Ayr – Saturday 2nd April

Well today’s action at Wexford was more than an anti-climax after waiting for the majority of the day to get to the card. Unfortunately, it was not the day we had hoped as Chiricahua unseated his rider at half way before the other two horses got pulled out of their respective races on account of the ground. Sometimes these things happen and there is very little anyone can do to control it. That leaves us with the Scottish Grand National meeting at Ayr today, and I am more than hopeful of trying to find a competitive few horses throughout the card, including two stabs at the lucrative feature race. 

The other selection from the card comes in the 3.00 race, which is a fascinating prequel to the main event, with this five runner 2m4f novice chase looking like a classy contest between 5 good horses. It proved to be wise to stay with the market leaders yesterday and I am hoping the oracle can repeat itself today with Minella Drama, who brings the best form into this race and despite having to give away a graded penalty, still should have a massive chance in this contest. Despite failing to deliver last time around at Kempton, I like the angle of this horse going back left handed, where he is 4 wins from 6 career starts, rather than 1 win from 5 career starts the other way around. His two chase wins this year have come at Uttoxeter and Haydock, which might bode well for a good performance here. As long as the exertions of the season haven’t taken their toll, he could take a lot of beating. A price of 2/1 with Paddy Power seems completely fair based on what he has achieved, and he should be taken very seriously. 

The feature race is the 4m Scottish Grand National and a lot of the lead up has centered around the two prong challenge of Christian Williams, with both Kitty’s Light and Win my Wings coming into this race with likable profiles for a trainer who certainly can target these staying handicap chases. However, on this occasion alone, I am allowing those two to win at their respective prices – and my idea of the winner comes from the two prong attack led by the Irish trainer, Pat Fahy – who throws two very lively darts into the ring. 

Starting off with Stormy Judge, who is by far the more fancied of the pair and has the partnership of Danny Mullins to look forward to. This horse has shown some good form in his chase career thus far, most notably when winning a valuable novices handicap chase at Naas last year. He beat Enjoy D’Allen (12/1 shot for the National) and School Boy Hours (Paddy Power Winner) on that occasion, and the rest of his form looks robust. He warmed up for this race with a nice fifth in the Leinster National last time out, which should put him cherry ripe for his first crack at an extreme trip such as this, which promises to suit very well. He will be encountering different ground to the usual, but that should not be of big concern, and I hope he can run a big race. At a price of 13/2 with Paddy Power, who are paying out 6 places – he should be backed each way. 

However, it would be remiss to not be wary of the other raider from the Fahy yard, in the shape of History of Fashion who is right down the weights and has a brilliant hold up rider on board in Phillip Enright. However, this drying ground will be right up this horse’s street and if able to put in a decent round of jumping, this horse could far outrun his odds with this marathon distance sure to suit. He has unseated twice in his last four starts, which is an obvious concern, and he got no further than the sixth when coming over to contest the Eider Chase. However, his performances on either side of these have been noteworthy. He won on decent ground at Down Royal three starts back and was an eye-catching third last time out in a lucrative novices handicap at Navan, where it paid to be closer to the pace than he was. At a price of 18/1 with Paddy Power, one can take the chance on his jumping and I do believe he is handicapped to run very well. He should be backed each way also.