Tom’s loss is a sore one for racing
It’s almost a case of ‘ as you were’ in the William Hill Ayr Gold Cup entries as Tuesday’s scratchings stage came and went with only three horses pulling out.
And only one of those – Projection from the Roger Charlton yard – was among the fancied runners.
So with the next cut off not until Monday, September 12, I envisage the lowest rated horse running in the race this year would be off a mark of 99 which is quite incredible.
That means if one of the top rated horses at 110 run – Andrew Balding’s Absolutely So or Kevin Ryan’s Brando – and my prediction of the cut- off is right, the lowest weighted runner would be carrying 8 stone 13lb.
That’s a far cry from the old days when the race was plundered by the light weights.
At the moment, there are 38 rated 99 or higher and the maximum field is 25 so there are going to be a lot of disappointed trainers with horses just below that mark.
Quite a number of the intended runners have entries this weekend in the Sprint Cup at Haydock including Stewards’ Cup winner Dancing Star, trained by Andrew Balding, who will almost certainly go for the Group 1 contest on Saturday.
If he does well in that, I think he will bypass Ayr.
Another Sprint Cup entry is Richard Fahey’s three- year- old Mr Lupton while several other Gold Cup entries could go to York on Sunday for the Listed Garrowby Stakes.
One horse I highlighted a few weeks I was sad to receive a call last week telling me of the death of wellrespected racing journalist and broadcaster Tom O’Ryan.
I’ve known Tom since taking up my role at Ayr Racecourse 13 years ago. He was a proper racing man.
A former jockey, he became a journalist firstly with the Yorkshire Post and then the Racing Post and joined Racing UK when it first came on air in 2004.
What I most admired about Tom was he told it like it was there was no flannelling. He was a straight down the middle racing man and a real font of knowledge.
He loved passing on tips to the many young jockeys he coached. These included Paul Hanagan who went on to be two time champion jockey and who holds down one of the best jobs in racing as first jockey to Hamdan Al Maktoum.
Tom burst with pride when Paul won that first title and he was always animated in front of the RUK monitor when one of his boys was riding.
He also rode work until a couple of years ago at the Richard Fahey yard where his brother Robin is assistant trainer and he remained a huge part of that team.
I’ll miss seeing Tom around the Press Room and Parade Ring at Ayr. His loss will be felt by the entire racing industry.