Horse Racing: Dodds' Bost can be best at Ayr

FORMER Scotland striker Billy Dodds was used to scoring goals in a 500-game career that took him to eight clubs and saw him net nearly 200 times, and his racehorse Lampion Du Bost is showing the same happy knack of hitting the target.

Trained by Jim Goldie at Uplawmoor in Renfrewhire, and racing in the colours of The Dodoz Partnership, Lampion Du Bost hit a career high in 2007 when he romped home in the 43,000 Grand Sefton Chase at Aintree, and although a win at Ayr followed that same winter, he was beset with problems which sidelined him for most of 2008 and all of 2009.

However, the gelding has been nursed back to rude health by Goldie and demonstrated his wellbeing with a nine-length win at Ayr last month. That should tee him up nicely for today's feature race, the 8,000 John Smith's Handicap Chase, and Graham Lee's mount is fancied to score for Dodds and Co again today.

The Donald McCain-trained Cool Mission will surely gain his first victory over fences in the Corona Beginners' Chase as Ayr's two-day meeting gets under way.

The seven-year-old was in the headlines for all the wrong reasons last month as after finishing a narrow second to Beshabar at Doncaster, jockey Jason Maguire incurred a ban that so nearly meant he would miss the Champion Hurdle ride on Peddlers Cross.

Maguire was reprieved on appeal, though, and it should not be forgotten how well Cool Mission performed to chase home a very useful horse. A suspended Maguire is replaced by Lee, but that is hardly a negative and a similar effort to his last one will see him go one place better.

Meanwhile, Ruby Walsh intends to be back in the saddle tomorrow after needing two stitches to a cut eye following a fall at Naas on Wednesday.

Ireland's top jump jockey had a nasty scare just days before the start of the Cheltenham Festival when taking a tumble from King Of The Refs at the final flight in a maiden hurdle. He only returned to action last Friday after being sidelined for four months with a broken leg and has yet to ride a winner since. His planned rides at Sandown tomorrow include Tito Bustillo in the Paddy Power Imperial Cup. "He's had two stitches, but he's good and he's going to ride on Saturday," said his agent and sister Jennifer. "He's going over to ride in England on Saturday, he'll be back in Ireland on Sunday and then over to Cheltenham on Tuesday."

Walsh will have his usual big book of rides at Cheltenham, with Willie Mullins and Paul Nicholls providing him with most ammunition. They include Master Minded in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, Big Buck's in the World Hurdle and Kauto Star in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.