Monday Review - more winners for AOTF

Racing in Scotland returned for the first time in over three months with Ayr staging a decent card on Monday. Que Amoro produced the performance of the day winning the Listed Land O'Burns Stakes by three lengths. Michael Dods' filly has been transformed since being allowed to bowl along in front and she outclassed her eleven opponents here. The four year old has invariably needed her seasonal pipeopener in the past so this performance bodes well for the remainder of the campaign. It is worth recalling Margot Did won this event en route to glory in the Nunthorpe Stakes and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Que Amoro could be lining up in the same event nine years later. She is all speed and her trainer has a midas touch when it comes to sprinting mares with names such as Mecca's Angel and Mabs Cross readily springing to mind.

Despite only finishing fifth in the five furlongs handicap earlier on the card, I suggest keeping an eye on Call Me Ginger this summer and beyond. Trained by Jim Goldie, he is a full-brother to stablemate Tommy G and is from the family of Geojimali and Blazing Heights who the Scotsman also handled. Lightly raced, he kept on well in the closing stages and was beaten less than two lengths. A return to six furlongs will suit and he is the sort to be contesting the Ayr Silver or Bronze Cup in September. The family improve with age and I suspect Goldie has only just scratched the surface with the gelded son of Orientor.

There were only two featured horses in Ahead On The Flat in action on Monday and they both made winning starts to their Flat careers. Bigbadandbeautiful (Handicap Snips) was a high-class mare in bumpers last winter and Gordon Elliott's charge showed her versatility by winning a ten furlongs maiden at Roscommon on her Flat debut. A three times winner in bumpers, the six year old stayed on strongly to win going away by a length and a quarter. She will be even better when upped to a mile and a half plus and is capable of winning a good prize on the level. 

Arrow of Gold (Unraced Three Year Olds) led close home to win on his belated racecourse debut at Thirsk. A well bred son of Galileo, Kevin Ryan's three year old is a half-brother to the Epsom Derby winner Golden Horn and cost a whopping 450,000gns as a yearling. Strong in the market beforehand, he showed signs of inexperience but got the job and ought to improve considerably for his initial outing.