Opens and hunter chases used to be where veterans flourished - but that is starting to change

Warwick played host to the rescheduled final of the Unibet-backed veterans’ chase series last Saturday. Such veterans-only races are a rarity in the Irish programme book, with the open lightweight division in the pointing fields and hunter chases on the track instead filling the role of providing horses in the latter years of their career with an opportunity to regain their competitiveness.

While it is still those older horses who account for the majority of the runners in the open realm, how competitive are veteran performers actually proving amongst the changing face of the category, with younger rivals becoming more and more common?

An average age of ten from the 255 entries in open races during the autumn campaign may not sound significant in pointing to this focus on younger horses, but if you dig deeper into those numbers, the difficulty for older horses becomes clear.

Only five of the 19 open races in the autumn were won by horses aged ten or older, with Wrong Direction proving to be a notable outlier, when scoring at the age of 13 at Loughrea in October. Instead, open races in the pre-Christmas campaign were dominated by younger horses with 14 of those races being won by horses aged eight or younger, something that would not have seemed likely even just a few short years ago.

The situation is mirrored at the top of the hunter chase division where it has been horses that progressed from within the point-to-point ranks who have proved most successful. Its On The Line, Vaucelet, Winged Leader, Ferns Lock and even Willie Mullins’ Billaway have only ever run in point-to-points and hunter chases, and they have been the go-to hunter chasers on this side of the Irish Sea.

Gone, it would seem, are the days of former top track horses being the sought-after model for the division, as the autumn trend in points has continued in recent weeks. Ellmarie Holden bypassed the winners’ options with her Tattersalls maiden winner Hitak, who has now won back-to-back opens at Dromahane and Aghabullogue, all within little over a month of his maiden win.

Having a two-time open winner with just four career starts to their name is undoubtedly rare, but Declan Queally could try and usurp that at Carrigarostig on Sunday. He has entered Olympy De Cerisy, a debut four-year-old maiden winner in October, in the open for what would be just his second start.

As open winners continue to get younger, is the place of the veteran being squeezed? It is starting to look that way.

Weekend fixtures

Sunday

Ballycrystal, first race 12.30
Carrigarostig, first race 12.30

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