A BEAUTY therapist from near Hay-on-Wye has proved that she made the right decision to try her hand at national hunt training after gaining her full permit.

Sheila Lewis, from Three Cocks, has only been training her family-run horses for the past 18 months, but has already set her dreams on on one day winning of the big races.

"I would like to have more runners and take them to Cheltenham, Aintree or any of the other high quality races," said Sheila, who runs the Beauty Mill salon in the village, alongside her husband Peter's petrol station.

Lewis' family has been heavily involved in harness racing for the past 30 years, with her father Brian Davies training around 250 winners.

But Lewis wanted to make the step-up and decided to try her hand at racing thoroughbreds in local point-to-point events before applying for her training permit.

"I think you get a bit more recognition in national hunt racing than in harness racing," said Lewis.

"Harness racing is a wonderful sport, but it doesn't get the recognition it deserve because it's amateur.

Lewis' training permit allows her to only train family-owned horses, but it means they can race against professionals.

In order to have the full licence, which will allow Lewis to train any horse, she needed to have three winners.

Her first came at Ffos Las when Try it Sometime claimed a win, before Interpleader gained a victory at Towcester.

And Try it Sometime came up trumps again when he stormed to success in a dramatic Handicap Chase meeting at Uttoxeter.

The testing conditions resulted in every other horse pulling out before the finish.

"He was second for most of the race, but all the other horses dropped out and he was the only one left that finished the race," said Lewis.

"It was an incredible atmosphere and we got first, second, third and fourth in prize money, which is quite unique."