Regular racegoers will all be well aware that the jumping season at Ayr attracts high quality horses but the track’s 2025/26 form was rubber-stamped in no uncertain style at this year’s Cheltenham Festival with Jack Richards Chase winner MEETMEBYTHESEA the star of the show.

The JP McManus owned novices’ chaser had been an impressive winner here at Ayr in January and after trainer Ben Pauling gave him a qualifying run at Newbury in the Grade 2 Game Spirit Chase in February, the 6 year-old was trained to perfection to win at Cheltenham under Ben Jones and take his racing record to date to 6 wins from 8 starts.

Meetmebythsea’s task was made considerably easier by the late withdrawal of another Ayr winner this season, Sixmilebridge, and both the winner and Fergal O’Brien’s non-runner look sure to be advertising our novices’ chase form again before the end of the current season.

Last April’s Coral Scottish Champion Hurdler Cracking Rhapsody had been slightly disappointing on his pre-Cheltenham outing at Kelso but Ewan Whillans’ charge bounced right back to form in the final day’s County Hurdle with Craig Nichol galvanising the Hawick raider to finish a gallant 4th to the Jonjo O’Neill Jnr ridden Wilful.

The winner was also a fantastic advert for handicap hurdle form at Ayr as 24 hours before Cracking Rhapsody won our Champion Hurdle last year, Wilful won the Slaters’ Menswear Handicap Hurdle on the opening day of the Coral Scottish Grand National Festival and the JJ and AJ O’Neill trained improver would be an understandable candidate to go for the £100,000 Champion at next month’s big meeting.

The latest running of the Weatherbys’ Champion Bumper at Cheltenham attracted no less than THREE horses which had won bumper races (National Hunt Flat Races) at Ayr this season and all three performed with considerable credit behind the impressive Noel Meade trained winner The Mourne Rambler.

Diamont Dore (5th), The Skecher (12th) and Broadway Ted (17th) all ran well enough to suggest they’ll be justifying already tall reputations in future and the fact connections had previously selected Ayr to make their charges bumper winners ahead of the Grade One at Cheltenham was very pleasing.

Owner Jimmy Fyffe had been in the winners enclosure with his new £240,000 purchase Jet Of Stars at Ayr the previous Saturday and the Dundee United director had his first Cheltenham Festival winner with the Dan Skelton trained Supremely West in the Pertemps Handicap Hurdle Final under trainer’s brother Harry.

The Ayr connection didn’t stop with the winning owner though as runner up Lavida Adiva had been placed 4th, 2nd and 3rd in handicap hurdles here at Ayr during 2025, with the third horse, Ikarak, the winner of our Ayr Stayers’ Trophy at the Golf Inn Prestwick Raceday here on January 2 this year.

All in all, a tremendous Cheltenham Festival 2026 for horses which have been campaigned here at Ayr.