When Tom Marquand conjured a storming run out of Nahaarr to land Scotland’s richest and most prestigious Flat race, the Virgin Bet Ayr Gold Cup, in 2020 he was bucking a significant trend.
Not only was he a well-backed favourite, the William Haggas-trained three-year-old was the first Newmarket based winner of the race this century - though sometimes, like a year ago when only one horse made the journey from HQ, runners have been at a premium.
It is a race the North, and Yorkshire yards in particular, have dominated in recent years.
It’s a race Kevin Ryan has won five times, most recently a year ago, Richard Fahey has had two winners as has Karl Burke, whose first was Daring Destiny back in the 1990s, while this was a race farmed by late Dandy Nicholls who claimed five victories between 2000 and 2008 - and the shortest-priced of them was Continent in 2001 at 10/1!
It’s been won by some great names - most memorably Lochsong who Francis Arrowsmith rode to a famous win in 1992 for Ian Balding, while his son Andrew struck with Highland Colori in 2013, just about the first time a young Oisin Murphy hit the headlines.
The Irish have yet to win it outright - remember the dead-heat of 2018 with the Fozzy Stack-trained Son Of Rest under Chris Hayes sharing the spoils with Baron Bolt?
It’s a race with enormous history going further back through the years. It was first run in its present format in 1908 and Roman Warrior entered Scottish racing legend when he humped 10 stone to victory in 1975 - the last ‘home’ winner of the race and still the weight-carrying record.
And the lightest weight? Go back to 1936 and the winner carried 6-13. His name Marmaduke Jinks, one of the horses now remembered as being in the board game Totopoly.
So much talk between now and Saturday will be about the draw, and last year set as many questions as it answered. Bielsa, 2021 winner under an inspired Kevin Stott, scraped the Dulux down the stands' side to win from stall 25. The favourite in second, Great Ambassador, came from Stall one, while the third and fourth, Mr Wagyu and Motagally, were drawn 16 and 15.
That came just an hour after the Silver Cup, when the first four home were drawn 2, 6, 10 and 4.
The prestige is huge, and it’s a race everyone involved in wants to win. But backing the winner is about as hard as it gets.
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