Ayr Gold Cup Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends

This is perhaps the simplest of the five differentiators. We’re looking for races where all runners are exposed; that is, they’re experienced and have shown pretty much all they have to the handicapper Bolts Up Daily already. In such races, we are not expecting a progressive horse to leap forward seven to ten pounds; rather, we expect that the horse best suited to conditions will have a great chance…

• Last year, five of the six horses sent off at 5/4 or shorter were beaten.
• Her earlier form is very useful and she can give weight and a beating to her rivals.
• Full Back won at the New Year’s Day fixture and was probably looked after a little at Taunton in his only race since.
• This time last year, while State Man was getting closest to Constitution Hill, Irish Point was winning a Grade 3 novice hurdle at Naas.
• CHECKANDCHALLENGE is a lightly raced and improving three-year-old who looks well up to making his mark in Group 3 company.
• Willie Mullins fields the favourite, Jasmin De Vaux, who showcased promise with a victory at Naas on his stable debut in January.

Mark Lawrenson

He’s by Galileo out of the star mare Annie Power, which perhaps explains the ownership triumvirate – or at least two-thirds of it. He’s three from three to date – a bumper, a novice at the Galway Festival, and the Grade 2 Moscow Flyer in January. Winners of the Moscow Flyer include Douvan, Vautour, Min, and more recently Impaire Et Passe. While the form of this season’s renewal has yet to be franked, Mystical Power bolted up by seven lengths and he is yet to be extended.

Horse Racing Tips: Jason Weaver’s 2024 Breeders Cup picks on Friday features an 11/2 fancy

He’ll be finishing strongly and looks a solid each way alternative to a ‘nothing between them’ top of the market. If we’re looking for the Hail Mary, a phrase our editor Matt loves so much, then it has to be Latin Verse. He looks so unlike a Boodles winner it’s untrue – this will be his seventh hurdles start and he’s already raced in an all-aged handicap at Ludlow last time out, one which he won by no fewer than 19 lengths. A 10lb rise for that win not only looks lenient – Timeform expected him to get a stone and more – but it creeps him right into the bottom of the handicap. If you’re a lover of figures (and we are, of course) he comes out well on both form and time.

How to read the racecard

• That would have netted 36 winners from 180 runners (20% strike rate, 69% race win strike rate) and a level stakes profit of 46.48 points at Starting Price.
• The No Foto Needed service is an established member SBC’s Premium Tipster range and features winning racing tips from a true racing expert.
• Sir Mark Prescott celebrated his first Royal Ascot winner since Pivotal in 1996 when Pledgeofallegiance saw off all-comers to win the Ascot Stakes.
• And if they go a million on the front then he could just nick the whole enchilada.
• Other top horses he has ridden include Solwhit, the 2013 World Hurdle winner and 2006 Gold Cup hero War Of Attrition.
• A reproduction of that form may well suffice here, with Kemari, Regal Reality and Max Vega taken to fight it out for the minor medals.
• His best form is on decent ground so that’s a plus, and he may have been a little outpaced at Kempton last time when second in Grade 2 company.
• If you’ve been reading stuff on here for any length of time, you’ll have noted myself, but especially Dave Renham and Chris Worrall, evangelising about the value of draw and run style.
• LH – It’s a horse race (“thankfully”), and stuff can go wrong; but it will very much have to for CH to get beaten in the CH.

Buick has strong claims of landing a double with REBEL’S ROMANCE, the favourite for the Group 3L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate Glorious Stakes (4.10). The Irish are an integral part of the congregation worshiping at jump racing’s cathedral, and there’s no Cheltenham thrill like it when that country unites behind an “Irish banker”. Some of Cheltenham’s greatest scenes have been provided by the likes of Istabraq, Like A Butterfly and Danoli, and our friends from across the water are throwing the kitchen sink behind Samcro. Lazuli (1.50) is a sprinter going places and should be able to land the Coral Charge after his brilliant victory in the Scurry Stakes last time.

Cheltenham Festival Trainer Form Conclusions

That’s a potential knock for the strong Willie Mullins-trained fancy, Stattler, who is unbeaten in two fencing contests. In 2013, Mullins won with the unbeaten-in-three Back In Focus, but more recently both 9/4 Ballyward (fell) and 10/11 Carefully Selected (unseated) have succumbed to their inexperience at the obstacles. Still, Stattler’s form credentials are robust and his stamina is assured if his leaping holds up at the expected quicker tempo on quicker turf. Pop back to that Aintree G1 and we find our other joint favourite. There was little between Jonbon and El Fabiolo in Liverpool and they may again be hard to separate. Willie’s contender has had two chasing starts, winning by 19L and 10L, the latter in the Grade 1 Irish Arkle at the Dublin Racing Festival.

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The only one really fitting the bill from a price perspective is Tanganyika who is second reserve. He is quite interesting on his run behind subsequent Grade Kyrov and Golden Son in France. Now with Venetia Williams, Tanganyika was beaten eight and a half lengths in that Auteuil race. Kyrov is currently rated 75kg (165), Golden Son 71 (156) and Tanganyika’s mark in France is 61.5 (135). Here, he has just 121, a full stone below his French rating.

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Azzerti is a best price 12/1 at present, which looks a bit of value. Interesting cards at both Fakenham and Sandown this afternoon. We are going to look at two races from the latter where the going is on the heavy side of Soft. Last seen on the track when second at the Kempton Christmas meeting in another valuable handicap. Will prove to be a highly informative race for the future. Plaisir D’Amour runs from the Venetia Williams stable, who are in great form.

Cheltenham Festival 2022: Day One Preview, Tips

If you are scanning a race, spot a horse making its handicap debut (or even its second run in a handicap), and you don’t make a note to look a tad more closely at said runner, more fool you. Draw and run style seem to be fairly well subsumed into market prices these days; at least into starting price market prices. That leaves an opportunity on earlier shows to snaffle some value. But the big opportunity in my view is with draw and run style in concert.

Honeysuckle – Mares’ Hurdle – 11/8 bet365 (NRNB, BOG)

And, of course, that’s absolutely fine because – remember – the number one takeaway from these million words is, Choose Your Battles. Play where you know most, and where you’re as comfortable as possible with what you don’t know. Like which trainers, and which of their horses, might leap forward on handicap bow. Even at relatively short odds of 7/2, there may be a losing run of 27 or 28 bets in a 1000 race sample; so we have to be set up, emotionally and financially, to deal with that. Betting is fun, perhaps more so on horses than most other sports because of the speed with which the result is known; that rapid production of endorphins induced by the short duration of a race compared with, say, a football match. This doesn’t look to be the deepest Novice hurdle so UNIVERSAL DAVE may well be able to shoulder a penalty and land a second career success.

‘His season starts here’ – 85/1 Gordon Elliott Down Royal accumulator on Friday

Paul Nicholls has enjoyed enjoyed a relative resurgence in the last two renewals courtesy of that hat-trick of Grade 1 scores. He comes to Cheltenham Festival 2021 in similar form to 2019. It is fair to say that nobody really knows what to expect of the Cullentra House yard, currently fronted by Denise Foster while Gordon Elliott serves out his suspension. What we do know is that flagbearers like Envoi Allen have been moved to other yards and that has to have a negative bearing on overall figures this time around.

Ayr Gold Cup Trends

The race is open to both sexes with the Male runners having produced a total of 21 winners from a total of 476 runners whilst the Female runners have produced 0 winners from a total of 21 runners. Every year, this popular event creates an unmatchable buzz in Cheltenham, as well as the villages that frame it. On Gold Cup day, there’s a sense of celebration in the air as bars and restaurants spill out with revellers. Mill about long enough and you might catch a glimpse of famous trainers and jockeys weaving between the racecourse and town.

“He didn’t have much of a race in France, it was a non event, so that is his first real race (of the season) today and he handled the ground. I think we will stay at a mile, looking at him today he could step up a little bit further, but we will see. He was bred by Sheikh Mohammed Obaid and is a great advert for a new stallion. Quite often you call these horses something that they’re not, because you want them to be the best horse you’ve trained – and quite often you are disappointed. I don’t know how we messed it up, but that’s behind us now. Rosallion came out on top in the eagerly-anticipated clash of three 2000 Guineas winners in the St James’s Palace Stakes, as he lived up to all of Richard Hannon’s billing as the best horse he has ever trained.

David Pipe sends a rare runner on the 710-mile round trip to Newcastle on Thursday

Decent day of racing ahead with three Grade 2, one Grade 3 and a listed races from Newbury and Warwick this afternoon. Plus we have Uttoxeter  who are subject to a third inspection. With form horses Coo Star Sivola and Global Stage having disappointed on their latest starts – a difficult race to assess. Theatre Guide is expected to go well in a race he won last year.

• The 2m 4f distance should bring out more improvement in her.
• The ground may ease again slightly with rain forecast before racing commences at 2.10.
• Most likely is that the top two in the betting will mark each other behind the rags, with Vauban expected to be ridden cold at the back of the field.
• He’s got 149 here, as a result of both that win and the recalibration of Irish marks to British ones; while that seems a hefty enough elevation to overcome, the step back up to an extended three miles could be in his favour.

Royale Pagaille – National Hunt Chase – 5/2 bet365 (NRNB, BOG)

One who would be right at home in the mud and at a massive price, too, is Favour And Fortune, second in the aforementioned Aintree G1, and a winner on heavy previously. He was just touched off in a muddling three horse race last time (heavy) with this tempo expected to be more his metier. He was thumped in the Champion Bumper here a year ago (soft), however, so just might not be good enough. The big roar that accompanies this race sometimes feel like a racecourse full of punters has been holding its collective breath for 361 days (or 362 this time around). And the traditional curtain-raiser is usually a very satisfying conclusion to the prior hiatus, pitching together a raft of exciting unexposed types all with even grander aspirations down the line.

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• I will have to lie down in a dark corner for quite a long time, in fact.
• He’s stepping up half a mile in trip and, by Muhtathir, that doesn’t look the most obvious manoeuvre (that’s easy for me to spell!).
• (Incidentally, fillies have an excellent record in the Fred Winter).
• These vary between different providers and often change from year to year, so it’s usually a good idea to do some homework on the available promotions and bonus terms ahead of the bigger racing events.
• Mount Mews reverts to hurdles after some disappointing chase efforts and would have claims on his best form, were he to be reinvigorated by the smaller obstacles.
• Billboard Star brings Group form to the table and gets in here off a lovely racing weight.

Sir Mark Prescott celebrated his first Royal Ascot winner since Pivotal in 1996 when Pledgeofallegiance saw off all-comers to win the Ascot Stakes. We did all the donkey work, it was tremendous really and I’m delighted for the horse and delighted for Callum (Rodriguez) and delighted for these guys who have put their money into it – it’s great to have syndicates like this. Trainer Mick Appleby was rightly pleased with the performance of Big Evs in defeat and will now look to campaign his stable star on more speed favouring tracks, like Del Mar in November. “It’s such a gamble bringing her over and it is such an expensive trip. We’re getting a bit of help from Ascot, but it is still expensive and the owner is funding it. “Dropping in with plenty of runners is what he needs and he hasn’t had that yet this year.

In front of Telmesomethinggirl but largely whacked before and since this term was Heaven Help Us, winner of the Coral Cup a year ago. Like the favourite, she brings Festival-winning form to the party and her form string at this intermediate distance is 12. She seems better going left-handed and with just a little ease in the ground, conditions she’ll get here.

Professional backer – Horse Racing Advisory Service

Stablemate Winter Fog has been hit hard by the handicapper after an easy win on stable debut last time but is not without place appeal as a lightly raced type, despite being a nine-year-old. He ran fourth in last season’s Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle so is likely to be finishing strongly at this easier distance. The trend factor which had produced 10+ winners and shows the best LSP, an LSP of +52.50 is when runners had 1 place in the past 30 days. The worst performing factor that has failed to produce a single winner is when runners had 5 career wins in Flat (AW) races, when backing these the trend shows a record of 0-71. The leading jockey in the Ayr Gold Cup over the last 20 renewals is Frankie Dettori who has won the race two times with those two winners coming from Jimmy Styles (2009) and Redford (2010). Two jockeys have not had the best of times over the last 20 renewals in the Ayr Gold Cup, Paul Mulrennan has ridden 13 runners to the race without recording any wins whilst David Allan has ridden 12 without a winner.

The Williams team have excellent contacts in France and have a long history of recruiting nice hurdlers from across the channel. I’d love him to be up there from the outset as there isn’t much pace elsewhere in the race and that looks the best scenario for Jack Tudor to get a truly run race to suit. It must be a recurring issue they keep having to tinker with. Of course, if a horse keeps running badly you’d be wise to give it a wide berth, but ignoring one or two bad runs can lead you to back winners at decent prices.