AYR Racecourse hosts its first Flat meeting of 2021 today (Monday) with a seven race card which gets under way at 1.00pm with the William Hill Pick Your Places Novice Stakes over five furlongs.
Only four go to post for this two year-old contest but top weight Vintage clarets, trained by Richard Fahey and the mount of Paul Hanagan, won earlier in the month at Beverley and now steps up in class and faces a difficult opponent in Love de Vega, from the Mark Johnston yard and ridden by Ben Curtis, who was second at Newmarket in his only run two weeks ago.
The feature race is the William Hill Extra Places Every Day Handicap at 2.10pm where top weight is Kevin Ryan's Bielsa who drops down in class for his seasonal debut and has the help of Kevin Stott from the saddle. Jim Goldie saddles Call Me Ginger in this and the five year-old could be worth a watch in the market.
Mike Smith who trains just 10 miles from the track at Galston has a good record here and is represented by Four Kingdoms in the William Hill Acca Freedom Handicap over 1m 2f at 3.45pm. The seven year-old has a course win to his credit and could come into the reckoning here with Andrew Breslin taking 5lbs off his back.
The longest race of the afternoon is the William Hill Play Responsibly Handicap at 4.20pm where Keith Dalglish runs recent Chelmsford winner Raymond with Billy Garritty riding.
