The Ayr Gold Cup (6f) brings the Scottish track’s three-day festival to a close and a field of 25 will vie for the £124,500first prize.
Buffer Zone, trained by Ger Lyons, heads the betting, having been an eye-catching winner of a 6f handicap at the Curragh earlier this month. If the four-year-old were to be victorious in the Ayr Gold Cup, it would be the second year in a row Irishthat trainers have taken the contest.
A year ago, Fozzy Stack’s Son Of Rest dead-heated with the Paul Cole-trained Baron Bolt.
David O’Meara has a strong hand in this year’s contest with four runners – Summerghand, Gulliver, Arecibo and Cold Stare. Out of his quartet, Gulliver and Arecibo had encouraging runs last time out that put them in prime position for the sprint contest.
The Group 3 Firth Of Clyde Stakes will see ten fillies run over 6f in a bid for black type. This race looks perfectly placed for Scottish trainer Ian Jardine to strike with Orlaith.
Orlaith has had six runs this season, winning twice, and is making the step to Group level having taken the scalp of Al Raya in the Listed Byerley Stud Stakes (5f) at Newbury last month.
Over at Newbury today, their Dubai Duty Free weekend concludes with three Group contests, the feature being the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes (6f).
Won in the past by the likes of Dark Angel and Ribchester, the Roger Varian-trained Pierre Lapin will be bidding to emulate his half-brother Harry Angel, who won this contest in 2016.
The two-year-old son of Cappella Sansevero made an impressive debut at Haydock last month when he pulled clear in a 6f novice stakes race to win by three and a half lengths.
Flat meetings are also staged at Chelmsford (aw), Catterick, Newmarket and Wolverhampton (aw). Over in Ireland, Gowran Park stages a Flat meeting that features the Group 3 Denny Cordell Lavarack & Lanwades Stud Fillies Stakes (1m1½f).
Sophie Doyle our for Grade 1 glory
Sophie Doyle, sister of Godolphin jockey James, will take the ride aboard the Larry Jones-trained Street Band in the Grade 1 Cotillion Stakes (8.5f) at Parx in America this evening.
Doyle, who made her move to America permanent last year, has already partnered Street Band to victory in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks in February and the pair were last seen finishing third behind Dunbar Road in the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga.
The danger comes from the Chad Brown-trained and Three Chimneys Farm homebred Guarana, who took the Grade 1 American Oaks at Saratoga in July.
Parx also stages the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby (9f), which features the Mark Casse-trained War Of Will, the Bob Baffert-trained Improbable and the Bret Calhoun-trained Mr Money.
Story of Lomitas to be turned into movie
Lomitas, one of the best German horses in recent years, will have his life turned into a feature film. It will be produced by Stefan Raiser of Dreamtool Entertainment in co-operation with Gestut Fahrhof President Andreas Jacob.
The Fahrhof homebred memorably reared and threw himself on the ground before the 1991 German 2,000 Guineas in front of the starting stalls. His behaviour ultimately led to a ban from racing before horse whisperer Monty Roberts cured him of his fear.
The three-time Group 1 winner was then the subject of a blackmail campaign, with the blackmailer threatening to harm Lomitas if their demands were not met. Lomitas was alsopoisoned before running disappointingly at Dusseldorf in 1992.
A covert operation took Lomitas out of Germany to Susan Piggott’s yard in Newmarket with an assumed name before he travelled to America to finish placed in Grade 2 events. He then retired to Gestut Fahrhof, with Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe heroine Danedream the best of his progeny.
