IS THE AYR GOLD CUP HEADING SOUTH?
BHA officials conceded last night that attempts to restage the abandoned £200,000 Ayr Gold Cup in the next two weeks were concentrating on venues south of the border.
Scotland’s biggest Flat race was lost for the first time in its history when, despite previously optimistic pronouncements, track officials abandoned the entire three-day Western Meeting early yesterday morning.
Investigations are now taking place into possible drainage issues which left a patch of unraceable ground two-and-ahalf furlongs from the finish line when the rest of the course was okay despite significant rain.
Attempts to dry the area included a helicopter hovering above and use of equipment drafted in from Hampden Park.
Both Ayr and the BHA have admitted that no racing will take place in the short term and for the course to stage its remaining three Flat meetings might mean utilising the hurdle track. Ayr managing director David Brown said: ‘Everyone on our team is devastated to lose Scotland’s biggest Flat meeting.’
The BHA will not formally investigate why racing failed to take place over the three days but have requested a report to offer an explanation.
‘We have requested a report from the racecourse executive regarding the circumstances surrounding the last few days, said BHA’s chief operating officer Richard Wyman.
‘That includes exactly what the issue with the track is, what has caused it, what procedures are in place to address the issues, their prospects of racing at other forthcoming fixtures and the communication around the fixture cancellations.’
The abandonment of the festival is a hammer-blow to the local economy.
The three-day event has been regularly worth £2million a year for the town since 2009. Bars, restaurants, hotels, shops and taxi firms are among those hit by the absence of Scotland’s richest handicap race.
The 20,000 spectators expected to attend will now have to be refunded and a record prize total in the festival’s history of more than £700,000 will not be contested.
Ayr chiefs have worked hard to attract top trainers and sponsors to back the meeting as all five Scottish racecourses struggle to gain the attention of the big yards and jockeys down south.
The Gold Cup is sponsored by William Hill and the bookmaker extended their deal after turning over £1m profit on Gold Cup day last year.
Prize money and attendances have climbed in the last ten years. The sport injects an estimated £175m to the national economy and attendances have gone up by 15 per cent since 2007, with more than 300,000 racegoers attending meets across Scotland.
However, this is a significant setback for Ayr and Scottish racing. There are few days in the calendar in Scotland that attract UK-wide interest — and the Ayr Gold Cup is one of them.
It is just one of four Scottish racedays currently covered by mainstream TV (ITV). Failure to ensure that today’s televised showpiece went ahead could be seen as unforgivable given Ayr enjoyed a dry day on Thursday.
The draw for the Gold Cup went ahead that day and Iain Ferguson, head of PR at Ayr racecourse, said then he was ‘very confident’ that racing would take place yesterday. The groundstaff banked on a dry Thursday to make the track suitable for racing, but the sodden patch failed to dry up.
Ayr has had previous issues with draining on the home straight. Two meetings were abandoned in July last year for remedial work to take place on a collapsed drain.