Ayr punters can get along better

Tips: Winning reappearance is on the cards for exciting six-year-old

BETTER GETALONG can make a successful start to his jumping career in the EBF Stallions/William Hill High Five “National Hunt” Novices’ Hurdle at Ayr.

The Nicky Richards-trained six-yearold carried the colours made famous by the hugely popular Monet’s Garden to two bumper successes last season, scoring at Ayr and Kelso.

The Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival proved a bridge too far, but Better Getalong remains an exciting prospect and, with the yard in decent form at the moment, there might be some long faces at Greystoke in Cumbria if he cannot make a winning reappearance.

TOP TUG can rediscover the winning trail in the Sir Gordon Richards Handicap at Leicester.

With a total prize fund of £30,000 up for grabs, a decent field of nine runners has been declared for the onemile-three-furlong contest.

Top Tug is yet another talented dualpurpose performer for Alan King, having shown smart form over hurdles as well as on the level.

The Elite Racing Club-owned sixyear-old has run four times on the Flat so far in 2017, with an impressive victory at Goodwood sandwiched by excellent efforts in defeat at Newmarket – finishing second to the high-class Frontiersman – and Royal Ascot, where he was fourth in the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes.

His latest effort in the Ebor at York looked too bad to be true and it soon transpired he had finished lame.

Top Tug has been given two months to recover and, with cut in the ground not a major concern, he is capable of claiming a sixth career success.

King brings the long-absent Chatez back to competitive action in the Hoby Handicap, but he could struggle to keep tabs on the bang-in-form topweight LONDON PROTOCOL.

Karl Burke’s charge has done most of his racing in France this year, a tactic which has yielded two lucrative victories.

He was particularly impressive on his latest appearance on an artificial surface at Chantilly, which can be marked down as a career-best effort. SELECTIONS: AYR: 1.30 Global Stage , 2.05 Better Getalong, 2.40 Socksy, 3.15 Spoils Of War, 3.50 Halcyon Days, 4.20 Karamoko.

LEICESTER: 12.15 Zumurud, 12.45 Felisa, 1.20 TOP TUG (NAP), 1.55 London Protocol, 2.30 Tawfeer, 3.05 Not After Midnight, 3.40 Maybride, 4.10 My Girl Maisie.

DOUBLE: Top Tug and London Protocol.