Dave Nevison: my best three bets for Ayr on Thursday

Donald McCain’s seven-year-old will make plenty of appeal provided the ground does not deteriorate.

Sullivan’s Brow won at Uttoxeter last season, battling on well under Thursday’s claimer to get up narrowly in a modest event. He then went on to Doncaster but disappointed on much softer ground.

I thought he reappeared in a much more competitive event than this one last time and ran a promising enough race. This looks a weak affair and he is lightly raced and might have improvement in him.

Has been placed over hurdles off a mark of 117 but already looks to be a better chaser, so even though he has gone up noticeably in the weights for his two recent wins he still looks more than capable of winning again off 110 here.

His style of racing - usually up with pace - looks set to stand him in good stead around this course and if he gets into the same rhythm with his jumping he is more than capable of holding his own in this higher grade. I have done well out of Patrick Wadge this year and the young conditional has struck up a strong partnership with Return Fire. They can click together for a third time.

Those who took part on the gamble on Lisloran last time were obviously confident that he was well in off a mark of 83, despite the fact he hadn’t set the world on fire on his chase debut. He had never previously gone off at an SP shorter than 50-1 but he started at 100-30 last time and rallied to win by half a length.

A rise of 6lb for that narrow success is stiff on the face of it but the money for him last time suggests otherwise. Only six, he very likely has improvement in him – he’s well-related to useful chasers - and he should have this run to suit.