To no one’s great surprise, given the weather forecast overnight and also for the remainder of the day, Ayr’s meeting over the jumps scheduled for Monday afternoon failed to pass a morning inspection. That leaves Hereford as the only action in daylight, but Kempton will take over with a twilight card at 4.35 which will include Frankie Dettori’s first ride in Britain this year.
Dettori has taken just half a dozen rides in Britain in the first month of the year since 2003, not one of which was before 22 January, and only 13 in January and February combined in the same period. He is not, by any measure, a mid-winter jockey, in northern climes at any rate, but Dettori’s booking to ride Toast Of New York in the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park in Florida on 27 January – the most valuable race of the year – offers him a serious incentive to be as fit and sharp in late January as he would want to be in mid-June.
Related: Willie Mullins puts Faugheen on course for the Irish Champion Hurdle
Ayr Abandoned