Rowland Meyrick Handicap Chase

The Rowland Meyrick Handicap Chase is a Grade 3 National Hunt chase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Wetherby over a distance of about 3 miles and 1 furlong (5,029 metres), and during its running there are eighteen fences to be jumped. It is a handicap race, and it is scheduled to take place each year on Boxing Day.

The event is named in honour of Rowland Meyrick, who was appointed Clerk of the Course at Wetherby in 1920. At this time Meyrick was also a member of the Wetherby Race Company, an organisation which was formed to purchase the lease of the racecourse. The Rowland Meyrick Handicap Chase has held Grade 3 status since 2005, though it arguably reached its peak in the 1980s when Forgive 'n Forget and The Thinker both won it in the same season they would win the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Winners since 1979

Year
 Winner
 Age
 Weight
 Jockey
 Trainer
1979 Ballet Lord 8 11-10 Colin Hawkins Neville Crump
1980 Sunset Cristo 6 10-11 Chris Grant Ray Hawkey
1981 no race 1981 [1]
1982 Richdee 6 10-06 Colin Hawkins Neville Crump
1983 Phil the Fluter 8 10-00 Shaun Keightley H. Wharton
1984 Forgive 'n Forget 7 11-07 Mark Dwyer Jimmy FitzGerald
1985 Fortina's Express 8 11-01 R. Hawkins Arthur Stephenson
1986 The Thinker 8 11-06 Richard Dunwoody Arthur Stephenson
1987 Yahoo 7 10-04 Tom Morgan John Edwards
1988 Whats What 9 10-01 Peter Niven Brian Bousfield
1989 Durham Edition 11 10-06 Alan Merrigan Arthur Stephenson
1990 Bluff Knoll 7 10-00 G. Harker R. Brewis
1991 Stay on Tracks 9 10-00 Chris Grant Arthur Stephenson
1992 no race 1992
1993 General Pershing 7 10-13 Neale Doughty Gordon W. Richards
1994 Cogent 10 10-08 Mr Chris Bonner Jeremy Glover
1995 no race 1995–96
1997 Strath Royal 11 10-10 Martin Brennan Owen Brennan
1998 Random Harvest 9 09-11 Alan Dempsey Mary Reveley
1999 no race 1999–00
2001 Behrajan 6 11-10 Mark Bradburne Henry Daly
2002 no race 2002 [2]
2003 Gunner Welburn 11 10-00 Richard McGrath Andrew Balding
2004 Truckers Tavern 9 11-02 Keith Mercer Ferdy Murphy
2005 Therealbandit 8 09-10 Andrew Glassonbury Martin Pipe
2006 Leading Man 6 10-00 Graham Lee Ferdy Murphy
2007 Lothian Falcon 8 10-07 Robert Walford Peter Maddison
2008 Nozic 7 10-08 Harry Skelton Paul Nicholls
2009 no race 2009-10 [3]
2011 According to Pete 10 09-11 Harry Haynes Malcolm Jefferson

1 The 1981 running was abandoned because of snow and frost.
2 The race was cancelled in 2002 due to waterlogging.
3 The race was abandoned in 2009 because of snow and in 2010 because of frost.

References

See also