Ayaar

Ayaar got back to winning ways at Newmarket on Saturday in the Class 2 seven-furlong handicap, when he posted his first win of the season from his ninth run, but he did so in good style.

They raced down the centre of the course, as they had tended to do over the last two days of the Cambridgeshire meeting, but Ayaar was over on the far side of the group, and he impressed with the manner in which he picked up over there for Ryan Moore and kept on all the way to the line to keep the talented and in-form Mezzotint at bay. As well as that, he hit the front well over a furlong out and drifted over towards the far rail once he got there, which meant that he may have been racing on the worst of the ground late on.

There is a chance that Mezzotint was caught out a little, that he ran his race to beat the group down the centre and that he didn’t see Ayaar over on the far side until late, this was still a useful effort from the Mick Channon-trained winner. He clocked comparatively the fastest time of the day as well, fractionally quicker than both the Sun Chariot Stakes and the Cambridgeshire, in which they went a true pace.

His trainer said afterwards that he loved this fast ground. Also, the drop to seven furlongs for the first time since he finished fourth behind Garswood in the Free Handicap on his debut this term was probably in his favour. His record now over seven furlongs on fast ground reads 111.

He has gone up just 4lb for this, and he still has the scope to be better than his handicap mark of 97, especially over seven furlongs and ideally on good or fast ground. His new mark is still 5lb lower than the mark off which he raced in the Free Handicap. He is apparently destined for the sales, so it will be interesting to see where he ends up if he does move house.

28th September 2013