Along with the coal mines, Welsh rugby superiority is now only a distant memory but there are signs that a new sporting 'Taffia' could be emerging, with racehorse trainers taking the place of the mythical number 10s.

Sirrell Griffiths famously sent Norton's Coin east from his dairy farm in the valleys to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup several years ago, but in recent times more professional operators such as Evan Williams and Peter Bowen have taken things to a new level.

Williams sent out 66 winners last season including the impressive State of Play, who triumphed in the Hennessey Gold Cup at Newbury, but his total was still eight fewer than his compatriot, Bowen.

Bowen, based at Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire, dispatched two raiders to go on the long trip to the west of Ireland this week in a bid to secure his biggest prize yet, the Galway Plate. He has been steadily improving the quality of his string in recent years, sending Take The Stand to be placed in a Gold Cup, and it is also arguable that if McKelvey hadn't suffered an injury on the run-in, Bowen could well have ruined the Silver Birch Grand National fairytale last April.

Long journeys in search of big purses are a geographic fact of life for the dedicated Bowen. Last week he sent Iron Man on a 600-mile round trip to Market Rasen to win the biggest prize of the UK summer jumping season, The Totesport Summer Plate. It took him and four of his horses 16 hours to weave their journey through the flooded roads of Britain just to get to the course.

Iron Man is joined by his stable mate Yes Sir in Wednesday's Plate, and he looks nicely in at the weights at 10 and a half stone. He has won his last two chases, one on soft and the other on good going, so he looks to have the versatility to handle whatever the weather throws at Ballybritt this week.

Yes Sir is a more classy type and shares top weight with the mighty Ansar, who will be trying for his eight win at the festival and his third in the Plate. Yes Sir has won 16 times over hurdles or jumps on ground ranging from heavy to firm, and at distances ranging from two miles to nearly three and a half. Versatility will not be a problem for him either.

Although Galway is attracting more and more overseas raiders these days, there have been few foreign winners at the festival. The last English winner of the Plate was Amlah for Phillip Hobbs in 1998, and to find the last truly big Welsh success west of the Shannon you need to go back to when St Patrick completed a church on Croagh Padraig in the fifth century.

That could all change this week. Bowen is a determined and focused trainer who knows how to turn out a summer jumper. The combined odds of about seven to one for his two runners look generous and the bookies could be about to spring a 'leek'.