The Welsh Classic

The Welsh Classic was first run in 1984, and was won by MOUNTAIN HERO. For many Tregaron people this was indeed an emotional win as Mountain Hero, a 5 year old gelding by Dixieland and out of Ballymonty, was bred by the club's first secretary Gareth Lloyd Davies. Sadly Gareth did not live to see his horse win at Tregaron and one can only imagine how very proud he would have been.

The trophy presented to Teifion Thomas the owner, trainer and driver of Mountain Hero was the Gareth Lloyd Davies Memorial Trophy, and is now the trophy presented annually to the winner of the Welsh Classic.

September 2013 - SOME WELSH CLASSIC STATISTICS

There have been 27 winners of Previous winner of The Welsh Classic.

The only 3 fillies to win are BLACK and SIlVER in 1988; LYONS SURE SIGN in 2000 and SHADY ROMANCE 2004

No horse has won The Welsh Classic more than once

The only stallions to sire more than one winner are RUSSIAN PATROL (Black and Silver,1988 and Russian Square,1979) and IMMORTALIZED (Impartial & Infinatey 2013)

MICK LORD is the only driver to win 5 Welsh Classics (Black and Silver,1988; George Arthur, 2003; Shady Romance, 2004; Day Dreamer, 2005 & Infinatey 2013) and IAN PIMLOTT has won in three times (All Mac, 1994 and Precocious Fella, 1995; Immpartial 2010)

Several other drivers have won the Welsh Classic twice:
TEIFION THOMAS was the first driver to win 2 Welsh Classics (Mountain Hero 1984, and The Bounder 1982)
STEVIE LEES (Russian Square 1985 and Meadowbranch Frank,2006)
MEGAN TAFF (Disraeli Force, 1997 and Saunders Celestial, 1999)

MEGAN TAFF was the first lady driver to win the Welsh Classic (Disraeli Force, 1997)

BRENDA DEAN was the first lady trainer to win the Welsh Classic (Stormy Reveller,2002)

RHYS EVANS (21 yrs) is the youngest driver to win the Welsh Classic (FOOL AROUND, 2012)

R MUNDAY is the only owner to have won the Welsh Classic twice (Disraeli Force, 1997 and Saunders Celestial, 1999)

SHEELAGH LORD is the only trainer to have trained 4 Welsh Classic winners (Day Dreamer, 2005; George Arthur, 2003, Shady Romance, 2004 & Infinatey 2013)

MOUNTAIN HERO (1984) & EARNED INCOME are the only horses to win off a 50 yd trail; 3 have won trailing 30yds; 9 trailing 20 yds; 7 trailing 10 yds and 6 horses have won off the gate.

Fastest winning time FOOL AROUND (2012) 1min 58.6 secs. But the fastest winning time at TREGARON is GEORGE ARTHUR (2003) 2 mins 2.4 secs - setting a new TRACK RECORD (and trailing 10 yds) [ * track record subsequently equalled by Connors Dragon (ht 2007) and broken by LUCKY TOUCH (ht 2007 – 2 mins 1.6 secs]

There has been 3 Irish winners, 1 Scotish winner, 8 English winners and 15 Welsh winners of The Welsh Classic

The oldest horse to win The Welsh Classic is OUTLAW (1992) when he was 10 years old. 7 of the winners were 4 year olds, 8 were 5 year olds, 6 of them were 6 year olds, 2 were 7 year olds and two 9 year olds.

LYONS SURE SIGN (USA) and EARNED INCOME are the only winners of the Welsh Classic to have been born in North America.

FOOL AROUND(2012) & INFINATEY (2013) are the only horses to win both the Tregaron Spring Handicap Final & The Welsh Classic in the same year

2 horses have won both the Strata Florida and Welsh Classic ~ DAY DREAMER (Strata Florida 2004 & Welsh Classic 2005) and IMMPARTIAL (Strata Florida 2009 & Welsh Classic 2010)

SHADY ROMANCE & CONNORS DRAGON are the only horses to complete the double The Welsh Classic and The Famous Musselburgh Pace