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Boats gets low draw in Ayr Gold Cup

Burn The Boats winning at NavanBurn The Boats winning at Navan
© Photo Healy Racing

Burn The Boats will start from stall three in the William Hill Ayr Gold Cup.

Ger Lyons' gelding was strongly supported for a Leopardstown handicap on Irish Champions Weekend, only to finish down the field, and he is set to drop from seven furlongs to six on Saturday.

The other Irish challenger An Saighdiur, who represents Andrew Slattery and was third in the Silver Cup 12 months ago, will be on the other side of the course in stall 23.

Ante-post favourite Watchable will race from the far side having been handed stall five.

David O'Meara's four-year-old, who burst into the reckoning for the big sprint handicap with victory at the Curragh last Sunday, was one of the later ones to be picked out of the hat at a special draw ceremony at the Scottish track.

The Richard Fahey-trained Alben Star, generally second best in the market, will start from stall seven after being the penultimate name to be drawn.

O'Meara's Highland Aclaim was the first horse out and given stall 18, with the stands side of the track proving popular.

The Fahey team went for stalls 20 and 22 respectively for Ballesteros and Supplicant, who were the next horses out.

Scottish trainer Jim Goldie plumped for stall four for last year's third and top-weight Jack Dexter, and 16 for Hawkeyethenoo.

Racy, trained by Brian Ellison, bagged the stands side rail draw in the maximum 27-runner field.

Kevin Ryan is four-handed as he seeks to win the race for a fourth time. Captain Ramius, successful for the Hambleton trainer in 2012 when drawn eight, has got the same stall again.

Hamza is also low in stall six, with York Glory and Blaine drawn high in gates 21 and 26 respectively.

Ryan told Racing UK: "We opted to go high if we were coming out early and lucky enough we had a couple of horses that came out fairly early.

"Blaine's in great form and is on an upward curve. He comes into the race on the back of a very good win. He'll love the fast ground. I thought York Glory would run very well in the Portland and then he disappointed us. He's struggling to find his form, but if he did come back to himself he'd be dangerously well handicapped.

"Amy (Ryan, daughter), rides Blaine. She gets on great with him. She's won two good races on him this year so there's no reason why she shouldn't ride him. We opted to go high with two and we've got two drawn low, so we've covered both sides of the track."