A fine quiet day, a little bit colder again but with the days lengthening it definitely feels more like spring.  A great day at Ayr on Monday – two very special winners in Dubai Days and Eloi du Puy with the other three runners all finishing 3rd.

Dubai Days on his way to win carrying 12st 2lb on heavy ground giving weight away all round as well as 3-5 years to the opposition – his 5th win at Ayr and his 10th win overall.

 

Eloi du Puy wins for the 5th time and in doing so gives us our 100th winner at Ayr!

On to Kelso’s big day tomorrow and what a good card they have assembled.  Only let down would be an uncompetitve Premier Chase, though always good to see a top class horse performing, and the 33rd year of the Cyril Alexander Memorial Novice Chase has only produced 4 runners but I am not complaining as we have one of them!  The ground is good to soft and the atmosphere will be tremendous as the Jumps season comes to the boil so get along there if you can.

Smiles all round

After a good afternoon watching other horses the first of our two runners will be Just an Artist in the 16.35; she has been running well over further on her last two starts and I think will appreciate the drop back tomorrow on what will hopefully be better ground.  She has a graded horse to deal with that will be hot favourite but we are playing at home so can hopefully put up a good show – Bruce rides and 8 run.

Just an Artist

I am delighted that we have a runner in the race run in memory of my Father at 17.10.  Bet365 took over the sponsorship a few years ago but have very kindly retained his name in the race title, we have managed to win it three times over the years with three great stable stalwarts – Jet Master, Clan Legend and Dubai Days who between them have ended up winning a total of 30 races for the Team and I very much hope Dubai Days isn’t finished yet!  Tomorrow the 6yo Scarlet Jet attempts to join them, it is only his 2nd start over fences and he is 2lb out of the handicap so it is a tough ask for him as a 6yo – our other winners were 8yo, 7yo & 8yo.  We will certainly give it our best shot – Bruce rides and 4 run.

Scarlet Jet

In the first race on the card some of you might have noticed that our top novice chaser from last season, Hombre de Guerra, is making his debut for the Russell / Scudamore partnership.  He was highly progressive for us last season winning his last two starts having been defeated only by Caldwell Potter on chasing debut. On his two starts in the autumn he was highly tried at long odds and out of his depth for that stage in his career; he returns to a more sensible level tomorrow and putting a line through his autumn starts he has a good chance and looks great value at current odds of 10-1. There… a tip at last!  Have a great weekend.

And more happiness!