THE Doonside Cup is the feature event on the opening day of Ayr's three-day Gold Cup meeting on Thursday.
The 1m2f Listed contest is worth a cool £65k and has attracted a high-quality field of seven.
The class horse in the race is undoubtedly Forest Ranger.
However, Richard Fahey's five-year-old has to shoulder a 7lb penalty for successfully defending his crown in the Group 2 Huxley Stakes earlier in the year.
He hasn't beaten a rival in two subsequent starts, albeit both of those heavy defeats came at York, a track at which he is 0-5.
But the fact he concedes weight all round and arrives out of nick means he is worth taking on.
What's The Story has been a flag-bearer for the Keith Dalgleish stable this summer.
He has been mixing it in top handicap company and landed his second big payday of the year when winning at the Ebor Festival.
He is a key player up in grade, as is Big Country who took a step back in the right direction when fourth at Doncaster on his second start after a wind op.
But it wasn't so long ago that three-year-old's farmed this race (four three-year-old winners between 2004 and 2009) and the handy weight-for-age allowance could see ICONIC CHOICE land the spoils.
Doonside Cup selection and best odds
3.30 Ayr: ICONIC CHOICE @ 11-2 with William Hill Bet Now
A Listed winner as a two-year-old, Tom Dascombe's filly was nosed out in a photo finish in the Fred Darling in the spring before a solid seventh behind Hermosa in the 1000 Guineas.
She has since finished seventh in both the German 1000 Guineas and a French Group 3, though she had excuses in both of those races having been held up in rear off a slow early gallop.
She is by a St Leger winner in Sixties Icon and she has some middle distance performers in her family, so the step up to 1m2f looks a good move; in all honesty it is probably the minimum trip for her now.
She goes on any ground and arrives fresh with her yard among the winners. She looks a bet.
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