Bank on well-handicapped Buonarroti at Ayr

London – Buonarroti can seize advantage of a lenient handicap mark when he runs at Ayr today.

A lot of water has passed beneath the bridge since Aidan O’Brien thought him good enough to run in the Racing Post Trophy as a juvenile in 2013. Indeed, he has only won once since he was transferred to Declan Carroll’s stables in February 2015.

That victory came over 2600m at Ayr last July when he swamped a decent eld by nearly three lengths. Moreover, Buonarroti showed over 2400m at Haydock last month he is coming to hand nicely as the five-year-old gelding steps back up in distance for the William Hill-sponsored handicap.

The son of Galileo finished second on Merseyside, but nothing was finishing quicker as the line approached and he only went down by a length. That tends to suggest he is well worth a bash over this 3000m trip, while the distinct possibility of cut in the ground can only be seen as a positive.

Buonarroti won at Ayr last summer o a mark of 81 and returns to Scotland carrying 5kg less. And with the excellent Daniel Tudhope back at the helm, there are an awful lot of positives.

Rioja Day went close over course and distance just over a week ago and should be up to the job in division two of the Tennent’s Handicap. The seven-year-old gelding can be hard to pin down, but he was on a going day last time when he stayed on with a touch of vigour to get to within 1.50 lengths of Cli Bay.