Sprint king David Nicholls pulled off another brilliant training feat when Funfair Wane gave him an unprecedented fourth success in the past five years in the totesport Ayr Gold Cup.

The Thirsk handler owns the winner in partnership with Manchester City manager Kevin Keegan's wife Jean, who bred the 33-1 shot.

The enterprising Paul Doe had Funfair Wane smartly out of the stalls and set him alight so that he was soon clear in the six-furlong dash.

Fantasy Believer (14-1) looked at one stage as if he might cut him down, but Funfair Wane kept up the gallop to hold his rival at bay by two lengths.

It was a breathtaking performance from the gelding, who won the race two years ago.

Nicholls, who also saddled third-placed Continent (18-1), winner of the race in 2001, said: "Every time you win a race like this it gives you a real buzz, but perhaps even more so with this horse than the others.

"He gets excitable and is difficult to train, and he has had operations on his rear joints during the winter. But he has been in ever such good form recently."

Keegan was with his Premiership team, who were winning at Crystal Palace, and Nicholls added with a smile: "I think I know where he would rather be!"

He went on: "I am so pleased for him and Jean. They are so keen and enthusiastic about their racing. It will be good news for him.

"When Funfair won the race previously Kevin was in the dugout at West Ham, and Harry Redknapp told him the result."

When asked what he was going to do with the winner now, Nicholls added: "That was the plan!"

He did, however, have a word of consolation for his son Adrian, who had ridden Funfair Wane to victory two years ago but this time opted to partner Fire Up The Band, who finished 21st.

He said: "I feel sorry for him. He had a hard choice to make and the owners of Fire Up The Band were keen for him to ride their horse."

Continent went on to win the Prix de l'Abbaye at Longchamp in 2002, and Nicholls added: "It is great to see him back. He was giving weight all round and he will have another crack at the French race now."

Sussex-based Doe, 27, said: "I am very grateful to Mr Nicholls. He provides me with winners quite regularly and this must rank as one of my biggest wins.

"We went very quick, but he was doing it well within himself and was happy doing it. He went really well in the ground and he stayed to the line brilliantly."

Funfair Wane is only the third horse to win the race twice in its 200-year history, and only the second to win it after a year's gap.

Into The Dark (5-4) extended his unbeaten record to four in easy fashion under Australian ace Kerrin McEvoy in the Listed Weatherbys Bank Stakes.

Trainer Saeed Bin Suroor said: "He has run really well and is improving all the time, but I don't want to do too much with him this year as I think he is going to be a lovely four-year-old."

Percussionist, having his first outing since flopping in the Irish Derby, ran well enough to finish second, but he was five lengths adrift of the winner.

Richard Fahey is enjoying a real purple patch and he struck yet again when Golden Legacy (7-1) won a thrilling TSG Firth Of Clyde Stakes in the hands of his stable jockey Paul Hanagan.

Hanagan, gaining his first Pattern-race success in the Group Three contest, brought Golden Legacy with a strong late burst to get up in the last few strides.

The two-year-old won by three-quarters of a length from Castelletto, with Nufoos a neck away in third in the six-furlong race, but the stewards switched the placed horses around.

Castelletto was adjudged to have caused interference close home and her jockey Graham Gibbons was suspended for three days (September 29, 30 and Oct 1) for careless riding.

Fahey said: "There has been talk of the Cheveley Park Stakes (at Newmarket in October), but it would cost £12,000 to supplement her, so we will have to see.

"I have always said she is the best two-year-old I have trained and I just don't know what happened at Chester last time (when she finished third), but she came back home a bit flat and off-colour."

David Allan, who lost his allowance earlier in the season, is holding his own among the seniors and gave Young Mr Grace an enterprising ride to win the totepool Ayrshire Handicap.

Allan dashed Young Mr Grace (8-1) into the lead with three furlongs to race and hard though Jazz Scene and Sir George Turner tried to peg them back, they were still one and a quarter lengths to the good at the line. Allan's boss Tim Easterby, looking ahead to next spring, said: "He is very tough and he could be a Lincoln horse, but it is so important that he gets some cut in the ground."

Sir Mark Prescott is another whose horses are in tremendous form and he and his stable jockey Seb Sanders completed a double.

They won with Comic Strip (100-30) in the totesport.com nursery and Elusive Dream (1-2) in the concluding race of the three-day meeting.