Ayr Betting: Paul Nicholls on Tonic Mellysse's chances

There is just one runner for Paul at Ayr on Friday with Tonic Mellysse a short-priced favourite in the opener. Can he justify the likely cramped odds? Read on here

13:45, 2m Juvenile Hurdle
I have just one runner at Ayr today from the nine entries I had at the five day stage, but I think that Tonic Mellysse will give a very good account of himself. He had some smart form in France, winning a bumper and then beating Tigre D'Aron, who won on his debut for Howard Johnson at Wetherby in January, by a length on his final start there at Pau in December.

It surprised me slightly that he went off favourite in the Adonis at Kempton in February as in my Betfair column before the race I said: "Goes nicely at home, but we had to do quite a bit of work with his jumping after he first joined us, as he wasn't that polished. But he schools nicely now, as he has sharpened up well in that area."

Of course, we all know a certain Zarkandar won that race and Tonic finished a 20-length fourth, but there was certainly plenty of promise in that run. He had only been with me six weeks before the race but he has acclimatised fully now, improved from Kempton, and I think he will justifiably go off a short price favourite here in a race that has cut up to just five runners at the overnight stage.

Paul Nicholls / 15 Apr 2011