Ayr for the Fair is place to be
Old race traditions that refuse to die
Glasgow Fair may have lost some of its appeal of years gone by.
Maw, Paw and the weans now head off on a jet to the beaches of Europe and further afield instead of boarding a train or a bus to the Ayrshire coast and packing their bucket and spade to look out on Paddy’s Milestone.
But some things never change – there is still Parkdean Resorts Glasgow Fair Raceday at Ayr Racecourse on Monday, proof that some traditions remain.
And this is still a top- notch raceday with seven races, big fields, some top jockeys and really good prizemoney.
The feature race is the £ 25,000 Parkdean Resorts Glasgow Fair Handicap, a Class 2 contest over a mile.
There are terrific entries for this including horses from leading southern yards including Kevin Ryan, Richard Fahey, Simon Crisford, Mark Johnston, Roger Varian and Willie Haggas.
But one entry that jumps out at me is the Keith Dalgleish trained Lomu named after the legendary All Blacks star.
This lightly raced three- year- old was very impressive when winning on his seasonal reappearance at Ayr on June 24 and should improve on that win in Class 3 company. Upped to a class 2 on Monday this should prove an ideal opportunity for the colt to pick up another decent prize before going on to even greater riches at the end of the season.
Roger Varian could send Zabeel Prince, winner of a maiden at Nottingham last time out, on the journey from Newmarket and if this twice raced gelding lines up he could be thrown in off a BHA rating of 86.
Others worth noting are Jim Goldie’s Nicholas T, running at his favourite track, Iain Jardine’s classy Hibou and one of my favourite fillies Sophie P trained by Mike Smith. It should be an absolute cracker of a race.
Elsewhere on the card, the opening seven furlong novice auction stakes will be the type of race to watch and learn from with Ayr two- year- old contests certainly ones that usually produce horses that go onto better things.
One horse that appeals is the once raced Han Solo Berger from the Keith Dalgleish yard who ran well to finish third on his racecourse debut at Carlisle at huge odds. Highly thought of, he should win on Monday.
The afternoon ends with the Creating Amazing Memories Apprentice Handicap over one mile five furlongs and with the Linda Perratt stable running into form and her apprentice Leanne Ferguson having recorded her first win at Ayr on Monday, Schmooze could be the answer at big odds.
Gates open at noon and the first race is at 2pm.
The shortest priced favourite to win at Ayr for many a long day was John Gosden’s highly thought of Pouvoir Magique.
He was sent off at 1- 12 for the opening maiden on Sunday and won easily and could now head to the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes at York next month.
Others who caught the eye in winning on Sunday include Roger Fell’s Two For Two who won the feature race the Class 3 one mile handicap carrying top weight under Tony Hamilton at odds of 7- 1, and Komodo, who won the one mile two furlong handicap for in- form trainer Jedd O’Keefe and Danny Tudhope.