Jef­fery Ross

La­dy first when a Maid­en Auc­tion Stakes over six fur­longs kicks off the three-day Ayr Gold Cup meet­ing to­day; an­tic­i­pa­tion is high, let's hope we can find the big-race win­ner on Sat­ur­day. Hope­ful­ly we'll have funds from La­dy Gibral­tar be­cause Alan Jarvis' charge has an out­stand­ing op­por­tu­ni­ty of mak­ing it sixth time lucky un­der tal­ent­ed three-pound ap­pren­tice Har­ry Bent­ley. In fact this con­sis­tent Rock Of Gibral­tar fil­ly jus­ti­fies se­lec­tion judged on sev­er­al ef­forts; for­get the last, at Ep­som, where sev­en fur­longs was ob­vi­ous­ly too far and the un­du­la­tions dif­fi­cult. Jarvis' yard has been in good form and it will be dis­ap­point­ing if La­dy Gibral­tar doesn't oblige; I'll bet she does!

Re­cent Brighton win­ner Storm­ing Bernard could well sup­ple­ment gains in the sev­en-run­ner Novice Stakes over a mile on ground that's ex­pect­ed to ride soft! It's a tough course, es­pe­cial­ly when they race on easy sur­face but Storm­ing Bernard stays well and jus­ti­fies a sport­ing wa­ger un­der Daryll Hol­land, whose strength might just prove an ad­van­tage. Pon­te­fract stages an eight-race card which in­cludes the Maid­en Stakes over five fur­longs and a re­al­is­tic chance for Mick Cham­mon-trained Pitt Rivers. No great shakes but def­i­nite­ly good enough beat a clutch of mod­er­ates, with no ex­cep­tion.

SE­LEC­TIONS

RACE 1 (#7) LA­DY GIBRAL­TAR (ew)

RACE 7 (#5) STORM­ING BERNARD

RACE 9 (#4) PITT RIVERS (nap ew)

RACE 35 (#10) SAL­LY FRI­DAY