AN Angel winged to victory in Saturday’s William Hill Ayr Gold Cup and a footballing legend screamed in delight 400 miles away in London !

I say there’s a story behind every Ayr Gold Cup but it would take one of the world’s greatest scriptwriters to come up with what we witnessed on Saturday.

The winning horse Angel Alexander is part-owned by former England footie great Michael Owen and he was en route to BT Sport’s London studios to take part in their Saturday results round up and had to watch the action unfold on his phone in his brother’s car.

He admitted afterwards he was screaming ‘Go on my son” as his horse hit the front and stayed there all the way to the line to land Scotland’s richest Flat race and the £124,500 first prize.

His three co-owners - Keith Trowbridge, Peter Birbeck and Steve Mound were all in attendance and were absolutely delighted with the win.

Mound said afterwards : “Two weeks ago when we thought it was going to be soft or heavy we thought he had a real chance. When it dried out and they’ve all been going over the far side we thought our chance had gone.

“It was one of those afternoons when I came for the enjoyment of having a runner in the Ayr Gold Cup, not really expecting to win it. I only got excited in the last 100 yards and I got very, very excited! What a buzz ! This is tremendous.”

I interviewed the winning jockey Richard Kingscote after the race and he explained to me how his plan for the race worked to perfection.

He said : “I knew Tom Eaves who was riding Major Jumbo would make the pace and I decided to follow him and I got a great tow into the race. I probably hit the front too soon but I balanced him and he saw it out well.

“These handicaps take some winning and I’m delighted to have added an Ayr Gold Cup to the Silver Cup win I had on Roudee in 2018.”

In behind the winner, the veteran Growl ran a huge race for trainer Richard Fahey and his jockey Tony Hamilton to be beaten only half a length into second place with the David O’Meara trained pair Gulliver and Summerghand in third and fourth.

It shows how competitive a contest it was when only three and three quarters lengths separated the first 13 runners home.

Undoubtedly the biggest disappointment of the race was the run of Buffer Zone who was sent off the 100/30 favourite, one of the shortest priced horses ever to contest an Ayr Gold Cup. He ran no sort of race and was probably a bit jaded running only six days after winning a big runner handicap at the Curragh.

Trainer Tim Easterby won both the Silver and Bronze Cups with Golden Apollo and Music Society respectively with David Allan riding the former and Paul Mulrennan on the latter.

His bid for the magical treble in the Gold Cup came unstuck when Staxton could only finish tenth.

A word for the grounds team at Ayr who produced the track in superb condition and earned praise from leading jockeys including Joe Fanning, Paul Hanagan and Tom Eaves.