Ayr raid won’t live in memory

The trip to Ayr last Monday won’t stay long in the memory I can assure you.

Mary’s Glance schooled really well before her race, she schooled really well after the race. But when it came to the crunch, she didn’t jump well and was sluggish in between the hurdles too. So not really a great deal to go on!

It would have been better almost if we had found something afterwards – a tweak here or there – which had prevented her from showing her best. But, frustratingly, we drew a blank and therefore we just have to regroup and go again next time.

Grey Tikkana was better. The final result might not show that, but she did go well for a long way, was enthusiastic, and simply ran out of puff turning in for the final time.

She has earned another start and that might come at Newcastle next week.

Talking of Newcastle – how well did they do to get their meeting on at the weekend?

I can assure readers the weather was grim up here on Saturday – the power went here for about 24 hours – with Storm Arwen wreaking havoc in the north.

I had to resort to my phone and a bit of candlelight to get through, but overall we emerged unscathed and managed to get the horses done without too much difficulty.

What I did see of the racing at the weekend was enormously pleasing from a Borders perspective, as Aye Right finally got the big race he has deserved when taking the Rehearsal Chase under local lad Callum Bewley.

It looked like a case of deja vu again as his advantage was diminishing fast, but luckily the post came in time and I was delighted for Harriet Graham.

In a further boost for Scottish racing, Lucinda Russell sent down Ahoy Senor to Newbury on their Ladbrokes Trophy card and he won by 31 lengths!

I haven’t managed to catch up with the race yet, but I saw the winning margin and the reaction on Twitter and it looks like Lucinda has got a pretty special horse on her hands there.

It would have been easy for her to dodge these difficult races and keep Ahoy Senor up north to the smaller tracks. But now he has run in the Colin Parker at Carlisle and a Grade 2 on a big Saturday of racing. She hasn’t hidden him and rightly so – he could be an absolute monster!