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 to the winner of the Welsh Classic.

SOME WELSH CLASSIC STATISTICS

There have been 24 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 stallion to sire more than one winner is RUSSIAN PATROL (Black and Silver,1988 and Russian Square,1979)

MICK LORD is the only driver to win 4 Welsh Classics (Black and Silver,1988; George Arthur, 2003; Shady Romance, 2004; Day Dreamer, 2005)

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)
IAN PIMLOTT (All Mac, 1994 and Precocious Fella, 1995) 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)

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 three Welsh Classic winners (Day Dreamer, 2005; George Arthur, 2003 & Shady Romance, 2004)

MOUNTAIN HERO (1984) & EARNED INCOME are the only horses to win off a 50 yd trail; 3 have won trailing 30yds; 8 trailing 20 yds; 5 trailing 10 yds and 6 horses have won off the gate.

Fastest winning time GEORGE ARTHUR (2003) 2 mins 2.4 secs - setting a new TRACK RECORD (and trailing 10 yds) * 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 12 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, 7 were 5 year olds, 5 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 the USA.

DAY DREAMER is the only horse to have won both the Strata Florida (2004) and Welsh Classic (2005)

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