Ones to watch as stars take to track
famous colours in racing were on show with horses running for The Queen, Khalid Abdullah, Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, Sir Evelyn De Rothschild and Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum.
Outside the William Hill Ayr Gold day this was as good a Flat day’s racing as I’ve witnessed at Ayr. Maiden and novice races at Ayr over the years have produced some outstanding horses who have gone on to achieve greatness.
Probably the best ever was Shamardal who I remember winning his maiden here back in 2004 before racking up four Group1s and amassing more than £ 1,000,000 in prizemoney.
I certainly don’t think we saw a horse quite as good as that over the weekend but the winner of the Guinness Novice Stakes on Friday night is one to note.
Match Maker, a son of Declaration Of War, had run only twice before last week – he finished third in a decent maiden at Leicester in 2017 and ran tenth in the Class 1 Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot in June of that year.
Owned by Doreen Tabor, the wife of Coolmore’s Michael Tabor, the four yearold has been off the course ver since until he klined up on Friday.
He was slow to warm up but was travelling by far the strongest at the end of the race and won handily.
Graham Lee was the rider and he was impressed telling me he thought trainer Simon Crisford had done a great job in readying the horse for the race after such a long lay- off.
Graham added: “The further he went the better he travelled.
“He’s a very good horse, I liked him a lot.”
The horse who was second in the race was Keith Dalgleish’s Alright Sunshine who has won three National Hunt Flat races as well as a 1m 4f contest at Musselburgh, so this was good form.
Another for the notebook is Byline who finished second in the Miaden over six furlongs on Saturday.
This 140,000 half- brother to multiple sprint winner Blaine was as green as grass, missed the break and was tailed off for the first half of the contest.
Tom Eaves let him settle and he came with a good run on the outside and went down to the experienced Gobi Sunset by only three quarters of a length.
This horse is nailed on to win and probably next time out at that – don’t miss it.