Meetings at Ayr and Listowel

The three-day September meeting at Ayr gets under way today, although the big races, such as the Ayr Gold Cup, will be run on Saturday. Best race today is the class 2 handicap over 10 furlongs at 17.20CET, which looks wide open and all 8 runners hold some sort of a chance. The super-consistent Allied Powers (Michael Bell/ Micky Fenton) seems sure to start favourite following his narrow defeat at Doncaster last week, while top-weight Capable Guest (Mick Channon/ Matthew Davies) ran a good race at Goodwood on Sunday but is not the most reliable. With the ground expected to ride heavy, Best Prospect (Michael Dods/ Paul Hanagan), Bue Spinnaker (Mick Easterby/ Paul Mulrennan) and Wigwam Willie (Kevin Ryan/ Callan), who all go well in these conditions, must all be considered. However Wigwam Willie fares, Kevin Ryan and Neil Callan, who are in great form at the moment, should not go hime emoty-handed as the in-foal mare She´s Our Lass looks a good thing to win the 10 bfurlongs selle r at 16.50. Meanwhile at Listowel in Ireland, the harvest festival meeting continues with 7 N.H. races; the ground looked terrible yesterday and can hardly be any better today. Most valuable race on the card is the handicap hurdle over 2 miles at 16.55. Mudslinger (Paul Nolan/ APCawley) just beat Finns Cross (Seamus Lynch/ EC McCarthy) last time out, but there should be little in it today, while bottom-weight Erra Go On (GT Lynch/ Andrew Leigh) looks very dangerous. The following beginners chase over 2 3/4 miles should concern mainly Parsons Pistol (Noel Meade/ Paul Carberry) and War Officer (Mouse Morris/ Davy Russell), both ex-point to pointers.