WE’RE in for a busy racing week in Scotland and the action starts with a valuable card at Ayr tomorrow. I notice Mike Smith has a few entries and he could be worth following now his Galston yard has hit peak form.
The concluding bumper catches my eye as Golden Jeffrey is a rare runner under National Hunt Rules for Mark Johnston. The Kingsley House trainer wins his share of races at Ayr on the Flat but his recent Catterick third is an interesting contender under amateur rider Alex Ferguson, the son of Godolphin supremo John Ferguson.
Musselburgh has healthy entries for a seven-race meeting on Wednesday and then the show moves on to Kelso for a cracking Grade 2 Premier Hurdle and Listed Premier Chase fixture on Saturday which carries £101,000 in prize money.
IT’S good to hear that Connor Beasley will be getting plenty of rides from the Keith Dalgleish stable in the coming months. As the Flat turf season approaches, Beasley has been riding out for the Carluke trainer several times a week and he will be sharing the bulk of the mounts with Phillip Makin. Dalgleish has a huge string of horses – around 120 – as he bids to match, or better, a fabulous tally of 93 winners (including 12 over jumps) last year.
SAD news that David Savala, a great supporter of Dalgleish’s Belstane Racing Stables over the years, has passed away after a long illness. Along with Robin Galbraith and Gordon Leckie, Savala enjoyed a fair bit of success with horses in the partnership’s name of GLS.
WHAT a day it was for Stuart and Sam Coltherd at Haydock last Saturday. The Selkirk-based father and son combination struck with Captain Redbeard and I’m sure Sam will long dine out on the story of the day he pipped Sam Twiston-Davies by a short-head in a photo finish!
I SEE the talented mare Absolute Blast has changed hands and raced from the Archie Watson stable for the first time in the Winter Derby at Lingfield yesterday. She had a fruitful time when trained by Iain Jardine and won two handicaps and was second in her other two starts for the Dumfriesshire handler. Mind you she was a useful sort before she joined “Scobie” as she appeared in the 2015 French Oaks at Chantilly.
Don’t forget to check out our Twitter feed (@ScottishRacing) and scottishracing.co.uk for all the latest news
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