Ayr Placepot picks: Paul Kealy's perm for the £250,000 guaranteed pool on Scottish Grand National day

Coral Scottish Grand National day kicks off with a competitive handicap chase (1.15), which might prove a better fit for Elixir De Nutz than the Grand Annual was at Cheltenham.

He ran okay there, finishing ninth of 19, but the ground had gone very soft and he is probably better in a smaller field.

For Placepot purposes I will add in Frere D'Armes. He could not complete the hat-trick at Ascot last time, but is on the same mark and the winner has gone in off 7lb higher since.

Dan Skelton targets this meeting and his Sail Away looks well treated in the next (1.50). City Chief, a winner at the meeting last year, is very much the one to beat.

There are some progressive types in the Scottish Champion Hurdle (2.25), but both Soaring Glory and Milkwood, the 2021 winner, have become very nicely treated now.

Balco Coastal is the one to beat in the next (3.00), but was below form at Cheltenham and Thunder Rock, who did not seem to stay 3m there, is preferred. 

Datsalrightgino will appreciate the better ground here too and is the back-up.

The Scottish Grand National (3.35) does not look anywhere near as competitive as usual, so I will go with just two there as well.

Last year's runner-up Kitty's Light is impossible to rule out, but I do like the chances of Irish raider Malina Girl, who looks to be a mare in form at the right time.

That just leaves the closing handicap hurdle (4.10) and with Hugos New Horse a runner on Friday we will probably be down to seven runners, so we will make it a standard perm.

Uhtred is chucked in on old form and showed a little bit more last time, while Kihavah ran his best Flat race on good ground at Ayr last season and is surely ready for a crack at this sort of trip.

Ayr Placepot perm

1.15
2 Elixir De Nutz
4 Frere D'Armes

1.50
1 City Chief
3 Sail Away

2.25
4 Soaring Glory
6 Milkwood

3.00
3 Datsalrightgino
5 Thunder Rock

3.35
6 Kitty's Light
7 Malina Girl

4.10
5 Kihavah
6 Uhtred

2x2x2x2x2x2=64 lines

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