THE current crop of sprinting three-year-olds headed by Muhaarar, Limato and Twilight Son is a good if not vintage one, and Don’t Touch did his bit for his age group when becoming the first three-year-old since Funfair Wane in 2002 to land the Ayr Gold Cup. Horses aged three won the Ayr Gold Cup on six occasions between 1980 and 1991 when it wasn’t quite the ferociously competitive sprint it is today – when soon-to-become champion sprinter Lochsong won as a four-year-old in 1992, for example, only one of the 28 runners had a BHA mark higher than 100 whereas that number was 19 this year.

That’s not to say winning the Ayr Gold Cup as a three-year-old these days is a guarantee of making the transition to pattern company, however. Funfair Wane (for all he won another Ayr Gold Cup in 2004) couldn’t make the jump and Don’t Touch’s timefigure of 104 - marginally slower than that recorded by his stable-companion Tatlisu in winning the Silver Cup earlier on the card – suggests he still has a fair amount of progress to make.