Horse racing owner and racecourse founder Dai Walters is believed to be among those injured in a helicopter crash in Wales on Tuesday. The famous businessman and horse-racing fanatic is reported to be one of five people reportedly involved in the crash near Ruthin in Denbighshire on Tuesday.
One of Wales' most well-known businessmen, Walters regularly appears on annual lists of the richest business owners in the country for his wide-ranging business interests in construction and his love for horse racing. He has poured millions of pounds into horse racing over the years.
His fortune is entirely self-made having started out as an apprentice labourer at an opencast site in south Wales in the 1970s. The Walters Group website describes how after work as a labourer, greengrocer and tree planter, at 20 years old he took a job as an apprentice fitter at the Wimpey operated Maesgwyn opencast coal mine.
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There he worked his way up through the ranks to Ganger (section) Fitter, ending up as a Foreman Fitter for the site. Within five years, he was plant manager at the Trecatti Opencast site near Merthyr and was responsible for managing over 300 items of plant across 3 opencast coal sites in the South Wales Coalfield.
It wasn't until 1982 after 17 years working on sites across Wales that Walters - who is said to be proud of his Welsh heritage and whose Christian name is Gweirydd - struck out on his own. He left Taylor Woodrow to buy his first bit of machinery, a a Caterpillar 950 working for British Coal at the Onllwyn Washery and a Caterpillar D4 working on the Hirwaun Industrial Estate constructing an extension to the GEC Hitachi factory.
After success buying plant machinery and hiring it out to mining companies initially in south Wales, the Walters Group was established to add earthmoving and civil engineering services to its portfolio, and before long was becoming involved in some major construction projects in Wales. In 1988, Walters worked on its own opencast coal mining operation at Blaenavon with two further sites in Aberdare. And in 1993 it was awarded the earthworks contract for the construction of the 6km long M4 Prince of Wales Bridge approach roads and also worked on multimillion redevelopment projects in Caerphilly.
Walters Group grew over the years, acquiring other companies and expanding its business outside of Wales and as far as Australia. In 2001 the first World Rally Championship event was held at the “Walters Arena”, constructed on part of the restored Maesygwyn opencast site. 50 years later Walters is one of the largest independently owned civil engineering, plant and development companies in the UK. In 2017 it saw its turnover pass £120m for the first time and as of 2020 Dai Walters and his son Richard who runs Caerphilly-based Celtic Energy coalmining company were reported to be worth a combined £264m.
As well as his business endeavours, Walters is perhaps best known for his fondness for horse racing. In 2009 the company opened its flagship racecourse at Ffos Las in Carmarthenshire. Once an opencast mining site, it was transformed into the UK’s first purpose-built horse-racing venue since 1927. Walters, whose love for the sport was said to have stemmed from two of his Irish employees once persuading him to buy a share in a horse, has poured millions into horses over the years.
However he found it difficult to attract fixtures to Ffos Las and in 2018 he sold Ffos Las to Arena Racing Company (ARC), saying that they would be able to attract more reliable fixtures by moving them around their network of racecourses. In 2019 he hit out at the British Horseracing Authority after it suspended racing during the outbreak of equine influenza, saying the organisation had "lit a fire they can't put out."
Before selling his racecourse, Walters' love of the sport was such that he was reported to have given runners a free lunch if they’d travelled more than two hours to get there. He threw his passion for racing into owning horses and had success pairing with 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner and horse trainer Sam Thomas. In 2021 Walters was still reported to have around 30 horses in training each season, owned entirely by him or with partners, meaning his interest in the sport remains very much alive. He remains a leading horse owner with countless wins under his ownership. In May of this year he bridged a 21-year gap between Irish winners when his newcomer horse No Risk No Fun triumphed in Wexford, the first Irish winner for Walters since Celtic Pride won twice for Noel Meade in 2001.
Both Thomas, 38, and Walters are believed to have been injured in Tuesday's crash but Walters is thought to be more seriously hurt. Sky Sports Racing's Luke Harvey said on Wednesday that two of the injured were Walters and Thomas. He said four people sustained minor injuries and are back home including Thomas. "Dai Walters had worse injuries but he is conscious and is being assessed in hospital," he said.
A spokesperson for North Wales Police said: “We were called at 5.36pm to reports of a helicopter crash in woodland near Llanelidan, Ruthin. Whilst a multiple agency response remains at the scene, the ongoing investigation into the cause will be dealt with by the Civil Aviation Authority.”
Force chief inspector David Cust added: “Officers attended alongside colleagues from Welsh Ambulance and North Wales Fire and Rescue as part of a joint emergency response. All the occupants have been accounted for, with four people having been taken to hospitals across the area. None of the injuries are thought to be life threatening or life changing at this time.”
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