Sam Brown swooped late to deny Aye Right in the Unibet Veterans’ Handicap Chase at Warwick.

The event had been rescheduled from Sandown’s abandoned card last Saturday and a field of 14 was stacked with familiar names and fan favourites.

Aye Right has not tasted glory since winning the 2021 Rehearsal Chase but it looked as though he could finally break that barren spell as he jumped the last fence with a marginal lead in the hands of 7lb claimer Dylan Johnston.

However, Sam Brown was hot on his heels and the pair were almost level on landing before settling down for a proper battle on the run to the line.

It was Sam Brown who found most for Jonathan Burke though, with the Anthony Honeyball-trained winner pulling two and three-quarter lengths clear, with a further 12 lengths back to Mill Green in third.

“We have been quite lucky really as he had a bit of an issue and we would have been struggling to get him to Sandown last week,” said Honeyball, who was winning the race for a second time.

“We thought we had him in good order in general and this is fantastic. I knew half way through that in this sort of race, it was just giving him a chance to stay in there and his jumping was just good enough today, it kept him in it.

“Maybe the open handicaps are just going to be a bit tough for him sometimes if he isn’t jumping very slick, but Johnny just hunted him through it really and kept him on the bridle as long as he could.

“Similar to Aintree, when he turned in, I thought when he gets into overdrive he can really pick up.

“We have thrown a few things at him really and the blinkers worked well at Punchestown, he went really well there.

“He went OK at Cheltenham, that was a ray of light for us last time out over two-miles-four. We just thought we would change things up and I don’t think it would make a lot of difference, but was just something for us to make us think we would find more.

“It’s great to get him here in one piece and then go on to win, and of course we won it with Jepeck a few years back so it was very special.”

Sam Brown had handed his rider a broken arm when taking a crashing fall at the Chair in the Grand National, but he is more than forgiven having provided the 28-year-old with another big Saturday winner.

Burke said: “He owed me one and we got there. It was an awful fall in the National and I was lucky to come out of it with just a broken arm. He fell again at Punchestown only two weeks after and they’ve done an incredible job to get him back and to have the enthusiasm he has.

“I rode him in the Badger Beer and he didn’t want to know, so Anthony has tricked about with him and ran him over two and a half miles at Cheltenham and was never going to be his bag, but it was a case of getting him to try to finish a race.

“He enjoyed it today and went through the race well. Turning in, I just had to wait and not go too soon, but he was going to have to really give up on me to not win. Once I winged the last and got a crack into him, he picked up and was away then.

“I’m delighted for the horse and delighted for the owners, they were good enough to stick me back on him after decking him in the National.”

It may have been delight for connections of Sam Brown, but for Harriet Graham and Gary Rutherford it was heartbreak once again as Aye Right had to settle for minor honours for the third time this season.

“I’m dead proud of the horse but it is frustrating to be second again,” said Graham.

“Look at his record in these veterans’ chases – he’s been second, third, second.

“You can’t take it away from the horse and we’ll take him home and find him something nice for the spring.

“We were on the verge of going hunter chasing with him, which is level weights, but he’s probably too good for that still.”