Simon Nott makes his first trip to Ffos Las after stopping off at an old friend on the way

Chepstow, October 7. This meeting is seen by many as the start of the National Hunt season proper. Just to see that it was on was a bonus having already lost Exeter’s opener. The fields for today looked to have held up fairly well. Sadly, racecourse regular ‘Armaloft’ Alex had already walked the course by the time I got there and was the bearer of not such good news. It was firmer than he’d have liked and anticipated some later non-runners. He was right, there were, but despite depleted numbers there ...