Dandy Nicholls to reign supreme in the Ayr Gold Cup
Sometimes in the face of adversity – a 27 runner sprint handicap – it’s best to stick with a tried and tested method.
The Ayr Gold Cup provides this conundrum but the man who could solve this incredibly difficult puzzle is trainer Dandy Nicholls (pictured right), who has won this race five times before. His main challenger for this year’s renewal from his string of five declared for the race is Victoire De Lyphar, who has a similar profile to the last three-year-old winner of this race, Funfair Wane in 2002, who was also trained by Nicholls.
After showing no sort of form as a two-year-old, the selection has developed into one of the most progressive three-year-old’s in training this season since moving to the Nicholls yard. After winning easily off a mark of 83 in April, he has gone onto frustrate the handicapper by winning the Reg Griffin Memorial Trophy at York off 90 and getting within a neck of victory in the Stewards' Sprint at York off 97, when beaten by stable mate Joseph Henry. He gets in here off 101, but has the advantage of giving a couple of pounds away due to the weight for age scale, and his draw of 24 has worked out perfectly; everything suggests he is set to run a huge race.
The draw will no doubt play a huge part in the Ayr Silver Cup also, and Irish Heartbeat has the class to take advantage of a plum-draw from stall 20. The drop back to six furlongs isn’t a problem for Richard Fahey’s runner and despite being successful over seven and a mile so far this season the colt possesses a lot of pace and will be up there with the front runners in the early stages.
Rimth can make the most of his natural speed to land the Laundry Cottage Stud Firth of Clyde Stakes. The selection ran a cracker of a race behind Brevity last time out and the form of that race has worked out well with Tale Untold (fifth that day) franking the form at Newmarket on Friday.
Super Sprint winner Temple Meeds can put a disappointing run in the Gimcrack behind him to bounce back in the Dubai Duty Free Mill Reef Stakes. He looked a real top-class sprinter in the making earlier this season, and you would expect him to be up with early pace and make his challenge from the front.
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