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2.05 Ayr Silver Cup

As always I think the key to races over sprint trips and with big fields, you want to be with the group who have the best front-running horses and the pace in this race looks to be coming from those who are drawn high. The likes of Joseph Henry and My Gacho will try to make all the running from their high draws and should provide some much needed tow for those trying to come from off the pace. Add in Cape Vale who is a brave front runner and I think the draw bias from the Bronze Cup will be reversed.  The one I really like is Mark Prescott’s Prescription, who is drawn in 17, this horse comes into the race on the back of a defeat by Jaconet (who franked the form since) in which she did really well to get as close as she did from an unfavourable draw. She is open to plenty of improvement and she stays the trip really well. She is the selection in this race at around 8/1 EW

2.20 Mill Reef

This is the race in which my nap runs, and it is Radiohead. This horse ran an amazing race in the Nunthorpe at York, in which he finished the best of the horses that were held up off the pace. At York there is a bias to front running sorts, and that played into the hands of the determined Borderlescott that day. Here Radiohead is back against his own age group, and I think he is good value to give 3lbs and a beating to this high quality field. He would love a good gallop here and he should get it, with the likes of Stargaze, Quarrel, Angel’s Pursuit and even Awzaan likely to go at it from the off. If they go a good speed he will surely prove much the best in the Mill Reef and he is my best bet of the day.

3.10 Ayr Gold Cup

This race lacks a really strong pace angle and I am struggling to see a clear side that I would want to be with, so instead I am looking for a prominent racing sort who is on a good mark and that stays well. Cue Mac Gille Eoin, who is drawn in 12 and has the blinkers on for the first time, this horse seems to me to need the headgear as it doesn’t seem to like seeing a horse on its outside. The horse is in really good form, and is due to go up 4lbs in future handicaps. He competed in a fair listed race on his last start, and looked the winner when taking to the front within the distance; he was overturned in the end but by a horse that was entitled to beat him by much further if they had run to their handicap marks. He will like the good ground and at 16/1 he is the EW selection for me in the Ayr Gold Cup.