Frankie Dettori’s win on Jimmy Styles in the William Hill (Ayr) Gold Cup brought much deserved glory to trainer Clive Cox. In fact, Dettori, his usual confident, business-like yet charismatic self, always looked to be the strongest to win the 150,000 pound sprint handicap from Barney McGrew, who ended up second.

Third place went to Knot In Wood, while Evens and Odds came in fourth.  Dettori was exuberant with the win as surprisingly this was the first time he had won the race, and he felt that Jimmy Styles (a 14-1 shot) ran a tremendous race.

I also heard that Cox was actually hoping to get stall 19 for the horse, but despite being allotted stall 15 he ran a pretty much faultless race, following Genki to begin with before Dettori made his move in the closing stages.

In the meantime, trainer Richard Fahey and apprentice Barry McHugh proudly lifted the William Hill (Ayr) Silver Cup on Kaldoun Kingdom, to follow their Bronze Cup win of the previous day.

The race began under interesting circumstances as the field straightaway divided into two groups. McHugh made good of his 5 pound allowance by leading his four old year horse to a furlong lead, and then onto finally win the race.

Though Lowther put up a good fight in the closing stages, he could only muster second place, with Green Manalishi coming third, while Mastership was fourth.