Plenty of miles were clocked last weekend with Coral Racing Club runners Ribbon Is A Dancer and Cave Article both featuring at Ayr and Market Rasen.

The first of our two in action on the day was Cave Article, who made the circa 235-mile trip from South Wales to Lincolnshire as he looked to land back-to-back victories for the first time in his career, following his comfortable win at Southwell last month. 

Unfortunately, the weather didn't hold up at Market Rasen and the heavens opened after the first race, which was run on good, causing the rest of the card to be ran on officially soft ground. By the time Cave Article was set to race at 16:55, there was standing water surrounding some of the fences, leading three of the flights to be omitted.


Cave Article's Owners for the Day brave the rain for a pre-race chat with Jack Tudor

Cave Article kicked off the race in his usual fashion by kicking on to take up a prominent position behind early leader St Patricks Bridge, who was keen in the opening stages. He dropped back to third behind La Quarite as they took the third fence and despite that mistake, he was relatively solid in his jumping for the majority of the first two circuits of the course, as he remained a couple of lengths behind the early pacemakers.

With four jumps to take, Cave Article began to drop back and was overtaken by the eventual winner of the race, Ribeye, as he made a slight error at the 11th fence. You could tell the soft going was really beginning to take it's toll on our six-year-old at this point, as he couldn't keep up with the pace of his rivals who seem to relish the conditions. As they headed into the closing stages with the race out of their hands, jockey Jack Tudor allowed Cave Article to come home in his own time, eventually finishing a well-beaten fourth.

WATCH: Jack Tudor debriefs us following Cave Article's run at Market Rasen

We caught up with trainer Christian Williams the morning after the race and this is what he had to say:

"We went to the meeting at Market Rasen on Sunday expecting perfect ground for Cave Article, however, we were very unlucky that the heavens opened just after the first race. The official going went from 'Good' to 'Soft' after two races. Unfortunately, Cave Article hated it, as you could see. He had conceded lots of ground after just the third fence, which is very unlike him.

I think we need to just put a line through that run now. The forecast is glorious for the next couple of weeks, so we should not have any trouble finding a course with good ground. He has come out of the race well. I've let him stretch his legs a couple of times in the water, and I will keep him working so he remains fit."

With the weather set to improve again over the next few weeks, we'll hopefully see Cave Article return to the racecourse sooner rather than later. Keep an eye on the Coral Racing Club to find out when and where he's going to head out next and how you could be in attendance as one of his Owners for the Day.

Around twenty minutes later, after making the circa 250-mile trip from Cheshire to Ayr, Ribbon Is A Dancer made his seasonal reappearance after 197 days off of the track. He was given an opening mark of 46 by the handicapper following three low key runs at the tail end of last year and was making his handicap debut in the last race on the card at Ayr. 

Ribbon Is A Dancer made a slow getaway from the stalls and having been drawn wide in stall 12, it was difficult for him to find a good position in the field even after he had made headway into the middle of the pack.

He continued to run in that position for the first half of the race, before dropping back fairly quickly around three furlongs from home. Despite some encouragement from jockey, Andrew Mullen, Ribbon Is A Dancer was unable to make an impression in the closing stages of the race and came home in 12th of the 14 runners that went to post.

WATCH: Andrew Mullen gives his opinion on how the race went and how Ribbon Is A Dancer could be campaigned in the future

Hugo Palmer spoke to us on Monday morning and had this to say regarding Ribbon Is A Dancer's performance: 

"Ribbon Is A Dancer is absolutely fine after his return to the track at Ayr yesterday.

I think it might be worth stepping him up in trip and seeing if he can travel a little bit more sweetly through the race. He may enjoy himself better going further in trip." 

Check back soon to find out when and where Ribbon Is A Dancer will run next and to find out how you could own him for the day on his next outing.