Bravemansgame, 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administrative, with no cash changing hands, and the British Horseracing Authority ordered that the gelding should be withdrawn after the FCA obtained a court order to prevent him lining up.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 investment businesses but also for racing as a whole.
As the BHA’s statement on Monday added, the regulator “remains in dialogue with the FCA and Mr Dance regarding the status of Mr Dance’s other horses”. James Horton, who trains around 40 horses for Dance in Middleham, has not had a runner since Wealthtek’s activities were suspended on 5 April.
But the issues over Bravemansgame clearly suggest that in the FCA’s view – which is practically speaking the one that counts – anything and everything connected to Dance or one of his businesses is seen as an asset, and it therefore likely to be sold to pay creditors if or when his operations are wound up.
That includes exceptionally valuable breeding stock such as Laurens, a multiple Group One-winning mare who is thought to be in-foal to Dubawi; Manor House stud in Middleham, where Horton was expecting to train at least 40 horses following a multimillion-pound redevelopment; and even, according to rumour, a car used by one of Dance’s jockeys.
It could take months, if not years, for the administrators to untangle the mess around Dance’s businesses, and when the process is complete, there will, in all likelihood, be victims who have suffered severe, perhaps life-changing, losses.
Some may conceivably have been attracted to invest by one of Dance’s racing sponsorships, such as Vertem’s support of the Group One Futurity Trophy at Doncaster. Plenty of racing fans, meanwhile, will also have come across Dance via either the mainstream or social media, as his obvious and infectious enthusiasm for racing made him both a natural interviewee on ITV Racing and an engaging presence on Twitter.
No one could reasonably expect a racecourse to conduct a full financial audit or suitability test on every new sponsor that comes along, not least when backing for even a Group One event is currently so hard to find. But it will have come as little comfort to anyone facing potential losses in the Wealthtek fallout to hear a comment by Ralph Beckett, a senior figure in the National Trainers’ Federation, on Racing TV’s Luck on Sunday programme this weekend.
“Rumours were swirling for a while and had been for some years,” Beckett said. “Training debts and so on, so it’s not a surprise, but [it is] unfortunate on every level and needs to be carefully managed, obviously, by the BHA in terms of horse welfare and what goes on, people welfare and whether everybody gets paid, the people who are looking after the horses etc, etc.”
Perth 1.30 Midnight Shuffle 2.00 Ninetofive 2.30 Caboy 3.00 Snake Roll 3.30 Whistleinthedark 4.05 Castle Rushen (nap) 4.40 Thistlebuffs 5.13 Sanitiser
Warwick 1.40 Kankin 2.10 Montregard 2.40 Spotty Dog 3.15 Gardener 3.50 Getaman 4.25 Jubilee Express 5.00 Northern Poet 5.30 King William Rufus
Beverley 1.50 Anfaal 2.20 Princess Karine 2.50 Mr Cuddihy 3.25 In These Shoes 4.00 Dogged 4.35 Dandy’s Angel 5.08 Cantora
Taunton 5.20 Sonnemoser 5.50 Vicki Vale 6.25 Universal Secret 7.00 Ma Belle Noire 7.35 Haldon Hill 8.10 Hard Frost
Chelmsford 5.40 One More Dream 6.15 G’Daay 6.50 He’s A Gentleman 7.25 Rage Of Bamby (nb) 8.00 Surrey Noir 8.30 Twayblade 9.00 Spit Spot
It is so difficult to find and keep a big-spending owner like Dance that many trainers will understandably be very reluctant to raise any issues over nonpayment, never mind report concerns to a third party. But this attitude leaves the entire training profession, and by extension the sport as a whole, ripe for exploitation by those who are not what they seem.
Tattersalls suffered the embarrassment of a £20m nonpayer after its showpiece sale last October, but even that could seem like small change if the collapse of Dance’s business empire plays out, as so many do in the financial sector, with creditors owed staggering sums.
Sandown 1.15 Rocking Ends 1.50 Legend Of Leros (nap) 2.25 Adayar 3.00 Migration (nb) 3.35 Flying Honours 4.10 Infinite Cosmos 4.40 Ribal
Perth 1.30 Cuban Cigar 2.05 Gentelman De Mai 2.40 Sea Prince 3.15 Readysteadybeau 3.50 Uncle Alastair 4.25 Chumlee 5.00 Eden Mill 5.30 Marty McFly
Doncaster 1.40 Lincoln Gamble 2.15 United Approach 2.50 Royal Dress 3.25 Supreme King 4.00 Westerton 4.30 Miss Down Under 5.05 Star Angel 5.35 Katar
Southwell 4.35 Walk In Clover 5.10 Joly Maker 5.40 Young At Heart 6.15 Sageburg County 6.50 Thanksforthehelp 7.25 Royal Lake 8.00 Aristobulus
Chepstow 4.45 Fortuna Ligna 5.20 Kingsmill Gin 5.50 Hunters Song 6.25 Northern Bound 7.00 Hardy Du Seuil 7.35 First Preference 8.10 Equinus
If it also transpires that both individuals and businesses in racing crossed their fingers and overlooked rumours of broken plates if their own was still just about spinning, who could possibly argue that the sport’s current rules on fit and proper owners are in any way fit for purpose?
