Dave Nevison's Tuesday tips: three best bets at Ayr

Quest For Fun is definitely back to form and was backed into favouritism in a solid handicap at the recent big meeting at Ayr. He managed second place in a race where Lauren Young on a big outsider slipped the field.

It was still a very good performance from the Tim Easterby-trained seven-year-old and he has ideal conditions in a weaker race here. 

He won previously by a very narrow margin in a massive field at York in the summer and is generally holding his form well.

Count D’Orsay is another Tim Easterby veteran and, even though he hasn’t scored yet this season, I definitely feel his turn is coming round again. The nine-year-old was back on his favoured ground last time out and was well-backed to repeat the previous year’s victory at Chester, having previously been going off at massive prices.

He didn’t quite manage it, but ran a really encouraging race and he is off the same mark again this afternoon.

He ended up winning four races last season, all of them from higher marks than he is running off here, and I will be very surprised if he doesn’t land a soft ground sprint soon. 

Landed a touch when winning at the Western meeting last time having been backed from 40/1 into 10/1, and it seemed as though this was the worst kept secret on the track judging by the number of people who claimed to be on.

R Mike Smith’s mare clearly knew what was at stake and really battled on well to win by a narrow margin. Just Dottie has only had a couple of runs on the Flat and clearly has potential to improve further and I don’t imagine she has finished yet.