We posted the leader and lagger stats for the Ayr Gold and Silver Cups (as well as all the other sprints for Saturday racing, and leaders and laggers for the Ayr Bronze Cup) a day early yesterday.   This leaves us free to concentrate on how to use those stats to determine how the race may unfold from a pace perspective today.

First, the post mortem on the Bronze Cup.  The general consensus seems to be that being with the high numbers, that is the stands side draw, is the place to be this year.  Is there better ground on the stands side, or has there simply been stronger pace on the stands side draw?  With 27 runners across the track, we have to take a view.  If you take out the first three in yesterday’s Bronze Cup, who were towed by a strong early pace on the stands side (helped along by our strongest predicted front runner, Amenable), the rest finished more or less in parallel.  That’s still 23 runners, with draw numbers interwoven completely.  Can we be sure that the stands side is the place to be?

One reader, Alan, produced a nice drawsheet plot for the Silver Cup based on the net effect of Leaders and Laggers, shown here: http://i52.tinypic.com/2ue77ep.jpg

Whilst there are more front runners (as an overall percentage) than laggers in the higher part of the draw, the strongest two leaders are drawn 1 and 2 – both Mark Johnston trained horses, who often lead early.  So there should be good early tow on that part of the course.  If there is no intrinsic ground advantage being drawn high, who is to say the winner can’t come from the low part of the draw?  The biggest issue may be that too few runners decide to stay with them – if the jockeys all believe that high is the place to be and a large number tack across to the stands rail, that may become a self fulfilling prophesy.

By the same token, if punters all believe that high is the only place to be, there will be good prices on offer about low drawn runners.  This may make the risk of plumping for a low drawn runner worthwhile.

Sticking with the same principle, that predicting the best draw is all about predicting where the pace is, the Ayr Gold Cup has the opposite characteristics.  By some margin the highest ranked front runner is Jonny Mudball, drawn in one of the plum stands rail positions, 25.  Even more compelling, the top 5 leaders including Jonny Mudball are ranked 25, 18, 4, 21, 24, 27.  A very high bias towards early pace on the stands rail.  So the winner should come from there, in theory.

But will the winner even be the early front runner?  Let’s look at the results of previous winner comments for the Ayr Gold Cup, generated using a one line query in Smartform:

+——+——-+—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
| Year | stall | in_race_comment
+——+——-+—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
| 2003 |    10 | in touch far side, effort over 1f out, stayed on under pressure inside final furlong to lead close home
| 2004 |     8 | made all, ridden 2f out, kept on well
| 2005 |     2 | held up far side group, headway from 1f out, disputed lead final furlong, all out to lead close home
| 2006 |     6 | chased leaders far side group, ridden over 2f out, led that group 1f out, kept on well
| 2007 |    22 | chased leaders stands side, ridden and headway to lead group inside final furlong, edged right and stayed on to lead  near finish
| 2008 |    20 | held up stands side group, headway 2f out, led that group inside final furlong, stayed on
| 2009 |    15 | held up far side group, ridden and headway on outer of that group over 1f out, stayed on to lead towards finish
+——+——-+—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

So only one runner has made all – for the most part winners are held up or chasing the early lead.  There’s a pack of runners who may do that towards the stands side, so we won’t list all of them here.  However, with the ground drying out and Jonny Mudball’s most impressive win to date coming on good to firm, he may well be the one to side with.  It will be a surprise if he is not up with the pace or making it for most of the race.

In the Silver Cup, previous winner profiles are similar as follows:

+——+——-+————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-+
| Year | stall | in_race_comment
+——+——-+————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-+
| 2003 |     2 | held up far side, headway over 2f out, soon ridden, led well inside final furlong, stayed on
| 2004 |    22 | tracked leaders stands’ side, ridden over 2f out, headway approaching final furlong, to lead outright inside final furlong, kept on well
| 2005 |     1 | tracked leaders far side group, ridden to lead approaching final furlong, ran on well
| 2006 |    28 | in rear stand side group, effort and not much room over 3f out, stayed on inside final furlong, led post
| 2007 |    15 | tracked leaders stand side group, led stand side group and overall leader over 1f out, pushed out readily
| 2008 |     7 | close up far side group, led that group over 1f out, stayed on well
| 2009 |     2 | chased leaders far side group, led that group and overall leader over 1f out, hard ridden and kept on under pressure inside final furlong
+——+——-+————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-+

Again it seems to pay to be up with the pace, though no early leader has won.  If we take a risk on there being no particular track bias but go with the pace bias on the far side, there are some very rewarding odds on offer.   Sea of Leaves is one of a number of contenders who could come off the pace to take the race in the later stages, and is currently 29.0 to back on Betfair.