Stack: Gold Cup tip will love ground
● Son Of Rest draws stall 17 for Ayr feature ● Life Of Riley can take today’s Listed prize
The hot favourite for the William Hill Ayr Gold Cup tomorrow – the Irish trained Son Of Rest – was allocated stall 17 at the draw for the race at Ayr Racecourse yesterday.
Trainer Fozzy Stack has high hopes for the four year-old who was second in a Group 1 at the Curragh on Sunday.
Stack said yesterday: “He will love the ground and has come out of Sunday’s race well.”
Sponsors William Hill have installed Son Of Rest as the 5-1 favourite in a race that has a maximum field of 25 runners .
Other fancied runners include the 2016 runner-up Growl, trained by Richard Fahey and due to be ridden by Paul Hanagan, who comes from stall 13 and Flying Pursuit, one of three Tim Easterby runners who has stall three. Rachel Richardson who rides Flying Pursuit is attempting to become the first female jockey to win the race.
Today’s action features two Listed races, the Shadwell STUD/EBF Stallions Harry Rosebery Stakes and the first running of the Al Maktoum Cup Arran Scottish Fillies’ Sprint Stakes.
Life Of Riley will not be winning out of turn if he claims top honours in the former race.
The Showcasing colt has been set some stiff tasks since opening his account at Ripon in the spring, but has largely performed well in defeat.
Karl Burke’s charge was only narrowly denied a Listed success at Sandown in July before finding only an on-song Rumble Inthejungle too strong in the Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood.
The form of his latest effort when fourth in the Ripon Champion Two Yrs Old Trophy could hardly have worked out better, too.
The winner of that race, Sporting Chance, landed a French Group Three on Monday, while the fifth home, Barbill, triumphed in a valuable sales race at the Curragh the previous afternoon.
Life Of Riley is certainly capable of winning at Listed level and this looks a fine opportunity for him to do just that.
Listed honours are also up for grabs in the Al Maktoum Cup Arran Scottish Fillies’ Sprint Stakes and with conditions to suit, the vote goes to the Michael Dods-trained Intense Romance.
The four-year-old has really flourished since returning from a two-month break, finishing second on her Carlisle comeback before chasing home subsequent Doncaster winner Global Applause at Sandown.
She devoured the Haydock mud when scoring with a little up her sleeve a couple of weeks ago and it is no surprise connections are going in search of some valuable black type on her favoured soft ground.
The William Ayr Bronze Cup is also run at 4.10pm and Iain Jardine has high hopes for two-time course winner Yes You, who will be ridden by Jamie Gormley.
In the feature event at Newbury, the Dubai Duty Free Cup, Red Mist catches the eye.
Trained by the bang-in-form Simon Crisford, this son of Frankel was not beaten far in the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster this time last year and is enjoying a fine three-year-old campaign. A demolition job at Kempton in June was followed by two really creditable runs in good company in France.
He made the most of having his sights lowered when bolting up at Ripon a few weeks ago and with further progress likely, he has every chance in Berkshire.