Saturday 17th September 2016

The feature race on Saturday is the Ayr Gold Cup at 3:45. An awful lot of luck in running is required and it’s not really a race to get involved with seriously from a punting point of view. I don’t have a clue where the best draw is, the going reports suggest the middle is the slowest part of the racecourse. Yesterday all jockeys were aiming for the centre!

We should learn a bit about the draw in the Silver Cup ran earlier. For what it’s worth I’ve gone for a high drawn runner in the shape of Ed Walkers Aeolus. The horse has done nothing but drift in the betting in the last 24 hours but there are a few reasons to think Aeolus has a squeak.

Aeolus has been running well in Group races, this outing is his first handicap start since Spring 2014. He’s got close to the likes of The Tin Man and Profitable in recent runs and that form is good as anything in this race. Hector Crouch is booked and takes 5lbs off, theatricality Aeolus is taking a drop in class and runs with less weight on his back than he’s carried in Group races. No concerns with the soft ground.

The drift in the market is a worry and it might be that high drawn horses have zero chance, at the price of 22-1 “EW 5 places on offer” we don’t have to have much on to find out.

At shorter odds in the same race but still a double figure price “11-1”, G Force would go very close if on his way back. A Group 1 winner in his day, G Force showed much more last time out and might be finding his form again. They would be my two against the field.

It’s a tough day of racing with the majority of meetings taking place on soft ground, Kindly in the 7:10 at Wolverhampton is fancied, ignore her last effort, she’ll bid to make all tonight.

Swiss Storm looked green as grass on debut “1:10 Newbury” this son of Frankel could easily improve for his debut effort but they can't be all superstars. The ground is a total unknown as are the rest of the newcomers. City Of Joy got the hang of things late on and showed plenty of promise. With normal improvement and if handling the ground, he should go well at 5-2. The race could be a match up.