Right ground and good-looking draw spark support for Ice Age

An Ice Age is gripping the William Hill Ayr Gold Cup as heavy ground sparked weighty support for Eve Johnson Houghton's hope, who could have a cool draw too.

Downpours that washed out the opening day of Ayr's three-day meeting and mean Friday's card needs to pass an 8am inspection are only a plus for the soft ground-loving four-year-old seeking a four-timer on Saturday.

The draw for the £200,000 highlight was made on Thursday morning and Ice Age came in for strong support after connections opted to go close to the middle of the 25-runner field in stall 11, with low draws proving popular.

Having been as big as 16-1 before the draw, Ice Age, the mount of Edward Greatrex, was on Thursday evening a general 10-1 chance behind 8-1 favourite Shanghai Glory.

"He loves soft ground; we'll see if I've drawn right," Johnson Houghton said on Thursday. "He doesn't need to follow anything, he can make his own pace."

Ice Age's winning streak began with a pair of Windsor victories last month before he went to the Curragh and claimed a valuable handicap.

"He's in great form and is rapidly improving, so we're hopeful," said the in-form trainer, enjoying her best season with 44 wins. "It's a big ask but he deserves to be there."

Hopes are high that racing will take place on Friday, but trainers were queuing up to praise the condition of the track even after the first day of the meeting was called off.

Further heavy rain overnight on Wednesday into Thursday left a patch of waterlogging around two and a half furlongs out in the home straight and racing was called off just before 9am.

Racecourse public relations head Iain Ferguson said on Thursday morning: "Between yesterday and this morning we have had 17mm of rain and there is a bit of waterlogging in the home straight, so we decided to abandon for safety reasons.

"We're very hopeful racing will go ahead tomorrow, a dry day should make it raceable."

Of Thursday's cancellation, he added: "We're absolutely devastated and it's sad that the Doonside Cup will not take place but we're looking ahead to two fantastic days."

Tim Easterby was out on the course early and reported: "The track is in absolutely magnificent condition apart from one place where the drain has bubbled up – there's nothing you can do about it, it's one of those things."

Fellow trainer Richard Fahey said: "It's a shame because the rest of the track isn't in bad nick. If they can clear that I don't think there will be a problem. For the weather we've had the track is in great nick."

In the draw stalls towards the far side of the course were overwhelmingly popular. Trainers of 12 of the first 13 horses out of the drum chose low numbers, with David O'Meara's Edward Lewis (stall 18) the one exception.

Easterby, whose Golden Apollo was the first selected and will break from stall six, said: "I was on the track this morning and I took the opinion that's where I wanted to go after walking the track.

"When the ground is good to soft down to good you want to be where the pace is and there has maybe not been a massive draw bias, but when it comes heavy it's a different world."

Fahey chose low numbers for the first two of his eight runners but was forced to go high with the remainder.

"In the last couple of seasons it's looked in the Bronze, Silver and Gold Cups that you wanted to be low, but it could be different this year because we're not racing on Thursday," he warned.

"The track generally gets chewed up a little bit as most of the races are run middle-to-stands' side, so I have some high as well. It'll be a lottery race with the ground, we'll just see what happens."

Paul Hanagan has switched from Toscanini to Stamp Hill and the sponsors have reacted by cutting his new mount to 14-1 (from 16-1) while pushing out Toscanini to 14-1 (from 12-1).

Both horses are trained by Fahey, who said: "I was very sweet on Toscanini but heavy ground will be a little bit of a worry.

"Paul won the Tote International on Stamp Hill and it's hard to get off a horse who does that – he's a progressive horse and he's probably the only one for me [with a bit of improvement].

"If it was seven furlongs I think he'd be favourite and win."

Ayr Gold Cup card

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