Rascal Rallies at Ayr
Fri 17 Sep 2021
WINNER 82 OF 2021: VENTURA RASCAL, trained by Kevin Ryan and ridden by Kevin Stott: 'The Luxury Breaks at Western House Hotel Handicap' over 1m at the Ayr Western Meeting.
The Ayr Gold Cup meeting is a favourite of ours and plenty of owners take time off work to head there and enjoy a few days racing. We had two winners in 2020 (Fairmac and Outrun The Storm,) two in 2019 (Militia and Waarif) and two in 2018 (Saryshagann and Waarif) so come into this year, with hopes of another double!
Ventura Rascal does like to ping the gates and go forward, which he did, but there was a challenge that saw Kevin take the decision to be patient and not go with the two horses that sped away. Coming to the 2 pole, he gave him a shake of the reins and the gap began to close. The two leaders came back to the field and Rascal and Kevin took the lead, but was hard pressed towards the finish by the favourite, but just prevailed, to win by a head.
" Kevin Stott judged that to perfection." Watch the full race replay here: https://www.racingtv.com/videos/watch/horse_racing_replays/354995-luxury-breaks-at-western-house-hotel-handicap-5-d-i
Timeform awarded him an 87 career best rating, saying: "Remains in top form and landed his third race of the campaign in gritty style, proving better than ever in the process; chased leaders, led briefly early, smooth progress entering straight, ridden 2f out, led over 1f out, tackled well inside final 1f, all out to hold on; a consistent and likeable individual, he should continue to give a good account.”
See the official photo gallery here: https://www.grossick.co.uk/p/80532khg/C385209963/x3-ventura-rascal
Syndicate manager Tim says: "Congratulations to his owners on his fantastic festival victory. He is a legend; wears his heart on his sleeve and that's now four wins from the partnership of Rascal and Kevin Stott! He has been a fantastic syndicate horse, as he usually picks up a pay-cheque for them. Of his 15 starts, he has won or been placed 2nd or 3rd on 10 occasions, so well done to Kevin and his team, who made the owners at the track yesterday very happy (see below.) We must thank Ayr for their superb badge allocations, there were 40 of our owners in attendance yesterday (a slight typo from the Racing Post reporter, above) and now we have badges for Saturday organised, there will have been 94 in attendance across the 3 days.”