Coral cracker led way in 2016
Mullins forced to play second fiddle
Class racing ruled at Ayr Racecourse in 2016 and as I look back at the year that was at the Craigie track I’d like to share my highlights with you.
I begin in April with the Coral Scottish Grand National Festival again producing racing right out of the top drawer.
Adding to the drama this year was Irish training legend Willie Mullins who sent runners across the Irish Sea to Ayr for the first time ever as he sought to wrest the British trainers championship from Paul Nicholls.
It was a huge honour for everyone connected with the track to welcome Willie but his trip proved fruitless as Paul Nicholls emerged with the biggest winner of the meeting and clinched the championship thanks to his Ayr exploits.
Vicente came into the Coral Scottish Grand National on the back of a very unlucky run in the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham. This time there was to be no excuses and Sam Twiston- Davies had him in a great position throughout the four mile marathon and won comfortably by two and three quarter lengths from Alvarado.
The near £ 120,000 first prize went to Nicholls and the jubilation in the camp was obvious to all in the winners’ enclosure. Earlier in the afternoon, Nicholls’ former assistant trainer Dan Skelton celebrated one of his biggest wins as a trainer in his own right when Ch’Tibello, ridden by Dan’s brother Harry, won the QTS Scottish Champion Hurdle from Cloudy Dream.
This highly talented young hurdler is a horse I’ll be keeping onside throughout 2017 and could even be a contender for the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham in March.
I cannot leave the Scottish National meeting without remarking on the fact that the day was a sell- out well in advance and shows that this event is now one of the best sporting occasions of the year in Scotland.
The sun shone for our June Saturday meeting featuring the Class 1 Listed Land O’Burns Fillies Stakes and the subsequent winners proved to be one of the stars of the Flat season.
Marsha, trained by Sir Mark Prescott and ridden by the classy Paul Mulrennan, was a 7/ 4 favourite for the five furlong dash and proved to be a worthy one. Pulling hard, she was settled by her jockey and pounced to win with ears pricked. A class performance and we found out just how good this filly is when she won the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye at Chantilly in October. I’m really looking forward to seeing her as a four- year- old.
The three day William Hill Ayr Gold Cup Festival also provided some of the best racing seen at the track in many years with the highlight coming in the Ayr Gold Cup itself.
Growl was gambled like defeat was out of the question and there was plenty of confidence in the Fahey camp in the Marwan Koukash owned horse but they didn’t reckon with a cool dude called Brando.
Kevin Ryan knows how to win an Ayr Gold cup having previously trained Our Jonathan ( 2011) and Captain Ramius ( 2012) to win the race and jockey Tom Eaves had decided the best way to ride Brando was to follow Growl through and go and collar the favourite.
It sounds so simple but you need a class act to beat a horse as good as Growl and Brando has class in abundance and landed the spoils to become the highest ever rated horse to win the Ayr Gold Cup.
Next week I’ll revisit more of the 2016 highlights at Ayr.