Wales star Jonathan Davies will have one eye on Chepstow this weekend

If Jonathan Davies was not required for duty by Wales against England this Saturday, then he might well have been making plans to visit Chepstow.

After all, that would have allowed the Scarlets, Wales and British and Irish Lions player to indulge in his two favourite sporting passions – rugby union and horse racing.

Six Nations Raceday at Chepstow – where there are seven races over the jumps – will enable everyone with an interest in the big England-Wales clash at Twickenham to combine watching the match on the big screens in the Fan Zone, with an exciting full day’s racing from 1pm.

Davies - one of Welsh rugby’s biggest stars, who earned his 100th Test cap at home to Scotland earlier this month - is certainly not the first to combine a love of racing with his rugby.

The oval ball game has had plenty of players who have become more than just racing punters over the years, with many like, Davies, becoming owners and some even finding success as trainers.

Davies, known to most in Welsh rugby circles as “Jon Fox” as he was raised in Bancyfelin in Carmarthenshire by parents who ran the Fox and Hounds pub, puts his enthusiasm for racing down to his grandfather.

“It was my grandad who got me into the sport,” he says. “I would always listen to him call in his bets as a kid.

“My uncle Nigel had horses down in Narbeth and we used to go down and watch them."

Davies’s enthusiasm for racing as well as rugby turf was shared by his former team-mate at the Scarlets, Gareth Maule, who had a friendship with trainer and former jockey Christian Williams.

Together they decided to join with Stars Sports Racing as part-owners of Potters Corner, who became the first Welsh-trained horse for 54 years to win the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow