CZECHMATE! Twenty-four hours after seeing his pal Jakub Kocman landing a first winner in Britain aboard Bonny Rock at Newcastle, Jan Faltejsek struck another blow for the pair's homeland yesterday when steering Oleoloat to an easy Ayr victory for Borders handler Willie Amos.
Success for the hitherto maiden six-year-old formed the middle leg of a Scottish hat-trick with Lucinda Russell chipping in with a double thanks to Ballynure, ridden by the East Lothian-born Campbell Gillies, and course specialist Jefertiti, who was
notching a fourth win at the Craigie track.
That, though, does not tell the whole story or do the 11-year-old justice as he was racing off his highest handicap mark, yet was still gutsy enough to see off old rival Something Silver.
As has been the case for almost the entire jumps campaign at Ayr, none but the brave could cope with Ayr's testing conditions and the judge would have needed a calendar to calculate the winning distances in some of the races.
Bumper winner Big Boots was just one of a few to score by a wide margin as was his fellow- Irish raider Mr Multifix, though it might have been a different story had the latter not had the race presented to him on a plate by the last-fence fall of Borders-trained Lockstockandbarrel.
The latter had led his rivals a merry dance from the start and still held a slight advantage when coming to grief at the final obstacle. Whether he would have won or not is anyone's guess, but for those of us who had bet him, and doubtless for the gelding's connections as well, it was still a sore one.
As is his wont, the Peter Monteith-trained Quicuyo tried to run the opposition into the ground in the two-mile novices' hurdle and as the field turned into the straight, it seemed his ploy might just pay dividends.
Eventually, however, even the ten-pounds claim of his young jockey Ryan Mania was not enough to offset the welter burden of 12 stones and the Rosewell raider had to settle for third behind the lightly weighted Currahee.
Those who thought 2/7 shot Companero was an opportunity to buy money turned out to be spot on, albeit they might have had a few palpitations before being proved correct.
Howard Johnson's runner looked to be facing an uphill battle as he chased Spitfire Sortie, but on a day when stamina was paramount, the jolly's staying power came to the fore. So much so that having looked in trouble, he powered clear up the run-in to win going away.
The full article contains 449 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
