The £180,000 Ladbrokes Ayr Gold Cup, Europe’s most valuable Flat handicap, is run at 3.40pm on Saturday, September 19, the final day of the three-day Ayr Gold Cup Festival that opened on Thursday, September 17. A maximum field of 25 was declared for the six-furlong sprint from an initial entry of 263, with those missing the cut diverted to the Silver Cup and Bronze Cup on the same card. The race is live on ITV3 and The Racing Channel after ITV1 opted to show Millwall v West Ham instead, a decision Ayr’s managing director publicly criticised.
William Haggas’s Binhareer, sixth in the race last year, heads the market at 5-1 with Ladbrokes and gives Tom Marquand his first ride in the race since he won it on Naharr for the same stable in 2020. Binhareer will break from stall two. Far Above Dream is next at 8-1, with Dance In The Storm, Evening Saigon, Fine Interview, Tuco Salamanca and Twilight Calls on 12-1.
Much of the attention is on Twilight Calls and Saffie Osborne, who became the first woman to win a British Classic on Highwayman in last Saturday’s St Leger. Twilight Calls needed four withdrawals above him to make the field at the final declaration stage and got in as the last of the 25 at the bottom of the weights, drawn in stall 19. He was second in the Portland Handicap at Doncaster on Saturday and has not been out of the first two all season. “He’s great fun – it’s like riding a motorbike trying to pick your way through the whole pack,” Osborne said. Ladbrokes cut him from 20-1 to 12-1 and said they expect “a flood of interest” in the pair before Saturday.
Trainer Richard Spencer also runs last year’s winner Run Boy Run (16-1), who is bidding to become the first horse to win the race in consecutive years since Heronslea in 1930 and 1931, and Two Tribes (16-1). Flash Harry is also a 16-1 chance, with Stratusnine at 14-1. Clerk of the course Graeme Anderson said the draw is “pretty even across the track” with “no major bias we can see.”
Full field: Binhareer (Tom Marquand), Far Above Dream (Jason Hart), Dance In The Storm (Oisin Murphy), Flash Harry (Paul Mulrennan), Fine Interview (James Doyle), Twilight Calls (Saffie Osborne), Tuco Salamanca (Marco Ghiani), Ardisia (Warren Fentiman), Red Spells Danger (David Allan), Run Boy Run (George Wood), Evening Saigon (Faleh Bughenaim), Two Tribes (David Egan), Candy (Ryan Sexton), Stratusnine (Conor Whiteley), Spycatcher (Clifford Lee), Wiltshire (Oisin Orr), Caburn (Dylan Hogan), Bodhi Bear (Sam James), Pellitory (Daniel Tudhope), Fandom (Alec Voikhansky), Hammer The Hammer (Tom Eaves), Rock On Thunder (Jack Callan), Volterra (Kevin Stott), Aramram (Joe Leavy) and Fahrenheit Seven (Oli Stammers). Saturday’s Newbury card also features the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes at 2.12pm, where Gimcrack winner Arapaho Gold faces seven rivals.
