17 and 24 races without victory - a day of broken streaks at Ayr

Thursday: Ayr

Iain Jardine's horses tend to favour softer conditions and the heavy rain before racing helped Zumaaty break his maiden in the mile handicap.

Ayr officials were forced to call an inspection 45 minutes before racing due to an unexpected downpour, but thankfully for those who made the journey to Scotland the fixture went ahead.

Jardine made it win number 25 on the Flat this year as his four-year-old finished two-and-a-quarter-lengths clear of stablemate Bashful to record a first win at the 17th attempt.

He said: "It was bad conditions out there, but he’s a strong traveller and he handled it well.

"My horses tend to like a bit of soft ground and I think that’s what has slowed us down a bit this summer because the ground has been extremely quick everywhere."

Jardine, who trains under both codes, has had a solid season and plans are already underway to shuffle his squad for next year.

He added: "We’ll be at the sales next week to see if we can get a few new faces, so we can have a change around with the horses in training. We’ll move a few on and rejig things for next year, but the stable has been in good nick."

Drought over

Aberama Gold put his disappointing Ayr Silver Cup performance behind him to win the feature 6f handicap, ending a run of 24 starts without success.

The Keith Dalgleish-trained five-year-old, who had not tasted victory since December 2020, finished half a length clear of Classy Al.

Hilts (pink cap) secured his third win of the season for Jedd O'KeeffeCredit: John Grossick

Return to form

Hilts bounced back to form to take the opening 1m2f apprentice handicap under Finley Marsh.

Trained by Jedd O’Keeffe, the three-year-old secured his third win of the campaign, following up victories at Redcar and Musselburgh in the spring.

Results, replays and analysis

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