Light weight and heavy ground favour Alben Star

The Ayr Gold Cup and its supporting races are set to get the green light and that is good news because there is a value bet in the feature event, the valuable six-furlong sprint.

At 10-1 the field, the Ayr Gold Cup is often referred to as a nightmare for punters but it does throw up opportunities to back excellent sprinters at excellent odds in a race for which their connections may have set them for a while.

The expected heavy ground is going to take its toll on many of the Ayr Gold Cup runners, particularly those who are not mudlarks and have to carry big chunks of lead. The pick at the prices love wet courses and is on the bottom weights.

Alben Star is around 20-1 to make the Ayr Gold Cup his sixth victory in 14 starts. The four-year-old son of Clodovil won his last race on going softer than good and he took out a 12-runner Ayr handicap over six furlongs as a juvenile.

Soft ground is the key to Alben Star, who was a close-up fifth of 27 in the Stewards Cup at Goodwood last month on unsuitably fast going before not being at his best when eighth to Pepper Lane in a Ripon race five weeks ago.

If Alben Star can reproduce his Stewards Cup performance then, with a feather weight of eight stones and 10 pounds plus ground conditions made to order, he will surely go better than odds of 20-1 suggest. Furthermore, the Ayr Gold Cup Festival is an extremely happy hunting ground for his shrewd trainer, Richard Fahey, with the Malton-based handler having a record second to none at the Scottish track.

The Ayr Silver Cup is the consolation race for the horses which did not make the Ayr Gold Cup cut. Highland Colori is, strictly speaking, four pounds well in and he has won on all sorts of surfaces, everything from soft to good to firm. The four-year-old son of Le Vie Dei Colori may go off as the favourite but, at around 9-1, he has a favourite`s chance.

The Ayr Bronze Cup is the consolation race for the horses which did not make the Ayr Silver Cup cut. One runner stands out among the entries and that is Cheveton, Richard Price`s veteran course specialist and Ayr Gold Cup Festival star.

Cheveton took out the Ayr Silver Cup last year and the Ayr Bronze Cup in 2010 so one could say that he sparks into life during Scotland`s biggest meeting. The eight-year-old son of Most Welcome has not won any of his last dozen races but he produced something close to his best on his most recent appearance, going down by only a quarter of a length to Kyleakin Lass over five soft furlongs at Ffos Las.

Connections of the 10-time winner were hoping to pick up a penalty last time out so that he would be able to get into the Ayr Silver Cup and have a chance of going back to back in it. That demonstrates that the Ayr Gold Cup Festival has been the main target for Cheveton for the last few months.

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21/09/2012     © Frixo 2026