Staged as part of Ayr’s bumper three-day Gold Cup meeting every September, the Firth of Clyde Stakes while having to play second-fiddle to the feature race is actually the highest quality event of the festival, run at Group 3 level over the same six-furlong course as the Gold Cup for more than £65,000.

First staged in 1976, the Firth of Clyde has been taken in the past by the likes of Airwave, Unilateral and Queen of Bermuda and is unique in that despite its official grade it can often be used as a substitute by trainers for the title event.

Those considered to have been given too high a rating and thus too much weight to be successfully carried in the Ayr Gold Cup are often rerouted to this race, though some genuinely classy types having taken this race in over recent years.