The Ayr Gold Cup of 2025 is as ultra-competitive as ever, emanating from the premier Scottish track on Saturday, 20 September this year. If ever there was a race worthy of the phrase Heritage Handicap, then it’s this six-furlong cavalry charge.
Only 25 of well over 200 initial entries can actually take part in the contest. With the balloting out process and draw complete, we now know the runners gunning for glory in Europe’s most prestigious sprint handicap. Before our experts discuss the main contenders and preview the race in full, it’s worth considering some of these trends and statistics to help punters narrow down the field.
Draw bias exists in the Ayr Gold Cup and it’s an occupational hazard for all sprint handicappers in tracks across the land. Horses drawn low have a poor recent record in the race. Each of the last seven winners including the famous dead-heat of 2018 have jumped from Stall 12 or higher.
Before crossing any runner from a single figure gate out completely, however, punters shouldn’t forget that seven horses finished placed from the lower aspect of the draw since 2019. It is possible to get into the frame from those stalls, then, but wagering each-way on leading horse racing betting sites is essential here.
Four and five-year-olds have most recent successes in terms of age. Kevin Ryan has won the race twice since 2016. Fellow Yorkshire-based trainer Richard Fahey has multiple placed horses over the same timeframe, meanwhile. Let’s take a look at analysis for all runners our experts inevitably have in a race as open as this.
Ayr Gold Cup 2025 Preview
If the usual draw bias has its effect, then not even being 13lb well-in like Ain’t Nobody will matter. Ryan runs four, but his 100/1 Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes second has Stall 1. It’s probably terminal for the chances of Ain’t Nobody, who already found himself on the wrong side of the track in the Haydock Sprint Cup earlier in the month. He’s chucked in though.
Also representing Ryan’s yard near Sutton Bank are Hammer The Hammer (Stall 8) and better drawn pair We Never Sleep (21) and Bergerac (25). The latter had draw bias against him when third in the Silver Cup here off 2lb lower 12 months ago and behind Alfa Kellenic (24) and Aramram (13). Ivan Furtado now saddles the first of those off a racecourse absence of almost a year. It could hardly be a tougher stable debut.
That lack of race fitness is a concern for the filly Alfa Kellenic. Aramram, meanwhile, has run some solid races for Richard Hannon since his runner-up effort in the consolation race for the Ayr Gold Cup last season. Horses that ran well with credit in this race before come back for another go. Into this bracket go the 2024 fifth Jordan Electrics (Stall 10), who has Lauren Young taking a handy 7lb off with her claim and sixth Commanche Falls (16).
Michael Dods doesn’t just rely on this standing dish in the race, who looks well-treated and drawn on the pick of his form. The stable also runs Northern Ticker (19) under a 5lb penalty for his Constantine Handicap success at York last month. Commanche Falls, Stewards’ Cup hero Two Tribes (18) and Jordan Electrics were behind him on that occasion.
Unlucky Knavesmire Runners Could Have a Say
There were some hard luck stories during the Ebor Festival equivalent of this, though, with James Ferguson’s Jubilee Walk (14) stumbling out of the stalls and Strike Red (20) a victim of draw bias. Both look as though they have big races in them and their track positions in the Ayr Gold Cup of 2025 augur well.
Strike Red ran 10th in this last season when drawn on the wrong side, so he’s seemingly getting the rub of the green for Fahey now. Low gates are worries for a number of horses in this renewal with Purosangue (2) in first-time cheekpieces, David O’Meara runner Toyotomi (3), Richard Spencer duo Twilight Calls (4) and Run Boy Run (6), and Desert Falcon (5) all trying to overcome that.
The latter still looks the pick of Julie Camacho’s trio with Solar Aclaim (7) and the three-year-old Millford (12) less-fancied with online bookmakers here. Favourite Northern Ticker and Desert Falcon apart, there’s only two more last time out winners in the field. Firstly, Middleham Park Racing recruit Farenheit Seven (11) has joined Robert Cowell and runs for the first time in over 100 days.
He may have been laid out for a tilt at this, but the worry is a lack of match practice and race sharpness. Clive Cox saddles Flash Harry (15), meanwhile, another three-year-old who has his 5lb penalty offset by the claim of Jack Nicholls and 2lb well-in. Cowell also has Seven Questions (23), but he’s hard to fancy. Michael Herrington’s Badri (9), Mick Appleby inmate Kodi Lion (17) and Irish raider Go Athletico (22) complete the line-up.
Ayr Gold Cup 2025 Shortlist & Verdict
Ain’t Nobody is even more thrown in at these weights, but his lowest of low draws mean it might instead be worth chancing Ryan’s race veteran Bergerac on the opposite side of the course. Strike Red could give a good account of himself from the older brigade too. Farenheit Seven and Flash Harry look open to more progress than most, so also make the shortlist. Draw bias and lack of form and fitness are issues for the most of the remainder.
