Only 7,935 racegoers turned up in 2022 - the Racing League must do better this year

Of all the things you never expected to see, Yarmouth putting on a £100,000 handicap at 8.30 on a Thursday evening must be one of them.

The seaside track has surely never had anything so valuable. Putting jumps races to one side, the same is almost certainly true of Chepstow, which at 8.30pm on Thursday, August 10, will play host to a 7f handicap offering a purse of £100,000. It could conceivably turn out to be the best Flat event held there since the final running of the Welsh Derby was conducted under a slightly different name in 1994.

Forty years ago, the Welsh Derby was run on ground officially described as hard and won by the John Dunlop-trained and Pat Eddery-ridden Russian Roubles at odds of 1-4. One month earlier, he had finished second to Shareef Dancer in the King Edward VII Stakes. Horses of that proven calibre no longer turn up at Chepstow, but a class act might well appear next month. Also interesting to note is the fact the 1983 Welsh Derby was worth £10,662 to the winner, more than any Flat contest at Chepstow this year, except, that is, for the seven handicaps that will make up Chepstow's first Racing League card on August 10.