Big race date may change
FFOS Las chiefs are considering switching their biggest meeting of the year to another date in the calendar.
Last Saturday's Welsh Champion Hurdle fixture clashed directly with the opening match of this year's Six Nations Championship between Wales and Ireland in Cardiff.
Fewer then 2,000 were at Ffos Las to watch the racing, down on the figure that the meeting attracted when it was last staged in 2011.
And that has prompted course bosses into a rethink.
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Ffos Las director Mark Kershaw said: "In South West Wales and across the whole of Wales, the following for the national game is immense and Wales playing at home is the major event to the majority of people.
"Although we were showing the rugby at the course, there's clearly nothing like watching it uninterrupted.
"Both our Champion Hurdle and West Wales National attracted some cracking horses and we need to build on those races.
"But we must quietly have a think as to when they should be run if we are going to clash with the Six Nations."
Crowd numbers may have been down on two years ago, but the meeting was still hailed as a success.
It attracted some well- known horses and trainers, while Ffos Las also enjoyed terrestrial television coverage for only the second time.
Any switch of schedule is likely to see the meeting moved to a date earlier in the year to avoid a possible clash with major spring festivals at Cheltenham and Punchestown.
Kershaw added: "The fixture can work but we must consider whether it is in the right place.
"Our crowds are continuing to build but we won't get the crowd this meeting deserves when there is such a major clash with the rugby.
"Without the rugby, I think we would have had another 1,500 people paying, and that represents a big number for a small course.
"We had Channel 4 coverage. There will be a lot of people watching who had never seen Ffos Las before."
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