A Dream To Share team successfully appeal handicap decision

A Dream To Share will be given a handicap mark by the Irish handicapper after connections were successful in their appeal against the decision to not to allot a rating.

The seven-year-old, owned by JP McManus and trained by John and Thomas Kiely, won the Champion Bumper at the 2023 Cheltenham Festival but has had his attentions switched to the Flat of late.

He won one of three outings but Irish handicapper Gary O’Gorman declined to give him a mark, a decision that was reciprocated by his British Horseracing Authority counterpart.

Following an appeal hearing on Thursday, the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board has confirmed A Dream To Share will now be given an official rating.

A statement said: “Having considered the submissions and observations made by the appellants and the handicapper in this appeal, the Appeals Body has decided to allow the appeal of the appellants and remit the matter to the handicapper with a direction that he should allocate a handicap mark to the horse.

“The Appeals Body will provide its reasons for this decision in writing not later than Friday 12 September 2025.”

A Dream To Share had been prominent in the ante-post betting for next month’s Club Godolphin Cesarewitch Handicap, but the BHA confirmed last week that the gelding was ineligible as the conditions of the Newmarket race meant he needed a handicap mark before August 19, with the weights published on August 27.