ayr gold cup preview
There’s nothing new about Michael Wigham pulling off a big-race betting coup, and Glenamoy Lad has the look of a plot by the Newmarket trainer.
The former jockey is adept at working out the maths of a big-field handicap. Saturday’s Ayr Gold Cup candidate adds up.
With the top weight, Bacchus, almost certain to stand his ground, Wigham’s four-year-old needs quite a number to pull out and get a run.
There are 201 entered and it’s likely, with the money down – he is 14/1 second favourite, behind 10/1 Urban Beat – he’ll go to post.
Glenamoy Lad had been carefully campaigned, with Ayr very much in mind. He has raced just once this year, at Goodwood, seven weeks ago.
The Steward’s Cup is one of the hottest sprints in the calendar and the son of Royal Applause ran a cracker, after seven months off the track.
Wigham managed to book champion Silvestre De Sousa but Glenamoy Lad chose the big day to dwell in the stalls.
However, he was quickly among them but, with 26 sprinters hurtling down Goodwood’s chute, he was three lengths down at the line.
He met trouble in running at the one and two-furlong poles but that goes with the tardy start and, all things considered, it was a fine run.
He did not go unbacked that day in August – going off at 14/1 – so they have money to recoup on Saturday.
He knows how to win, having been successful at Newmarket twice and Newcastle last year, in another light campaign containing just four runs.
He comes to Ayr a fresh horse, still on the up and probably hoping for a draw, somewhere between middle and the stand’s side rail.
Johnny Murtagh’s three-year-old Urban Beat is on a four-timer and will take a deal of beating, despite having been to the races just four times.
Hambleton trainer Kevin Ryan has won the race four times and at a bigger price his Tommy Taylor ran a cracker at Ascot last Saturday and represents value. AYR GOLD CUP Selection – Long One –