Ayr Friday

THERE were a pair of listed events at Ayr yesterday, and the Harry Rosebery Stakes for juvenile fillies went the way of the red-hot Tim Easterby stable, with Winter Power (David Allan) bouncing back from a poor run in last week’s Flying Childers Stakes to get the better of Nomadic Empire (David O’Meara/Danny Tudhope) at odds of 7/1.

The rank outsider, 250/1 shot First Company, showed much improved form, and bagged some blacktype, by finishing third for Declan Carroll and Paul Hanagan. The distances were half a length and three-quarters of a length.

Big handicaps

Punters looking for clues to the draw in Saturday’s big handicaps might have ended up scratching their heads after the Arran Scottish Sprint Stakes for fillies, as although winner Exceptional (Richard Fahey/Paul Hanagan) came from stall five, she ended up racing more towards the stands’ side as she scored at 11/2, beating favourite Last Empire (Kevin Ryan/Danny Tudhope) who was effectively berthed in stall 15 of 16 when non-runner Back To Brussels is factored out of the equation.

The runner-up’s stablemate Dandy’s Beano (Kevin Stott) was third from stall four at 40/1.

In short, the jury is out in terms of the draw.

Exceptional was runner-up in a traditionally strong three-year-old handicap at Newmarket’s July Meeting, and was making up for a disappointment when heavily backed to land a listed contest at Pontefract last month. This was fairly solid form for the grade, and the daughter of Dutch Art had a heavily curtailed juvenile season, so she may well do better still.

This was just the seventh winner of the year for Paul Hanagan, who was sidelined for months by a bad fall at Newcastle in February. It’s good to see him riding with all his old dash.

Murphy brings up a ton on The Kodi Kid

OISIN Murphy had to sit out the St Leger because of suspension, which he spent recharging his batteries in Italy, but he was soon back in the groove on his return, and landed his 100th winner of the turf season aboard The Kodi Kid at Bath on Monday for Andrew Balding.

Also hitting a significant milestone this week was sprinter Caspian Prince, who broke the track record at Yarmouth to record the 21st win of his long career at Yarmouth on Wednesday. The 11-year-old gelding typically made all the running, and retains all the pace which has seen him win three separate runnings of the Dash at Epsom for three different trainers.