to run having pulled up lame on the gallops the weekend before the race. He was Timeform's best staying chaser of the season with a rating of 166, 13 lb higher than the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, Alverton. 1979/1980 season Gay Spartan made just one appearance in the 3 mile Sunderland Handicap Chase at Stockton in November. Carrying top weight, he was in the lead most of the way and beat Eborneezersdouble by one length. He was conceding 32 lb to the runner up. Gay Spartan was thought to have incurred a suspensory ligament injury during the race and did not run again during the season. He ended the season with a Timeform rating of 166 ?, the question mark indicating the organisation did not have enough evidence to be confident that the rating was reasonably accurate. 1982/1983 season With Michael Dickinson now holding the trainer's licence, Gay Spartan returned to the track as a 12-year-old in March 1983 following an absence of over three years. He won an amateur riders' handicap at Worcester and followed up in another minor handicap at Catterick, beating future Grand National winner Hallo Dandy. He then ran at Cheltenham but the race chosen was the Ritz Club Handicap Chase. Carrying top weight he unseated his rider at the sixth fence. Gay Spartan was also beaten on his remaining two starts, when third in a conditional jockeys chase at Aintree, and when unplaced in the Whitbread Gold Cup at Sandown Park. This was to be his final career start. He ended the season with a Timeform rating of 155. References 1971 racehorse births National Hunt racehorses