Tony McFadden provides an overview of the key things to note on Monday.
Three points of interest
My Mate Alfie among highest-rated sprinters last season
My Mate Alfie, a two-year-old maiden winner at Down Royal, started last season with a Timeform rating of 96 but that had increased to a lofty 119 after a hugely successful campaign.
My Mate Alfie won four times in 2024 and signed off for the season with a hat-trick comprising a victory under top-weight in the competitive Bold Lad Handicap and then wins in a Group 3 back at the Curragh and a listed race at Naas.
He may have shown only useful form as a juvenile, but he ended last season within touching distance of the best speedsters around as Timeform's champion sprinter Bradsell was rated only 5 lb higher, while the leading six-furlong performers, Kind of Blue and Mill Stream, were only 3 lb higher.
My Mate Alfie faces a new challenge on his reappearance in the listed Woodlands Stakes (18:40) at Naas as it will be his first attempt over five furlongs, but he has Timeform's Horses For Courses Flag to show his effectiveness at the track and he is 4 lb clear at the head of Timeform's weight-adjusted ratings.
Glasses Up bidding for ninth win at Ayr
No horse has won on the Flat at Ayr as often as Glasses Up since he made his debut in June 2018. Glasses Up was only sixth on debut but he won back at Ayr a couple of weeks later and has added seven further victories at the course.
That tally of eight is one more win than Redarna and Tommy G have achieved in the timeframe, though Tommy G's first win at the course came in 2017 and he also has eight career wins at Ayr.
Glasses Up is bidding to add to his tally in the concluding staying handicap (17:13) and he has sound claims on the back of a solid effort at Musselburgh.
Glasses Up was 4lb out of the handicap and in a higher grade of race than he need contest at Musselburgh last time, but he ran creditably under the circumstances to be beaten around two lengths in fourth. He drops in class here and is only 1 lb higher than the mark he defied at this track last summer.
Burrows' newcomers worth noting
Remmooz won at the first time of asking at Doncaster last week and his victory enhanced trainer Owen Burrows' good record with debutants.
Backing each of Burrows' debutants in British Flat races since the start of 2020 would have resulted in 17 winners from 101 runners and produced a profit of £22.86 to £1 level stakes.
Burrows introduces an interesting newcomer in the seven-furlong maiden (16:15) at Lingfield on Monday in the shape of Al Durry who is by US Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and out of the very smart Vale Dori who won a Grade 1 in the US.
Al Durry makes her debut with the yard in good form as Burrows has had four winners from his nine runners since the start of March.
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