The Cunningham File: Ayr Gold Cup week and weaning himself away from Twitter

The message is clear – punting and Tweeting just don’t mix

It’s the addiction that many fall victim to but few acknowledge.

The symptoms are no different to other forms of compulsive behaviour, dominating time and emotion at the expense of other aspects of life.

The habit is hard to break once it takes hold but, nearly three quarters into 2021, I can say with confidence that sucking constantly on the tit of social media has done my punting no good at all.

My approach to betting on racing - grinding through replays and ratings in search of something the market has missed – hasn’t changed much over the years.

It’s worked passably well overall, but that method simply doesn’t mix with a yearning to be first with the Twitter news or a juvenile desire to get the Likes and Retweets rolling with a pithy one liner.

As ever, the first step towards recovery lies in owning the problem - and you can’t help but accept your focus has gone awry when your mobile pings to life with a cheery reminder that your screen time over the last week has weighed in at over 20 hours.

Twenty hours. That’s the equivalent of at least two full working days and much of it taken up struggling to find the odd pearl among a sea of industry trivia, podcast plugging and bombastic booming when certain folks hit on a winner.

I suspect the seeds of my phone addiction were sown through a desire to stay in the Euro loop while living in HK. Four years responding to every other Trump Tweet with “your organisation is terrible” was something of a red flag with hindsight, but being wired into the web from morning until night – and yes, sometimes while visiting the loo at 3am – is no way to live.

Fleeing Facebook has proved far easier than tossing Twitter but, with a little over three months left to stop 2021 being a losing year, the mobile and the seductive siren call of its Larry T Bird Twitter logo now sits in a separate room during working hours.

Am I missing it? Well, I certainly miss jousting with interesting characters with so many people now working from home full time and the chance to chuckle at the predictable “thanks for all the messages” Tweets when certain parties snag a winner.

But freeing up a massive amount of time to re-focus on which horse will finish in front – without having views pre-rinsed by a slew of Tweets on the same topic - has provided a back to basics boost both for my enjoyment of the sport and the way I punt on it.

True, two weeks in is way too early to draw firm conclusions but the early signs are promising.

And so thanks in advance for all the messages if this week’s File pin alights on Saturday’s Ayr Gold Cup winner – though please don’t be offended if I stay off the radar until after racing has finished.

Brilliant Lochsong heads Ayr Gold Cup flashbacks

Ayr Gold Cup weekend is upon us and with it come the usual flashbacks and debate about the possible effects of the draw. The flashbacks are a little hazy in some respects – as auld Ayr has always been a fun place for a night out – but here are five that resonate:

• 1992: Lochsong headed north having completed the Stewards’ Cup/Portland double and took the Gold Cup field apart with 7lb claimer Francis Arrowsmith hanging on for dear life. Hindsight is 20-20 but Ian Balding’s filly was clearly miles ahead of the game off a mark of just 95. And she was sent off at 10/1!

• 1995: Istabraq had impressed when pipped by subsequent Gold Cup winner Celeric at York and duly bolted up to land a sustained punt for Pat Eddery and John Gosden in the Bogside Cup. Would a horse with a similar profile ever see a hurdle nowadays? It seems unlikely but Istabraq proved the best 38,000gns that JP McManus ever spent when he was sold the following summer.

• 1996: The giant Coastal Bluff bolted up in the Stewards’ Cup then, backed down to 3/1 favourite under Jimmy Fortune, became the first horse since Scottish hero Roman Warrior to hump top-weight to victory in the Ayr Gold Cup. David Barron’s gelding dead heated with Ya Malak in the 1997 Nunthorpe and would surely have won outright but for the fact that his bit broke early on.

• 2006: I’ve seldom heard a louder racecourse whisper about a young horse than the one which accompanied Utmost Respect to Ayr for a valuable nursery. Richard Fahey’s charge duly sealed the deal off a mark of 81 under Paul Hanagan and went on to land the Silver Cup twelve months later and four Group races before falling victim to peritonitis while being prepared for Royal Ascot in 2008.

• 2013: Oisin Murphy had just turned 18 when he made his first ever trip to Scotland to use his 5lb claim aboard 20-1 shot Highland Colori in the Gold Cup for Andrew Balding. The five-year-old powered clear in the red and white silks of proud Scot Evan Sutherland and Murphy gave a broad hint of what was to come by landing the remaining three races on the card to seal a 9,260-1 four timer.

Gold and Silver Cup draw advantage rests on split decision

The addition of the Silver and Bronze Cups to the Western Meeting – sorry, the Virgin Bet Ayr Gold Cup Festival – has trebled the fun for sprint handicap junkies and provided extra fuel for the annual draw debate fire.

And, having spent way more time trawling through the last ten Ayr Gold and Silver Cup videos than is healthy, the following points seem well worth noting.

• Nothing drawn lower than 8 has won the Gold Cup since Fonthill Road saluted from 6 in 2006.
• But, much more importantly, a great deal seems to depend on whether the field splits into distinct far and near side groups.
• High numbers have a solid record when the field does split.
• But that advantage flips noticeably when those drawn high edge over to race in the centre.

Of course, pointers such as this are only of real value if you have a clear idea of whether a split is on the cards.

But the evidence of 2015 and 2016 – when none of the 16 placed horses in the Gold and Silver Cups were drawn higher than 12 – shows that high drawn horses who work their way left as the stalls open are playing a very dangerous game.

And that point was rammed home again last year, when the first six in the Gold Cup were drawn 13 and lower and Magical Spirit streaked clear from stall 4 in the Silver Cup having raced in a group of just four who raced alone on the far side.

And so how will this year’s Gold Cup pan out?

York winner Great Ambassador looks a very worthy favourite following his recent fine efforts, though he’s priced accordingly and could do with ironing out his tendency to drift from a true line once he gets a view of the front.

The favourite and his old rival from the Stewards' Cup - namely Commanche Falls - are drawn right on the far side in stalls 1 and 2 and could be in the perfect spot if those drawn high take the long way home.

However, I'm going to take the chance that the freewheeling Just Frank will blaze the trail towards the stand side from gate 18. And if he does then that could set things up neatly for a strong late charge from Bielsa.

Kevin Ryan's love of this race must have been encouraged by his early days with the great Jack Berry and the Hambleton handler has lifted the trophy four times in the last fourteen years with Advanced, Our Jonathan, Captain Ramius and Brando.

Bielsa is a little like his footballing namesake in that he's yet to really cut it against the big boys in Britain even though a lot of industry wiseguys are full of praise for his abilities.

Those abilities haven't always been seen to very best advantage this season, including when he ploughed a lonely furrow up the centre for sixth in the Stewards' Cup on his latest start, but that could be about to change.

Bielsa has a healthy pull in the weights with Commanche Falls and Great Amabassador this time. The forecast rain is in his favour and he looks a solid each way option at 16/1 or thereabouts with the progressive Popmaster (11/1), blinkered for the first time after an emphatic Ascot success, making plenty of appeal as saver material.

Tale of two Harringtons brings mixed results

This has been a mixed week for people called J Harrington. Jessie cleaned up on Irish Champions weekend with four winners including two at G1 level, while Julie’s slot in the Luck On Sunday spotlight left plenty to work on.

There was a lot to unpack in the BHA Chief Executive’s 35-minute interview but the corporate wrapping was way more impressive than the actual content of the answers on several key issues.

Too much sport?

This yielded much chat about “a complex eco system” and “keeping the customer as the north star.” It also produced an admission that “occasionally we get the balance slightly wrong.” Which, coming after a summer of unprecedented small fields, is simply using words with zero regard to their meaning.

Fixture List anxiety?

“We are trying to understand the story behind the numbers” was a key line here, followed by “there is no magic wand solution” and “we will learn through innovation.” But next year’s Fixture List is almost identical to the 2021 version. The story behind the numbers is that the numbers simply aren’t changing. And whether the BHA can innovate to prevent another damaging summer of short fields in 2022 seems increasingly doubtful.

Racing’s key area of growth and working with the betting industry?

The pattern was well established by now, with Luck giving his guest the floor to lay out key ambitions. But the moment passed. No clear vision of how to engage a young audience or drive turnover so that key players can gain a reasonable reward for their efforts. Just another “there is no magic wand” response followed by “rearguard action” chat about working behind the scenes for Levy reform.

Views on the whip?

Luck is on the BHA’s Whip Steering Committee and this part of the conversation involved hands and heels coaxing rather than use of the persuader. It was no avail. Harrington seemed nonplussed to be asked and danced increasingly awkwardly around the topic before pivoting swiftly from “it doesn’t matter what I think” to saying that her modus operandi on crucial matters is to ask “what does Julie think?"

Funnily enough, I share Julie’s tendency to refer to myself in the third person on occasion and, once Sunday’s chat concluded, I asked myself “what would Graham think?” And, despite Lucky’s best efforts to give the BHA boss a chance to shine, the first answer that came to mind was: "Wow, that was a bad segment."

More from Sporting Life

• Racecards
• Fast results
• Full results and free video replays
• Horse racing news
• Horse racing tips
• Horse racing columnists
• Download our free iOS and Android app
• Football and other sports tips
• Podcasts and video content

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.

Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.