Taking The High Road To the Ayr Gold Cup

This is the second article looking at UK racecourses. Last months looked at Goodwood and this month we are heading to the other side of Britain up to Ayr in Scotland. Ayr is the home of the Western Meeting or William Hill Ayr Gold Cup Festival which is held annually each September with the highlight being the Ayr Gold Cup.

Outside the Western Meeting and the Scottish Grand National Meeting in April, the racecourse also hosts plenty of other flat and national hunt meetings throughout the calendar year.

Given you will be reading this article in the run-up to the Western Meeting I will concentrate on flat racing at the course. I will come back to looking at Ayr’s jumps course and stats at a future date.

As before I will look briefly at the tracks location, history, configuration and two of its biggest races. In the final section, I will highlight some significant trainer stats at Ayr, including some that relate purely to the upcoming Ayr Gold Cup Festival.

Location and History

Ayr racecourse is suited on the West of Scotland around 37 miles south of Glasgow. The course is easily accessible from Glasgow by car via the A77 or by the regular train service. It’s also just day trip away from Ireland on the Belfast to Stranraer Ferry.

Hence why plenty of Irish trainers now send their horses to Ayr.

The first official race meeting in Ayr was held as long ago as 1771. It was a two-day race meeting and was well supported by members of the local Caledonian Hunt and local land owners. The first Ayr Gold Cup was run at the fixture in 1804. The first Western Meeting dates back to 1824. By the late 1830s, the Western meeting hosted not just the Ayr Gold Cup but was also home to the richest 2-year-old race run in the whole of Britain.

The original site for Ayr’s racecourse, which is now playing fields and golf course, was to the south of the town at Seafield. The success of horse racing at Ayr lead in 1907 all race meetings moved to a larger site north of the River Ayr.

I have noticed the similarities between Ayr and Newbury racecourses. The likeness between the two courses is no coincidence. When the owners were looking to lay out the new course they used Newbury as a template. The only difference being that Newbury has a straight mile and Ayr’s straight course is 6f.

Jumps racing is a relatively new addition to the race programme at Ayr. The first National Hunt fixtures took place in 1950. The closure of nearby Bogside Racecourse in 1965 led to Ayr becoming the home of Scotland biggest National Hunt race the Scottish Grand National.

Track Configuration

Ayr is a left-handed, galloping track. There is a straight course of 6f. The width of the straight course allows the track to run sprints with 25+ runners. In such field sizes, you will often see the field split into two or even three groups.

The round course is 1m 4f long with a run in of about 4f. There are only minor undulation’s but there is a slight downhill on the turn into the straight which can allow front runners to gain a slight advantage on their rivals on the run into the winning post.

It can be hard for horses coming too wide into the turn as they will be covering much more ground than those who racing closer to the fair rail.
Although it’s a relatively easy track for horses to negotiate. It still demands a horse has the ability to gallop all the way to the line. On very soft or heavy ground the course can become an extreme test of stamina and any doubtful stayers will be found out.

The National Hunt course provides a good test of jumping but as many of the winter jumps meetings are run on soft or heavy ground, the ability to see out the trip is an essential requirement of the horse.

Home Of The Ayr Gold Cup

The Ayr Gold Cup is Europe’s richest sprint handicap and is part of the three-day Western Meeting. In the past, it’s been won by some high-class sprinters such as Roman Warrior, Lochsong and more recently Brando.

Whilst the Ayr Gold Cup was first run in 1804 it was only first raced over 6f in 1908 after the move to the tracks present location.

The 2017 renewal of the race had to be run at Haydock due to waterlogging at Ayr which saw the Western Meeting abandoned. The racecourse management will be hoping for better luck on the weather front in 2018.

Due to the number of runners that wanted to run in the race a consolation race, the Ayr Silver Cup was introduced in 1992 and a Bronze Cup was first run in 2009 for those horses unable to get into the Silver Cup.

In the past decade, the race has attracted an average field of 26 runners, with a total of 260 runners going to post for the race since 2007 (I haven’t included the stats for the race that was run at Haydock in 2017). Here are some interesting trends:

Horses aged 7-year-old +: 0 wins from 48 runners 4 placed. (Three and four-year-olds have won five of the last ten renewals and offer a bit of value to punters).

Horses drawn in stalls 1 to 7: – 0 winners from 69 runners 9 placed and those drawn between stalls 23 to 28 are 0 winners from 45 runners 4 placed.

Last Time Out Placing: Top Four – 6 winners from 112 runners 25 placed.

Last Race Distance: 6 ½ f+ – 5 winners from 67 runners +14 A/E 1.57 9 placed.

Runs In Last 90 days: 0 to 1- 0 winners from 43 runners 7 placed.

Odds SP: 20/1 and bigger – 0 winners from 131 runners 9 placed.

I suspect that you could do worse than focus on the horses with the following traits:

Ayr Gold Cup System:

Horses Age: 3 to 6

Odds SP: 20/1 & under in the betting

Runs Last 90 days: 2+

Stalls: 8 to 22

10 winners from 55 runners +95 A/E 2.43 18 placed

Trainer Stats

Here are a few interesting trainer track stats that will hopefully enable you to identify some nice priced winners at Ayr. First, I will look at some trainer stats for all meetings before looking at those trainers to note at the upcoming Western Meeting.

All Meetings

The stats below are from 2014 to the time of writing (05/08/18) and cover all flat meetings at the course. Once again using the ever useful www.horseracebase.com for the stats.

Non -Handicaps: 2-year-olds

Karl Burke – 9 winners from 25 runners 36% +9.43 A/E 1.64 10 placed 40%The trainer clearly like to run his juveniles here and it looks like those who have had a previous run offer plenty of value to punters.

All Runners 

Sir Mark Prescott – 4 winners from 8 runners 50% +5 5 placed 63%
Saeed Bin Suroor – 3 winners from 7 runners 43% +7 4 placed 57%

Neither of these Newmarket trainers sends many runners up to Ayr but when they do they are usually not far away.

Distance

Adrian Keatley – 1m 2f/1m 2 ½ f – 5 winners from 11 runners 45% +22.5 A/E 3.03 6 placed 55%

Ruth Carr – 5f – 6 winners from 19 runners 32% A/E 2.03 8 placed 42%

Favourites

Karl Burke – 11 winners from 22 runners 50% +4.04 A/E 1.35 15 placed 67%

Brian Ellison – 7 winners from 16 runners 44% +5.63 A/E 1.49 11 placed 69%

Trainers – Odds 8/1 & under

Shaun Harris – 7 winners from 18 runners 39% +26.5 A/E 2.34 14 placed 78%

Jedd O’Keefe -7 winners from 21 runners 33% +17.5 A/E 1.79 12 placed 57%

Handicaps

Martin Todhunter – 4 winners from 12 runners 33% +19 8 placed 67%

John James Feane – 3 winners from 10 runners 30% +3 4 placed 40%

Trainer/Jockey Combinations

Linda Perratt & Danny Tudhope – 4 winners from 5 runners 80% +36 5 placed 100%

Apart from the Western Meeting, the races at Ayr are not the highest of quality but they attract competitive fields which are underlined by the winners being shared among a large number of trainers.

Trainers – Western Meeting

All Runners

Andrew Balding – 3 winners from 8 runners 38% +21.5 A/E 3 4 placed 50%

Mick Channon – 3 winners from 9 runners 33% +21 A/E 3.7 4 placed 44%

If I was looking for a couple of trainers to follow at the Western Meeting it would be the above two trainers.

Class

Saeed Bin Suroor (Class 1) – 3 winners from 3 runners 100% +11 A/E 4.17

John Quinn (Class 4 + 5) – 6 winners from 18 runners 33% +22.88 A/E 2.22 8 placed 44%

Odds – 8/1 & under

John Quinn – 7 winners from 23 runners 31% +10.38 A/E 1.68 13 placed 57%

Favourites

John Quinn – 4 winners from 4 runners 100% +8.38 A/E 2.99

Keith Dalgleish – 2 winners from 5 runners 40% +1.63 A/E 1.53 2 placed 40%

Brian Ellison – 2 winners from 6 runners 33% +2.75 A/E 1.67 4 placed 67%

Well, hopefully, you enjoyed this rather brief look at Ayr Racecourse.

If you’re thinking of visiting Ayr then the Western Meeting would be a perfect time. Competitive horse racing and strong betting markets.

You can tell winter isn’t far away as next month, I will be taking a look at my first jumps course.

John

 

 

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