Clonard Abbey and Dawerann both 3rd at Ayr

2 year old Clonard Abbey, in only her second ever run, produced a fantastic performance to take the final place at Ayr on Monday. With Joe Fanning onboard in a race over 7 furlongs and 50 yards, she flew out of stall 8 and was soon in a share of the lead. The greenness she showed the last day was gone and she looked like a serious racehorse as she stayed right up with the leader. As the race entered the final two furlongs she was still right there but I expected her to drop back and out of the places as the front 2 moved away but she kept on strong to the line to take 3rd place out of 8. Mistress of Love, who finished behind her, was bought for $1m as a yearling. Absolutely thrilled to see such a massive improvement in a very young mare in such a short space of time and credit has to go to the team for this transformation. She's definitely one to keep an eye on over the next while.

On Saturday night, Dawerann was also in action at Ayr in a 1m 7f race. The first thing I wondered when I watched the race was "where are the rest of the horses?". There were supposed to be 8 in this but there were 4 non runners for some reason. Dawerann and jockey Philip Makin didn't care, they just went out and rode their race from the front. He was up there for a quite a long time before Gordon's other runner in the race ran him down and he was just pipped for 2nd at the line. He ran a total blinder though but this might be the last time we see Dawerann in GERC colours as Gordon has entered him in the Ascot sales because it's getting harder to find a race that he can win. If it is his last race for us, he gave his absolute all as ever.