DAZZLING BAY (3.35) is fancied to foil David Nicholls' bold attempt to win the £100,000 Ayr Gold Cup for a record-breaking fourth year in succession.

Nicholls lines up seven of the best in the 28-runner cavalry charge, but it is fellow Yorkshire handler Tim Easterby who might just have the ace up his sleeve courtesy of Dazzling Bay, one of the most improved horses in training during 2003.

Attempting to second-guess the potential of thoroughbreds is a hazardous business at the best of times and it fair to say the meteoric progress of Dazzling Bay from plain average to lightning fast was totally impossible to predict.

In the space of a few golden summer weeks, Easterby's three-year-old reeled off a fabulous three-timer at Newmarket, York, and Ripon, netting a cool £93,000 for connections in the process.

Not bad for a horse previously limited to one low-level success in an egg-and-spoon maiden event at Hamilton.

One man not too surprised that the sow's ear transformed into a silk purse was Dazzling Bay's regular jockey John Egan.

"I knew he was something special after he won at Newmarket," explained the top Irish pilot.

"He's a bit quirky and tends to veer off a straight line but you just have to let him do his own thing," he added.

It is true that Dazzling Bay does tend to wander off at peculiar angles, thankfully though that unhelpful trait might well be negated by his advantageous high draw, which should enable the partnership to hold firm against the favoured stands side rail and steer a far more conventional path.

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