Gordon Brown – Race Reporter
Gordon has a wealth of experience of racing through his background in the written and broadcast media. His current principle role is reporting and supporting the scene in Scotland on Racing TV and relaying the latest news with Scottish angles.
Hapy La Vie, trained by James Ewart and ridden by Brian Hughes, defied a lengthy absence on the opening card of Ayr’s jumps season.
The Langholm raider, who hadn’t been seen out since winning a chase at Hexham in early September last year having also won over fences on his previous outing three months earlier, landed the Virgin Bet Daily Price Boosts Handicap Hurdle.
“There hasn’t been anything wrong with him, we were just waiting for a suitable programme at courses that suited him,” Ewart explained after the 16/1 success. “We’ll give him a month off to recover and then find something else.”
Country Mile looks a lovely prospect and he made a winning jumps debut for Harry and Dan Skelton in the Virgin Bet Daily Extra Places Novices’ Hurdle.
Sent off at 30/100, he got up close home to pip Walking on A Dream by three-quarters of a length.
“He could be high-class and we won’t be rushing him as you could see he is still learning,” trainer Dan Skelton said afterwards. “It will be small steps to begin with but we might try and find out how good he is in the spring.”
The Skeltons went on to complete a treble with Home Free in the two-mile handicap chase and Dalston Lad in the concluding bumper.
Locally-based Ian Duncan recorded a 231/1 double with Adveram (7/1), who carried the colours of co-Ayr racecourse owners, the MacDonald Family, and Celestial Fashion (28/1).