Ayr Sprint Cups and the Draw…
Ayr's Western meeting is headlined by the Gold Cup, a very high class six furlong handicap. Such is its popularity that the meeting also hosts not one but two consolation races, the Silver and Bronze Cups.
What that means is a reasonable body of big field evidence from which to conjecture about the draw. Geegeez Gold also has some pretty neat tools to support those ruminations.
First, we need to establish the likely going. With a largely dry forecast, the ground should be somewhere between good and good to soft by Saturday, when the Silver and Gold Cups are hosted. Today, the official going is soft, good to soft in places. We'll use the history of all big field six furlong sprints since 2009 at the track.
Ayr 6 Furlong Draw (Overall)
Here's how the high/middle/low split looks in six furlong races of 16 runners or more since 2009 at Ayr:

All 16+ runner 6f races at Ayr since 2009
As you can see, low is marginally favoured over middle, which in turn is favoured over high. That's based on place percentages across a sample of almost 600 runners.
Ayr 6 Furlong Draw (Good, Good to Soft, Soft only)
Because we have a reasonable (relative to other course/distance combinations) sample size, we can restrict our going range to something closer to this weekend's reality. In this image, I'm looking only at soft to good ground:

Ayr big field 6 furlong races on good, good to soft, or soft ground
Here we can see that low is still favoured, though not by as much, with high some way behind. All of these views show the place percentage, which allows for a slightly largely sample of placers than winners. Focusing only on winners would show a similar 'low and middle dominating high' perspective.
A More Granular Look...
So that's cut and dried then, no? Low to middle favoured. High can win but historically not so much. Sadly, it's not quite as simple as that. Look at this race-by-race breakdown of the draw positions of the placed horses in 16+ runners six furlong races run at Ayr on ground ranging from good through to soft, since 2009.

Ayr 6f place draw breakdown, 16+ runners
What is striking - to me - is how 'random' the spread of stall positions is. But look more closely and you might be able to discern a 'cluster' effect: groups of proximitous stalls appearing in the same result.
Holy Clusters, Batman!
Last year, the Gold Cup first four were in stalls between four and nine; and the Silver Cup saw three of the first four home in adjacent boxes two to four. Indeed, in the image below we can see how prevalent this place clustering actually is.

Ayr 6f big field place clustering
Note the red comments, where three or all four placed horses came from a small portion of the draw. This starts to look anything but random. And yet, we still have the challenge of establishing, ahead of time, where these 'pockets of success' might be. The crucial thing is that, over the course of seven years, they have - on different occasions - been spread across the track.
What About Pace?
So perhaps there is no discernible draw bias. Is that possible? In the below table, I've added some early pace information. Below the table, I'll explain what it means.

Effect and location of early pace in 6f big field Ayr sprints
This was somewhat labour intensive, and is a little bit subjective, in terms of using pace comments to determine those with early dash in the races. However, as a totality, I think there are some interesting findings.
The green numbers in the placing boxes are placed horses that had early pace in the race. The stall positions, quantity, and placed quantity, of early pacers are in the three right hand columns.
Of the 460 runners to contest these 19 races, 76 filled out the first four placings (16.5%). The 131 early pacers (28.5% of the runners) managed to claim 29 of the 76 top four placings (38%), which is a third higher than random.
So we can be reasonably confident that early pace is generally favoured in these races, something borne out by Gold's pace tab:

Performance, by run style, of all 6f races at Ayr since 2009
The table below the blobs shows a clear linear relationship, especially on place percentage, by run style. Early leaders are almost twice as likely to win than random, while those held up perform significantly below expectations. Of course, the 'tail end Charlie' group includes a lot of no-hopers in open race company, which over-emphasizes the point but, nevertheless, a prominent/front rank early position is generally advantageous.
Although the data are far from unequivocal - sadly, pigeonholes rarely work effectively when trying to solve the biggest racing puzzles - it would seem that pace is a more important commodity than draw, although being drawn close to some 'community pace' looks a solid advantage.
Who's going to win? Bronze Cup
This is the bit where I put my money where my mouth is. Using the info above, as well as the Instant Expert and various other bits and bobs, I'll offer a suggestion or two. Keep in mind that the scope for egg on face here is high, so caveat emptor!
Pretty much all of the early zip looks to be low, as you can see here:

Ayr Bronze Cup: pace looks to be low
Here's what the Instant Expert makes of the form in the book:

Instant Expert's view of the Bronze Cup
Ocean Sheridan, drawn nine, and a fan of softish ground, has shown he can handle big fields and is a distance specialist. He represents a northern trainer who targets the meeting, and should run a big race at around 10/1.
Giant Spark has an obvious chance, one which is very well accounted for in a quote of 5/1.
At bigger prices, Marjorie Fife's Best Trip could blaze a trail for a long way, and come out best of her three entries. 25/1 should give a run for your money at least.
A good egg on face avoidance strategy is to take one from 'the other side' just in case (!), and Adrian Keatley's Anonymous Lady has plenty of juice in her quote of 25/1. Keatley showed yesterday he's in fine fettle, and has a belting overall record at the track.

Adrian Keatley's Anonymous Lady may be drawn on the wrong side, but she has a decent profile otherwise
Who's going to win? Gold and Silver Cups
Here at geegeez, we try to teach people to fish, as the old adage goes, and we have top of the range rods and bait inside Geegeez Gold. So it is that, with a nod of encouragement, I invite you to do your own angling for a tasty fish supper in Saturday's races. If you come up dry, don't carp about it though (groan)!
Good luck,
Matt
p.s. Geegeez Gold is £30 monthly but, for the next few days only, you can secure a huge discount by signing up as an annual subscriber. £197 gets you twelve months' access here: http://www.geegeez.co.uk/invest-in-gold/
Please note: Annual subs will rise for new annual subscribers only to £249 from next Monday, 19th September. If you're on a trial, or have already upgraded to Annual, you will be unaffected by the price rise and will be 'grandfathered' in on the soon-to-be old rate for the term of your subscription. (NB it is your responsibility not to let it lapse!)
Here's that link again: http://www.geegeez.co.uk/invest-in-gold/
Thank-you!
Nice post very informative as usual,
I’ve already put on dark defender in the bronze E/W at 14/1 so that’s mine.
Good luck, Charlie. He’s drawn low, and pacy, for an in-form Scottish trainer.
Best,
Matt
Micheal Dods is a Durham lad, and he always targets this meeting and the horses are in good form
Oops, thanks Gordie. Schoolboy error on my part! Will correct.
Matt
Thanks for the preview Matt I find it very beneficial reading these and seeing how you analyse the data and formulate your picks. I do wonder how you get the time to provide detailed insights given everything else you’ve got on the go, but please keep them coming!
Lee
Thanks Lee, that’s very kind. The time has been lacking in recent months, hence so have the longer race previews, I’m afraid.
Will keep offering them up when the schedule allows, and thanks again for the kind comment.
Matt
Hi Matt
Big thanks for the guide, it is a big help showing how it is best
to look at these big races and how to break the race down.
For what it is worth my pin came down on
I’ll Be Good in the 3-05 and Giant Spark in the 4-15
Cheers
Dave
The clusters were in full effect at Ayr again, as follows:
Bronze Cup: 1st 3 home drawn 5, 7, 8 (5th horse was drawn 6!)
Silver Cup: 1st 3 home drawn 8, 9, 12 (4th horse was drawn 5)
Gold Cup: 1st 3 home drawn 6, 7, 8 (4th and 5th drawn 10, 11!)
With Gold Cup winner Brando being the only line of green on the place Instant Expert, it was a very good race for many Geegeez Gold subscribers!
Matt