Aye Right remains on course for veterans’ final

Warwick will now stage Saturday’s rescheduled decider.

Harriet Graham has confirmed Aye Right an intended runner in Saturday’s rearranged Unibet Veterans’ Handicap Chase Final at Warwick but is a little disheartened the prize-money has been reduced.

The original race was due to be run for GBP 100,000 at Sandown last weekend, when it would have been the feature race, but that meeting was abandoned through waterlogging.

This Saturday, the race will take place at Warwick, like Sandown owned by Jockey Club Racecourses, but the total prize fund is down to GBP 75,000.

“He’s still in and the plan is to go, hopefully the weather doesn’t intervene again,” said Graham, who trains Aye Right in partnership with Gary Rutherford.

“I’m a little bit put off that they’ve managed to knock GBP 25,000 off the prize fund. This race will probably have 14 runners and nearly every horse will have a story behind it. We’ve all run in races to get there.

“I know it is really hard to reschedule races and I know everybody at the BHA works really hard to do it, but it just seems a wee bit cheap. That’s just my feelings, it maybe doesn’t matter to the big trainers and owners.

“It’s a bit like Premierisation, it’s awful for small trainers and awful for small racecourses. They are taking the money from the poor to give to the rich. It’s Robin Hood the wrong way round.

Two For Gold is the highest rated among the entries
Two For Gold is the highest rated among the entries (Steven Paston/PA)

“I know the Jockey Club have two Premier meetings on Saturday, with Kempton and Warwick with really decent prize-money, but to me it just seems a bit cheap to take money off what is a Final.

“These horses have provided entertainment for the last six or seven years, a little recognition would have been the right thing to do.

“I am pleased it’s on, we plan to go and hopefully the weather doesn’t spoil it again.”

Aye Right is once more likely to meet Good Boy Bobby, the two fought out the finish to the 2021 Rehearsal Chase at Newcastle and the seventh leg of the Veterans’ Series in October at Chepstow, securing a narrow success apiece.

Thomas Darby, Two For Gold, Sam Brown, Mill Green, Ramses de Teillee and Lord Du Mesnil are among 16 entries.

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