Shakespeare going all out for Merit prize

Royal Shakespeare is set to make his chasing debut at Sandown next Saturday in a last-ditch bid to secure the British Horseracing Board’s Order Of Merit competition.

Steve Gollings’ charge regained a narrow advantage in the race for the overall title with a sixth-place finish in the Grade Two Samsung Electronics Scottish Champion Hurdle at Ayr.

The seven-year-old, who would have been much closer but for a bad mistake at the last, now heads Monkerhostin by just four points in the battle for the £200,000 first prize, with each horse already having bagged the £50,000 for top hurdler and chaser respectively.

But with no hurdle races left in the competition, connections are keen to secure the massive prize by switching codes for the Betfred Celebration Chase, the concluding event of the 63-race series, in which he could clash with Monkerhostin.

Gollings said: “He has never run over fences, but he has schooled well and we will run him in the last race, the Celebration Chase at Sandown next week.”