One of the gamest of chasers who died of a heart attack at the track will be commemorated in the Veterans Chase Final“Absent friends” must be the toast at Sandown on Saturday, where a big effort will be made to memorialise Houblon Des Obeaux, one of the gamest of steeplechasers who hardly had a sick day in his 10-year career but died of a mid-race heart attack there last month. The plan had been for him to return for the Veterans Final, a race he won last year, which will now be run in his name.
His familiar dark face with its white strip will adorn the front of the racecard and footage of his three wins at the Esher track will be played on the screens there during the day. “It’s lovely that they’re honouring him,” says Venetia Williams, who trained ‘Houblon’ at her Ross on Wye base after he arrived from
France in December 2010.