Best Handicap Performances: Ayr Gold Cup

Last year’s winner of the Ayr Gold Cup, Brando, put up a handicap performance for the ages when defying joint top weight (the first top weight to win the race since Coastal Bluff in 1996), running to a Timeform rating of 124. Brando became the fourth winner of the Ayr Gold Cup for his trainer Kevin Ryan (Advanced in 2007, Our Jonathan in 2011, and Captain Ramius in 2012 were the others), just bettering Our Jonathan’s performance (ran to a Timeform rating of 123), who is the only other horse this century to break through the 120 barrier in Scotland’s most famous Flat race. Brando’s winning effort, which would have won him four of the previous five runnings of the Champions Sprint at Ascot, was the best performance of last season in a handicap in Britain and Ireland, 2 lb higher on Timeform ratings than Librisa Breeze’s win in the Challenge Cup at Ascot in October. The Challenge Cup runner-up Firmament produced the third-best handicap performance of the season in the Balmoral Handicap just two weeks later, his length and a half third to Yuften, giving the winner 7 lb, marginally superior to Spark Plug’s two and a quarter length success in the Cambridgeshire in September. Heartbreak City secured his place among the top five handicap performances in Britain and Ireland when landing a gamble by four lengths in Europe’s richest handicap, the Ebor at York.

A rejuvenated Hoof It finished third behind Brando last year, but his performance when winning the Stewards’ Cup in 2011 was one of the best seen by Timeform. In running to a Timeform rating of 125, Hoof It's effort was some way in advance of any other handicap performances on the Flat in Europe at the time, matching the figure achieved by Russian Revival when he won the 1999 Tote International at Ascot and that of Borderlescott when he was third in the 2008 Stewards' Cup. Hoof It carried top weight to victory, putting up a handicap display of epic proportions to make short work of his 26 rivals off an official mark of 111. The Michael Easterby-trained four-year-old made a mockery of his welter burden, always travelling strongly and having the race won fully a furlong from home. To find a better Timeform performance of 125 in a handicap means going back to the 'seventies, specifically to the top-class sprinter Roman Warrior, who ran to a Timeform rating of 132 when winning the Ayr Gold Cup in July 1975.

Russian Revival – trained by John Gosden and owned by Maktoum Al Maktoum – put up the biggest handicap performance on Timeform’s scale in 1999 when defying top weight to win the Tote International at Ascot. It was the most valuable race of its type at the time, and was Russian Revival’s seventh career success on what turned out to be his final start. A thoroughly game and consistent colt, there’s no doubt he would have been up to winning more pattern races, but instead he went to stand at the Killarkin Stud in Ireland for a fee of £3,000. His most notable offspring is Imbongi, who was trained by Mike de Kock and raced predominantly in Dubai, but he did win the Criterion Stakes at Newmarket in 2009.

It was nine years later in 2008 when Borderlescott matched the effort of Russian Revival, showing himself to be better than ever when a close third to Conquest off a BHA mark of 110 in the Stewards' Cup at Goodwood. Borderlescott had won the Stewards' Cup two years previously but, between that victory and the Nunthorpe, he had won only once, in a minor event at Musselburgh. Borderlescott finished second no fewer than thirteen times in his career, which might lead some to raise questions about his resolution, but his record is a tremendously consistent one and he was always most genuine.

The fourth and most recent member of the ‘125 club’ is Farraaj, who produced a high-class performance when winning the John Smiths Cup at York in 2014. Trained by Roger Varian, he produced the handicap performance of the season, conceding no less than 16 lb to the runner up as he defied an official mark of 111. Farraaj was a fragile type, plagued by physical issues earlier in his career, and though it all came together at York, it would turn out to be his last win. He was sent to Dhruba Selvaratnam by owner Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum in 2015 to race in Dubai, but was unable to regain his form.

As it stands, this year has been a little underwhelming as far as noteworthy performances in handicaps go, with no horse breaking the 120 barrier. There are three horses who have all run to a Timeform rating of 119 this season, though, namely D’Bai in the Porsche Handicap, Remarkable in the Cunard Handicap and Danzeno in the Heritage Handicap, all of which took place at Ascot. But with top-end handicaps such as the Ayr Gold Cup and Cambridgeshire just around the corner, there is still time for a high-class performance. Looking at the Ayr Gold Cup on Saturday, it’s looking likely to be run in testing conditions, so the likelihood of a 120+ performance is increasingly doubtful - all of the performances talked about bar Brando’s win in the Ayr Gold Cup last year came on ground no slower than good. The Cambridgeshire, on the other hand, has the potential to unearth such a figure. Remarkable, whose win at Ascot last time is already the joint highest rated handicap performance of the season, is set to carry top weight at Newmarket. He is a quirky sort, but one with bundles of ability, though the trip is a question mark given he is yet to race beyond a mile and his best form has come at seven furlongs. A strongly-run nine furlongs could well suit Big Country – a horse with the capacity to be the best Mick Appleby has trained – down to the ground, however, and he has the potential to run a career-defining figure.