AS AYR, unfortunately, looks about to discover, Sod's Law dictates that any meeting transferred from a course undergoing drainage work should be moved to a track that is then deemed unraceable because of waterlogging.
The Craigie course appeared to have pulled out a real plum when landing York's prestigious Rockingham Stakes card but the weather has decided otherwise and Friday's scheduled fixture now hangs on an inspection this morning.
Given that officials ar
e taking a look 48 hours before the event, the omens don't look good which is bad news for everyone, not least of all those Tykes who had hoped to take advantage of the free entry offered by Ayr to any Yorkshire resident.
"The going is currently heavy, waterlogged in places and while the forecast is for drier weather throughout Wednesday more rain will come in on Thursday night and remain through Friday," said clerk of the course Katherine Self. "It's not looking good."
There was, however, better tidings from Musselburgh regarding their £150,000 plus meeting on Saturday with General Manager Bill Farnsworth reporting no problems with the going. "If we get all the rain that is forecast, and that's not a definite, the ground will be on the soft side of good but should be no worse than that."
The East Lothian circuit hopes to turn their most valuable card ever into a real sporting orgy with Hibs stars Colin Nish and Ian Murray just a couple of the footballing fraternity expected to take advantage of having a rare free Saturday thanks to Scotland's World Cup qualifier with Norway, which will be shown live at the track.
Nish said: "It's very unusual for players to have a Saturday off work and some of the lads are getting away for a break but I've always had a soft spot for Musselburgh and it will be a great day out watching the best racing and football Scotland has to offer."
With two of today's four cards staged over jumps, the advent of 'proper' racing is sneaking up on us and as a further reminder that the National Hunt season will soon be in full swing, Kelso have announced a lucrative two-year sponsorship deal with brewer John Smith who will back the Borders National, set to be staged at the track in December.
In the light of recent results, punters searching for a jockey in form need look no further than Borderer Greg Fairley who booted home a 252-1 treble at Catterick yesterday. Fairley has a couple of mounts at Nottingham today, the best of which looks likely to be Scarab, but as hot as the young Scot clearly is at the moment, he and his mount may struggle to get the better of the Jimmy Fortune-ridden Red Jade.
The former top jumps trainer Kim Bailey, now based in Gloucestershire, could be about to enjoy something of a renaissance. Every runner he has sent out in recent weeks has performed with distinction and hopefully lumbering Lucky Luk with the nap at Exeter won't see the good spell hit the buffers.
The full article contains 520 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
