Ayr Gold Cup tips: Antepost preview and best bets for big handicap on September 23
By Matt Brocklebank
18:46 · SAT September 02, 2023
The William Hill Ayr Gold Cup is the next big betting race on our expert’s long-range agenda – check out his early fancy for the race.
The Antepost Value Bet is designed to generatelong-term profitby searching for overpriced horses in advance of select feature races in the UK, Ireland and overseas.
Our Antepost Value Bet column is now exclusively available to qualified, logged-in readers throughSporting Life Plus, before appearing on the main Sporing Life website the following day.
Antepost Value Bet tips: Flat season, 2023
1pt win Orazio in William Hill Ayr Gold Cup at 12/1 (William Hill)
1pt win Ramazan in William Hill Ayr Gold Cup at 20/1 (General)
It could be worth giving ORAZIO another chance to live up to his early-season potential in the William Hill Ayr Gold Cup.
Trained by Charlie Hills, Orazio was initially a promising two-year-old but picked up an injury and subsequently spent over 500 days on the sidelines before resuming with an encouraging effort on the all-weather back in January.
Given another 102 days off after that Kempton spin, he was switched to the turf at Newmarket in April and won readily from a couple of decent yardsticks, Probe and Chairmanoftheboard, who went on to finish first and second in a Heritage Handicap back at HQ at the Guineas Festival in early-May.
Orazio also kicked on from that race, doubling up in impressive fashion with a two and a quarter-length Ascot victory (replay below) that saw him sent off 7/2 favourite for the Wokingham.
Access to exclusive features all for FREE - No monthly subscription fee
Log in with your existing Sporting Life, Sky Bet, or Sky Games account. If you don't have any of those, it's completely FREE to register!
He ran pretty well at the Royal meeting, finishing in his group up the centre and sixth overall despite the good to firm ground reportedly being dead against him.
Orazio was also the market leader (100/30) for the Stewards’ Cup but on this occasion the desperately soft ground was put forward as an excuse for his finishing only 18th of the 27 runners.
I wouldn’t normally be buying it but the conditions at Goodwood were a rare brand of heavy+ and I’m happy to strike a line through any off-key effort that day. The likes of Makanah, Good Earth, Vintage Clarets, Juan Les Pins and Albasheer, all well held in the Stewards’ Cup, have come out to either win or run very well in defeat in similarly hot races on better ground.
It’s never likely to be too quick come Ayr Gold Cup day given its position in the calendar and, in the same breath, Hills would be a little unfortunate to get the kind of weather that hit Goodwood earlier this month.
Conditions could be just right for Orazio, a horse I thought we might be seeing in Group races come the end of the year following his spring success in Berkshire, and he’s been dropped a pound for the two subsequent disappointments so makes plenty of appeal at double-figure odds for Ayr.
The other one I’m interested in getting on side is three-year-old RAMAZAN for trainer Richard Fahey.
We’ve only seen a couple of three-year-old winners of this race over the past decade but Fahey was responsible for one of them (Don’t Touch, 2015) and I’m pretty sure this will be his big autumn target as he’s got unfinished business at Ayr having been narrowly denied in a nursery at the same meeting last September.
Now with an official mark of 101, Ramazan is all but guaranteed a place in the field should connections aim this way and I love the fact he’s been racing over further through the season – a spot of extra stamina no bad thing in this event over the years.
He’s had a fairly productive time of things too, winning seven furlong handicaps at Haydock (good to firm) in July and Chepstow (good to soft) when last seen earlier this month, giving the distinct impression he still had a bit in the locker when beating Loingseoir (runner-up at Roscommon since) last time.
He’s always been a good work horse according to his trainer, who ran him in the Windsor Castle at two, and he’s shown this term that he has just the sort of attitude you’d want in a battle like the Ayr Gold Cup.
He goes on any ground and is just a lot more likely to run his race than back-to-form stablemate Strike Red, who hasn’t fared too well in the past couple of Silver Cups on this track and can be very hit-or-miss in general.
Combining Sporting Life's instinctive eye for profit with Timeform's unrivalled racing data and analysis, Sporting Life Plus provides you with the very best betting insight, every day. Click here for qualification criteria and to log in.
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose. If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133. Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org
We are committed to Safer Gambling and have a number of self-help tools to help you manage your gambling. We also work with a number of independent charitable organisations who can offer help and answers any questions you may have.
