Bravemansgame OUT of Aintree Grand National Festival after last-minute court order from Financial Conduct Authority
BRAVEMANSGAME will NOT run at Aintree after a shock last minute intervention.
Paul Nicholls’ superstar stayer had been the bookies’ favourite for tomorrow’s blockbuster Aintree Bowl on the first day of the Grand National Festival.
But the King George hero will not be able to take part due to an ownership issue.
The horse was switched to the sole care of Bryan Drew yesterday with former fellow owner John Dance under investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
It was originally reported that this would enable the horse to run on Thursday.
But the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) have at the last minute ruled otherwise after receiving further information from the FCA in light of a court order.
A BHA statement read: “In light of new information, including a court order, provided to the BHA on Wednesday 12 April by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Bravemansgame is no longer able to take part in the race and has been withdrawn.
“The BHA will continue to liaise with the FCA and other affected parties.”
Sun Racing told you it was not immediately clear who made the decision to remove multi-millionaire Dance, 48, as the co-owner of the Paul Nicholls-trained eight-year-old, who has won more than half a million quid in prize money.
Since WealthTek, which also has the trading names of Malloch Melville and Vertem Asset Management, was shut down Dance has not had any runners.
He employs James Horton as his private trainer from Manor House Farm Stables in Middleham, but the young handler does not have any new entries for the owner.
Dance, who is also a DJ in his spare time, has had a huge amount of success as an owner.
His brilliant filly Laurens won six Group 1 races on the Flat during her career, banking over £1.7million in prize-money.
He is also the sponsor of a Group 1 race at Doncaster, namely the Vertem Futurity Trophy, as well as the Eider Chase at Newcastle.
WealthTek was ordered to stop all regulated activity a week ago and special administrators were ordered in last Thursday following the discovery of “serious regulatory and operational issues” by the FCA.
A special administration is classified by the FCA as “a modified insolvency procedure for certain investment firms”.