Mixed bag at Ayr for Elliott

GORDON ELLIOTT had a treble at Ayr yesterday but was also saddled with a £3,000 fine for schooling in public. Elliott chalked up winners with the unbeaten Galvin (30/100 fav), Veinard (2/1) and Arion Sky (7/4 fav). Davy Russell rode the first and last but Conor O’Farrell took the ride on Veinard as Russell was shaken by a fall on Pat’s Oscar. The local stewards deemed that Henry Brooke did not deliver a ‘timely, real and substantial effort to obtain the best possible placing’ aboard Braid Blue. Brooke was suspended for 14 days and Braid Blue banned for 40 days. The Curragh’s Balanchine Stakes was among the winners after the European Pattern Committee yesterday upgraded several races for 2019. The mid-summer six-furlong race for juvenile fillies, held on the final day of the Irish Derby Festival, has been granted Group Two status. The Curragh is also to stage a new Listed five-furlong race for juveniles, while Naas will do so over 10 furlongs for older horses. The EPC has, however, taken Listed status away from the Rochestown Stakes at Naas.