This year’s £180,000 Virgin Bet Ayr Gold Cup has attracted 194 entries with a maximum field of 25 expected for the big race at 4.0 on the big day and full fields likely too for the Silver Cup and Bronze Cup races which are run as part of the Virgin Bet Ayr Gold Cup Festival from Thursday September 21 to Saturday September 23.

24 of the 194 entries are rated 100 or higher with the Jonathan Portman trained Newmarket Group 3 winner RUMSTAR the highest rated horse at the moment on 109.

The Gold Cup winners from the past two seasons, SUMMERGHAND (2022) and BIELSA (2021) have both been entered again and this year’s Goodwood Stewards’ Cup winner ABERAMA GOLD (David O’Meara) could go for the big sprint handicap double for Scottish owner Evan Sutherland.

Aberama Gold was trained in Scotland by Keith Dalgleish until this season and there are 35 Scottish based entries for this year’s race, with the last home-trained winner being 1975 hero ROMAN WARRIOR which was trained just across the road from the track by the late Nigel Angus.

The weights for this year’s Virgin Bet Ayr Gold Cup will be published next Wednesday, August 23.