The Virgin Bet Ayr Gold Cup festival was a joy to behold last weekend. Competitive racing, lovely weather and a great community feel to proceedings with the main sponsors putting up good prize-money for well-catered for connections as well.
This is a meeting that knows what it is and doesn’t pretend to be something that it’s not.
The main race around the three-day meeting on the Ayrshire coastline is ultimately a sprint handicap.
Placed the week after the four-day St Leger festival at Doncaster, there would be reasons to be fearful about field sizes and quality.
However, those were quickly dispelled. The Ayr Gold Cup is one of the biggest handicaps in Europe and Scotland’s richest flat race because it is simply advertised as so.
The money Virgin Bet have put in to support it, surrounding races and innovative projects off course makes it an attractive contest to target.
Karl Burke, one of the most powerful trainers in the north that is gaining support from high-profile owners, trained the first three home in an Ayr Gold Cup stacked with talent and horses rated over 100.
With the Group-class sprint division at a relatively low ebb, the Ayr Gold Cup isn’t far away from being genuinely a group-quality handicap.
Last year’s fifth Montassib won the Group One Haydock Sprint Cup this month, which shows the wafer-thin gap between top handicappers and the best sprinters in Europe.
The undercard isn’t bad either, with seven different trainers winning each of the seven races on the Friday of the meeting.
It’s an encouraging sign of a meeting in rude health in a largely insecure sport.
In a sport dominated by big betting corporations and a busy fixture list that mainly promotes the bigger racetracks in Britain, it is nice to see Ayr flourish in finding its niche.
Virgin Bet launched their Personal Safety Partnership with WalkSafe, the UK’s free leading personal safety app designed to help people who feel vulnerable get home safe from venues, such as racecourses, through a range of tracking tools.
The partnership with WalkSafe will be at all Virgin Bet sponsored racecourses for 2024 and 2025.
It is designed to highlight the importance of safety and security at racing events across the country, providing users with peace of mind when travelling alone from a venue.
At a stall in between enclosures at Ayr Racecourse just before the Gold Cup was due to run felt an awkward time to talk to Emma Kay, the founder of WalkSafe, about personal safety and her inspiration for creating this app.
‘However, there was a time when there was little understanding about this subject at all.
‘It’s almost impossible to comprehend how it feels to be alone and unsafe in unfamiliar surroundings until you are in that very difficult position.
‘It has tracking features and a safety map nationwide to help create safe routes for people get home safely,’ Kay explains.
‘It’s good to be here with Virgin Bet at Ayr racecourse to encourage people to just think about these things.
‘It’s part of their brand purpose, A Good Bet, which focuses on ways where we can break down barriers and create positive change within sport and culture.’
Of course this initiative is particularly pertinent for women.
There have been harrowing high-profile incidents of violence, abuse, manipulation and stalking that go way beyond the remit of a racing column but WalkSafe can be a useful app to help those feeling vulnerable when out and about.
‘I think it would surprise people how many women and girls just feel unsafe on the street,’ says Kay.
‘When I was 12, I had a miserable walk to and from school. There was a horrid shortcut, it was poorly lit and there was no option but to get through it.
‘We didn’t really have mobile phones to indicate whether we were in trouble or not.
‘When I had children, I just thought that it made sense. We have an SOS feature on WalkSafe that once its triggered, people on your close friend list can track where you are.
‘It just offers an extra layer of security and further peace of mind when you feel a little unsure of things at the time.
‘It would certainly have made a difference to me when I was a child.’
All this is difficult for some men to understand, particularly in a bustling boozy betting ring and the adrenaline is flowing.
So are more men beginning to understand this important issue of personal safety of women getting home from sports venues and festivals?
‘It’s a really good question and the fact it has been asked is a plus in itself,’ says Kay. ‘I don’t think this kind of thing was even considered 10-15 years ago.
‘We’re seeing awful incidents in the headlines on a regular basis and while that’s difficult information to process it’s certainly opening up the conversation about personal safety.
‘Plenty of men have stopped by to talk to me about the subject and it shows a willingness to understand the problem and change some behaviours. It’s difficult for people who feel safe to really help those who aren’t.
‘I think WalkSafe is a good way to sort that problem out because anyone can download it. It’s free and nationwide so it promotes everyone to use it, whether you feel safe or not.’
And with that, it’s back to the paddock to see the horses parade before the Gold Cup starts.
A busy paddock bursting with equine stars, people and camera crews glistening in the sunshine is a further reminder of a meeting in good shape.
As Lethal Levi wins at 20-1 to a generally stunned silence, the mind floats to how I’ll get home after a wonderful afternoon of racing.
Every day really can be a school day.
PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK…
LAKE VICTORIA is an unbeaten juvenile filly right out the top drawer for Aidan O’Brien and her three-length demolition job of a decent field in the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket rightfully propelled her to favouritism for the 1,000 Guineas next May. Smashed into 6-4 before the off, Ryan Moore kept things simple from the front and she lengthened away in good style to win a second Group One success.
SELECTIONS OF THE DAY…
It is Irish Cesarewitch day at the Curragh and NURBURGRING (11-2, Sky Bet) can add this handicap contest (4.25) to his Galway Hurdle win earlier in the year for Joseph O’Brien. Jesse Evans (20-1) and Bialystok (40-1) can both outrun their long odds for those who like to seek some each-way value.
Elsewhere on the card, Jessica Harrington’s BARNARVA (4-1, Paddy Power) can thwart O’Brien’s Heavens Gate in the Weld Stakes (2.40). O’Brien second string Merrily is a good each-way alternative at around the 10-1 mark. Karl Burke won the Cambridgeshire handicap yesterday at Newmarket and can bag another big race with SPYCATCHER (3-1, William Hill) in the Renaissance Stakes (3.15).
