Nicholas T looking for joy of six at Ayr
● Goldie’s prolific course winner bids to land feature prize
Ayr stages its fifth and final July meeting of the year today with a seven-race card due to get under way at 2pm.
The opening race is the Join Racing TV Now EBF Novice Stakes over five-and-a-half furlongs and Mark Johnston runs Makyon. Eleventh in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes and with a BHA rating of 95 this colt sets the standard.
The feature race is the Ayrshire Cancer Support Handicap over 1m 2f and prolific course winner Nicholas T, trained by Jim Goldie and ridden by Ben Robinson, goes for his sixth win at the track and his third success at Ayr this month.
The mighty Godolphin, who won the race last year, run Shoot For Gold whose last outing was in a Group 1 at Saint Cloud last October where this son of Sea The Stars finished sixth of nine.
Trainer Roger Fell has a great record at the track this season with five winners from 17 runners and his representatives today include Presidential and Zylan in the Every Race Live On Racing TV Handicap at 3.30pm.
Irvine-born jockey Danny Tudhope has four rides as he tries to maintain his lead over Oisin Murphy in the Jockeys Championship.
At Windsor, Open Wide can scoop the pot in the Marathonbet Sportsbook Windsor Sprint Series Handicap Final.
Amanda Perrett’s five-yearold took one of the qualifiers last month and ran with great credit too when snatching second place behind Tis Marvellous over the minimum trip at Ascot two weeks ago. The return to six furlongs is certain to be in his favour, and he was third in last year’s renewal.
With Caution has been a model of consistency, although James Tate’s threeyear-old has been out of luck since winning her first two career starts in the winter. That can change for the better in the Silk Series Lady Riders’ Handicap.
Five of her seven runs have been on the all-weather, but she has performed with credit in two attempts on turf at Haydock and Newbury.
Meanwhile, John Gosden expects Enable’s route to Parislongchamp and a third crack at the Prix de l’arc de Triomphe in October to become clearer in the coming days.
The five-year-old got the better of Crystal Ocean by a neck in an epic battle for the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Saturday to become only the third horse to win the midsummer showpiece twice.
Enable holds entries in both the Juddmonte International – which is sponsored by her owner, Khalid Abdullah – and the Darley Yorkshire Oaks at next month’s Ebor meeting at York. However, Gosden is unsure whether to plot a direct course to France, as she bids to become the first three-time Arc winner on 6 October.
He said: “I think we will start making those decisions in the next week. But I think the key thing is whether she goes to York at all, or whether we just do the other thing, freshen her up – she runs well fresh – and bring her up to the Arc without having taken any risks in going anywhere else.”