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WETHERBY RACECOURSEFriday, December 9, 2011 - ALWAYS RIGHT GIVEN BETFAIR ROWLAND MEYRICK HANDICAP CHASE OPTION AT WETHERBY ON BOXING DAY
ALWAYS RIGHT GIVEN BETFAIR ROWLAND MEYRICK HANDICAP CHASE OPTION AT WETHERBY ON BOXING DAY
Always Right could bid to follow up an impressive seasonal return by heading to Wetherby for the £40,000 Grade Three Betfair Rowland Meyrick Handicap Chase (1.45pm), highlight of the first day of the Welcome To Yorkshire Christmas Meeting on Monday, December 26.
The lightly-raced nine-year-old recorded a fifth win under rules from nine starts as he stayed on gamely to beat Skippers Brig by two and a quarter lengths in an extended two and three-quarter mile handicap chase at Kelso on December 4.
He gave owner/trainer John Wade the biggest success of his career to date when taking the Grimthorpe Handicap Chase at Doncaster in March and ended last season with a fine third in the Grade Three Scottish Grand National at Ayr in April, when he was beaten a length by the victorious Beshabar.
Maria Myco, assistant to Wade, commented: “Always Right came out of his win at Kelso on the weekend fine and we were thinking about sending him to Wetherby on Boxing Day.
“He is a class horse and he does everything that is asked of him. He’s got the speed to win over two and half miles but he’s got the stamina for the marathon distances as well. He goes on any going - he was fantastic on good ground in the Scottish National in April - and I wish that we had a yard full of horses like him.
“His point-to-point form was very impressive as a youngster. He won his races so easily and we knew then that he was a very good horse. He has been very consistent and seems to be improving with every start.
“We had the Scottish National in mind again for him at the start of the season but the Grand National has come into the thinking as well. My heart would be in my mouth watching him jump the Aintree fences but you have to go for these things because a horse like this doesn’t come along too often.”
The Wade string has been in superb form this season and the stable enjoyed a double at Wetherby’s latest meeting on December 3 as Moon Indigo made a winning debut over fences in the One Man Novices’ Chase and Diamond Frontier landed the Constant Security Services Handicap Chase.
Myco added: “It’s thrown me a little bit with Always Right and the highly-rated horses John has bought from Howard Johnson’s stable coming into the yard because we have been used to running nothing special. John’s fourth in the owners’ standings at the moment and it’s fantastic that the horses are running so well.”
The Betfair Rowland Meyrick Handicap Chase, run over three miles and a furlong, was first run in 1957 and boasts an outstanding roll of honour with subsequent Cheltenham Gold Cup winners Forgive’ N Forget (1984) and The Thinker (1986) among the winners.
Yahoo, famously runner-up to Desert Orchid in the 1989 Cheltenham Gold Cup, scored in 1987, while the Ferdy Murphy-trained Truckers Tavern, second to Best Mate in the 2003 Cheltenham Gold Cup, took the spoils in 2004. Champion trainer Paul Nicholls took the latest renewal in 2008 with Nozic.
This is the first year of an exciting two-year partnership with headline sponsor Welcome To Yorkshire. The Welcome To Yorkshire Christmas Meeting continues on Tuesday, December 27, when the highlight is the £16,000 Castleford Handicap Chase (2.20pm) over two miles. For older releases go to the Wetherby Archive |
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