Veterans take traditional centre stage on Boxing Day, providing their trainers can be persuaded to turn out.

Despite paying an extra £100 per race via the GBGB Christmas grant, racing manager Marcus Westgate is struggling to stage the traditional race for runners aged ‘four years and older’.

He said: “Theoretically, we could run two over different grades, but so many trainers have asked me to leave their dogs off, I am struggling to fill one.

“Ideally, I would love to give Linda Brown’s Amazing Madam a race. She is a May ’09 whelp but still capable of winning, as she showed a couple of races ago.”