from across south and mid Wales, it was a chance to show their amateur sport to city folk, many of whom may never have seen harness racing before.

Owners from south and mid Wales travelled to the city event

Each horse pulls a rider atop a two-wheeled harness, known as a sulky, around a measured mile of track. Around £3,000 prize money was available on the night.

The harness season runs from May to September and its biggest Welsh event, the Tregaron Festival in west Wales, attracts up to 30,000 people.

The Ely races were also a first for some of the contenders.

Many were surprised that a field so close to the centre of Cardiff should lend itself so well to horse racing.

Sheila Lewis, from Brecon, had come down with her father, Brian Davies, who was riding six-year-old gelding Briwyns Tomi.

Gareth Price and Another Mattie came third in one race

She said: "I think it's a lovely course, a great setting. There are long sweeping bends, so if a horse comes from behind they get a good long run up."

Builth Wells farm worker Jamie Davies, 24, won £400 prize money when he came in first on Full Flight, a six-year-old mare.

He said: "It's very good. There's a bigger crowd than normal."

And the thrill of an evening at the races at a familiar setting was something many of the spectators enjoyed.

Ascot regular Deborah Young, from Ely, visited with her cousin, two nieces and her aunt.

She said: "It's wonderful for all the people of Ely that they can get together and have such a lovely evening.

"It has brought the community together. If they have another event like this, I'm sure they will have an even bigger crowd."

Parents were able to treat their children to an evening at the races

For organiser Martyn Williams, Chairman of the Welsh Equine Council, the evening's races were to promote next year's Welsh Festival of the Horse but also to highlight the problems faced by horse-based businesses.

He said the equine sector was still struggling to recover from the effects of the foot-and-mouth crisis on the countryside.

"The equine sector in Wales has never been united. It has been fragmented. It has always been destroyed by parochial, "parish pump" politics," he said.

"Promotions like this are trying to get the message through that we need to catch up with Scotland, Ireland and England."