We highlight three unexposed improvers in line to run at this week's Ladbrokes Ayr Gold Cup Festival.
Austin (Kevin Ryan)
Thursday’s Ayr card wouldn’t knock your eye out at first glance but the Almins Vantage/Lallemand Magniva Classic EBF Novice Stakes over a mile looks to contain some interesting colts.
Karl Burke’s well-bred Golden Souk (from a smart family including the Group 1 winner Lumiere) would attract plenty of attention but a run or two under the belt can count for plenty at this time of year.
It all went wrong at the start for Austin (12/1) first time out at Haydock earlier in the month but the way he made up the lost ground, briefly looking a potential threat, before the earlier exertions took a toll suggests he’s got an engine.
Providing he’s learnt from that introduction and breaks on terms this time, it wouldn’t be a surprise were he to reverse form with eventual Haydock fourth Zarak Crown and sixth Sir Terry Hadley, who are both entered up in Ayr’s opening juvenile contest as well.
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Angels Lane (Henry Candy)
The rest may be in trouble if Pershaada takes up her engagement in Friday’s Rosebery Stakes but a self-certificate (lame) ruled her out of last week’s Flying Childers at Doncaster and it’s no guarantee she’ll turn up for the day-two Listed race at Ayr.
It’s an open-looking event in her absence, but Henry Candy’s Angels Lane is already rated 100 after just three starts and showed bags of speed when winning the St Hugh’s Stakes at Newbury last month.
She’s unfortunate not to be unbeaten in three, having missed out by a nose to Zigazig in the Weatherbys Super Sprint after breaking her maiden on debut at Chepstow, and this daughter of Harry Angel looks to have a bit of star quality. She’s certainly in the right hands to make the grade as a sprinter and she’s already proven on soft and quick ground which is a bit of a bonus.
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Karl Burke has a huge team heading north of the border this week and his two-year-olds will be hard to contain.
Etonnante is one who may get a little but overlooked as she’ll have it to find on form with some of the more experienced types in Saturday’s First Of Clyde but the daughter of Havana Grey looks worth her place in the Group 3 event after winning well under a penalty in heavy conditions at Haydock a couple of weeks ago.
That run came on the back of a 56-day break (and wind surgery) after she looked to find Senorita Bonita and Libertango a bit too hot to handle second time up in the Duchess of Cambridge, and it would be no surprise to see her kick on from this point.
Her half-sister was Group 2-placed in France at three and Etonnante brings an unexposed profile to the table, with the promise of so much more to come on autumn ground.
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