Talking Horses: Bravemansgame case puts spotlight back on owner rules

B ravemansgame, Britain’s best staying chaser, has been cleared to run at the Punchestown Festival on Wednesday after Bryan Drew, who previously owned the eight-year-old in partnership with John Dance, bought Dance’s 50% share in a deal approved by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA ordered WealthTek LLP, Dance’s financial services business which also traded as Vertem Asset Management, to cease all activity earlier this month, and has since placed the firm into special administration.

Bravemansgame, the runner-up behind Galopin Des Champs in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham in March, was declared to run in Drew’s name in the Bowl at Aintree’s Grand National meeting on 13 April, but the arrangement was administrative, with no cash changing hands, and the British Horseracing Authority ordered that the gelding should be withdrawn after the FCA obtained a court order to prevent him lining up.

However, the BHA said in a statement on Monday that the FCA “has agreed to the sale, following an independent valuation, of Mr Dance’s share of Bravemansgame. As a result, Bravesmansgame is now able to be declared for races, including the Punchestown Gold Cup on Wednesday.”

The Paul Nicholls-trained chaser is expected to start as second-favourite for Wednesday’s six-runner race, in which he will renew rivalry with Willie Mullins’s Galopin Des Champs, who finished seven lengths in front of him at Cheltenham. Galopin Des Champs is the 1-3 favourite with Ladbrokes, the sponsor, for the feature event of the Punchestown Festival, with Bravemansgame next in the list at 5-1.

The sale of Bravemansgame apparently concludes one small chapter of what promises to be a long, distressing and embarrassing saga, not only for clients of Dance’s