Ayr Gold Cup Festival. Day 3 – Copybet
The most prestigious race of Ayr’s Flat season takes place at the Scottish track on Saturday, the Ayr Gold Cup - first run in 1804 - headlining the card, which also sees the Silver equivalent staged.
There are eight races in total at Ayr from 13:15-17:15, the Group 3 Firth Of Clyde Stakes and the Listed Doonside Cup joined by a host of competitive handicaps and an informative juvenile novice event.
Almeric – AYR
There's plenty of rain forecast for the Ayr area and that should ensure the progressive ALMERIC gets optimum ground conditions in the Listed Doonside Cup.
A winner of a mile maiden at York last October on his second start, he showed dramatic improvement when landing the Listed Feilden Stakes over 1m1f at Newmarket in April, betting his York maiden form by 24lb.
He’s been off since, likely waiting for the return of soft ground and, while a 158-day absence isn’t ideal, it’s of no great concern with the colt having defied a similar break on his reappearance.
He’s likely to benefit from this extra furlong and will be hard to beat, the selection 2lb clear of his rivals on official figures.
Binhaarer – AYR
William Haggas’ BINHAARER has been beaten off slightly lower marks the last twice, but he was very impressive when winning over this course-and-distance on soft ground in July and looks likely to have had his season mapped out with either this Silver Cup in mind.
The selection started out over 7f, but has really improved since dropping back to 6f, his form figures in three runs at the distance reading 123.
He’s not ground dependent, as shown by a near miss on good to firm at Newmarket last time, but he’s clearly effective with cut in the ground and remains open to more improvement than the majority of her rivals.
Milford – AYR
The Julie Camacho-trained MILFORD looks to have gone under the betting radar somewhat, likely because he comes here after a poor effort at York last time.
However, the three-year-old had valid excuses for that defeat, having been hampered on two occasions inside the opening furlong and it’s probably best to put a line through that run.
He’d been in good form previously, albeit without winning, suffering narrow defeats at York and Chester and only reeled in late on when second at Ascot.
He’s never been higher at the weights than he is at present (96), but his trainer is reaching for first-time cheekpieces, which might just eek the required amount of improvement from him.
His solitary success, which came in the spring of last year for Karl Burke, was achieved on soft ground and he’s tended to run well whenever he’s been able to get his toe in.