FANS of high-quality horse racing will have found the week just gone rather low-key, but fans of valuable big-field sprint handicaps were in clover. In recent years the Ayr Gold Cup has been joined by a Silver Cup and a Bronze Cup, such is the popularity for owners and trainer to have runners in these big pots.

All three were run on ground that was a fair bit firmer than the official “good” (with “good to soft in places” on the Friday) judged on the clock, and the times recorded by the winners were in the podium order that could be expected, of 1m 09.26s, 1m 09.63s and 1m 10.47s respectively.