Emperor’s Choice was victorious in the £100,000 Welsh Grand National last Saturday, the 2nd time a Venetia Williams trained horse has won the 120 year old race. Arnie Kaplan, owner of 8th place finisher Amigo, tells the Racing Post’s Lewis Porteous that he’s had enough with the mob scenes at Chepstow, moaning, “tou couldn’t put your hanky to your mouth to sneeze.”
Kaplan was, in his words, confronted with “rude car park staff, a 40-minute queue at the owners’ and trainers’ entrance and overcrowding inside the track”.
Kaplan, 63, added: “It was a shocker. It was an enormous crowd and they didn’t seem able to cope. As far as owners are concerned, the queue from midday took 40 minutes; you were better off walking down to the turnstile and paying. There was one guy with a runner in the first who never made it in to see the race, which is awful.
“There were two lovely chaps on the owners’ and trainers’ stand but they had just one list and only one person could do the job. It was an absolute farce, I’m surprised there wasn’t a riot.”
“There were queues to get drinks, food you never saw at all, and only one table on the end for tea and coffee covered in dirty mugs and serviettes. When you looked around the whole course there were queues for everything. There’s no question they need to cap the capacity and have more facilities available.”