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The former trainer has died aged 87. He did well with cheaply acquired horses from his base near Ebbw Vale.
Sad news. Dai was a big part of my formative racing years when I had a holiday job with Coral across their south Wales valleys shops, working as a Relief Cashier (back in the days when I’d be offered “till or payout?”).
We were regularly alerted by punters of a “wire” (also referred to as a horse “trying”) being run by Dai, or another local trainer, Derek Haydn Jones. Unsurprisingly these local rumours rarely held much credence but I loved the heightened sense of anticipation as race time neared. Great memories.
This is an interesting little feature S4C did on Dai ahead of the 2014 Welsh National. He literally trained at a base that was carved out of the side of a mountain. A world away from the yards in Lambourn and Newmarket etc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6fqw-meATA
My abiding memory of Dai was at Hereford a few years ago. He’d trained a winner that I’d backed at a nice price. I’d gone to the winners’ enclosure and shouted across a “well done Dai”, to which he replied “cheers butt” (with “butt” being a valleys version of “mate”, “pal” etc). It made my day.
RIP butt.
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