Irish bid for
back-to-back Gold Cups

FOR the second year in succession, the favourite for today’s Ayr Gold Cup is provided by an Irish trainer and Irish Champions Weekend. Buffer Zone follows in the hoofprints of Fozzy Stack’s Son Of Rest, who dead-heated with Baron Bolt to become the first Irish winner of the six-furlong contest. Ger Lyons’s horse ran out an impressive winner of the Bold Lad Sprint Handicap at the Curragh on Sunday, and though he has a 5lb winners’ penalty for that, he is still 3lbs well in on official ratings.