Last updated 8 September 2026. Course details verified against published racing records.
Ffos Las is the newest racecourse in Wales and one of the newest in Britain, built on ground that used to be an open-cast coal mine in Carmarthenshire. It opened in 2009 and has been the west Wales fixture ever since.
The course
| Ffos Las | |
|---|---|
| Location | Trimsaran, Carmarthenshire, about 12 miles from junction 48 of the M4 |
| Opened | 18 June 2009, to a sell-out crowd of 10,000 |
| Built on | A former open-cast coal mine |
| Cost | £20 million |
| Course | Left-handed oval of 12 furlongs, flat |
| Codes | Flat and National Hunt |
| Operator | Arena Racing Company |
| On TV | Sky Sports Racing |
Flat is the operative word. Where Chepstow undulates and asks stamina questions, Ffos Las is a level, galloping 12-furlong oval that tends to suit a horse with a bit of pace. The two courses sit under the same ownership but ride nothing like each other.
From coal mine to racecourse
The site was an open-cast coal mine until mining stopped, and the name is the giveaway: Ffos Las means “blue ditch” in Welsh. Turning worked-out ground into a £20 million racecourse was the biggest single act of regeneration Welsh racing has managed.
It opened on 18 June 2009 in front of a sell-out 10,000. The first race staged there, a National Hunt contest, went to a horse called Plunkett. Flat racing followed on 21 July 2009 with the EBF/Jamie Yeates Memorial Maiden Stakes.
For a sport that had not built much in decades, a brand new track in west Wales was a genuine event, and the crowd on day one reflected it.
The Welsh Champion Hurdle years
Ffos Las staged the Welsh Champion Hurdle from 2010 to 2024, and made it its own. The race moved to Chepstow from 2025, where DragonBet now sponsors it as the Sunday feature of the Welsh Racing Festival.
Leading Welsh trainer Evan Williams gave Ffos Las its due when the move was announced:
The last running at Ffos Las, in October 2024, went to Nemean Lion for trainer Kerry Lee and jockey Richard Patrick.
What Ffos Las is for now
It remains the west Wales track, a long way from Chepstow and the natural meeting for Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and the Swansea valleys. Its cards mix summer flat with winter jumps, and it has a long-standing habit of putting on hunter chases and amateur riders’ races that would not get a look-in elsewhere.
Welsh yards treat it as home. Evan Williams, Tim Vaughan and Peter Bowen all run horses here regularly, and DragonBet-sponsored jockey Alan Johns is a familiar name on the racecard.
Betting at Ffos Las
Small fields are common, which changes what a bet is worth: place terms shrink as runners drop, so check them before backing anything each-way. Odds for every card are on the DragonBet horse racing page, with the betting glossary for anything unfamiliar.
Our other Welsh course guides: Chepstow and Bangor-on-Dee.
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Sources: course specification and history per published racing records; Welsh Champion Hurdle detail and the Evan Williams interview from DragonBet’s own reporting, October 2024. Correct as of 8 September 2026.
