HORSE RACING

IAIN FERGUSON

Tom Marquand continued his habit of riding the winners of the major races at Ayr when he captured the track’s first Listed race of the season last Wednesday on a filly who looks as though she could be very special.

Tom partnered My Astra for Newmarket trainer Willie Haggas in the Tennent’s Lager British Stallion Studs EBF Rothesay Stakes and the partnership crossed the line 12 lengths clear of Jessica Harrington’s Irish raider The Blue Brilliant.

This was a jaw dropping performance from a filly who had only previously raced four times and she left the impression she could be winning Group 1 contests before too long.

A beaming jockey told me in the winners enclosure: “Coming into the race today I was thinking we still hadn’t seen the best of her yet and after today I think that still applies.

“I settled her behind the leaders and they may have gone off a bit fast given the conditions and the pace collapsed and she just went through the gears and won very impressively. The best is yet to come.”

So very much a horse for the note books and at the moment she holds an entry in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh on June 26 which is a route a previous winner of the race took when Nezwaah won the Rothesay in 2017 before going to land the valuable Irish race.

There will be a touch of nostalgia at Ayr Racecourse on Monday night when we stage the Platinum Jubilee Racenight as we have adopted most of the race titles from our fixture Ayr Coronation Meeting of June 2, 1953.

The first race on the card at 4.50pm is the Braemar Novice Stakes for two yearolds over six furlongs with the feature race of the night the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Handicap over a mile at 7pm and a horse that could line up in this is the David O’Meara trained Cosmos Raj who won over a mile at the track in April.

One of the biggest fields of the evening should be in the Balmoral Handicap at 7.30pm which is over the minimum trip of five furlongs.

The evening concludes with the Queen’s Green Canopy Handicap over seven furlongs.

Following next Monday’s meeting we race again on Friday June 17 and Saturday June 18.