Royal Ascot winner Bacchus targets Ayr Gold Cup

● Meehan hope heads entries for £200,000 race

Bacchus, the winner of the Wokingham at Royal Ascot earlier in the year, heads the entries for the William Hill Ayr Gold Cup next month.

Brian Meehan’s four yearold’s two subsequent runs have come in Group company. He finished fourth in the Group 3 Hackwood Stakes at Newbury last month before finishing down the field in the Group 1 Maurice de Gheest at Deauville ten days ago.

There are 214 entries and such is the stature of this £200,000 race, 36 of the horses are rated 100 or higher. A field of 25 will go to post at Ayr, with the next 25 highest rated running in the £60,000 William Hill Ayr Silver Cup and the following 25 competing in the £30,000 William Hill Ayr Bronze Cup. The Gold and Silver races are run on Saturday 22 September with the Bronze Cup run on the Friday. Mark Johnston’s Cardsharp is one of several leading three year-olds with entries and others include Roger Varian’s Laugh A Minute who won the £300,000 Weatherbys Racing Bank two year-old conditions race at Doncaster last year.

Richard Fahey, who trained the last three year-old winner of the race in Don’t Touch in 2015, has Growl, second in the race in 2016 to Brando, Listed race winner Kimberella and George Bowen among his 27 entries.

Brando’s trainer Kevin Ryan who has sent out four winners of the race, has some interestingentries including hey jonesy, fifth in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot in June and Major Jumbo who chased Kimberalla home in a Listed race at Chester earlier this month.

Joint favourites at 12-1 are Mankib, a French four-yearold, and Urban Beat, a threeyear-old unbeaten in his two starts this season.

Meanwhile, the one to be on at Salisbury today is Lorelina who can cope with a 4lb rise for winning at Chester where she was the only mare taking on geldings. That race was two months ago but Andrew Balding is sure to have her primed for a return to action in the EBF Breeders’ Series Fillies’ Handicap, in which she is up against her own sex.

B Fifty Two may not be the force he once was, but he can still cut a dash as he showed when beaten only a neck by Kingstreet Lady at Carlisle on his latest start. A winner at Pontefract in April, Marjorie Fife’s nine-year-old sprinter can land his second success of the season in the Racing UK Handicap at Beverley.