JIM GOLDIE is confident that Hawkeyethenoo can significantly improve on last year’s 15th place finish in tomorrow’s William Hill Ayr Gold Cup.

The five-year-old was among the 27 declared runners for the Western meeting showpiece as were leading ante-post fancies Pepper Lane and Mac’s Power.

Roman Warrior was the last Scottish-trained winner in 1975 and Goldie’s charge is the main home hope.

Hawkeyethenoo was drawn in stall 20 and is a 14-1 chance with the sponsors and Boylesports.

And Goldie said: “He’s coming here fresh and well and he’s high enough in the handicap, but I think he’s a horse capable of winning as he’s very good.

“I walked the track and it seemed very fair right across. We’re in stall 20 and that way we have the option of going down the middle. It wasn’t a hard decision.

“I think the horse will be better than he was 12 months ago. The lesson we probably learnt from last year is that we probably ran him too often.

“He’s very good fresh so we thought we’d come here fresh and give him his best chance.”

Goldie would dearly love to land the valuable handicap for Scotland, and he added: “It’s definitely a monkey on my back and it seems to me that I’m always standing here with the one Scottish runner.

“It would be terrific (to win). If it wasn’t the Ayr Gold Cup I’d be quite confident, but this is a unique race.

“Invariably they divide and you just have to hope you’re drawn on the right side.”

Pepper Lane is a 12-1 chance with the sponsors and is vying for favouritism with Mac’s Power. But his part-owner Kevin Nicholson says he had hoped for a higher draw than the allotted stall 11 for his star filly.

He said: “Ideally we would have liked a higher draw but you’ve got to go where you are picked. I think we’ll be all right.

“She’s improved that much this season – it’s a big surprise to us all really.

“It’s fantastic to be running here, never mind thinking of winning it.

“But she’s there with a serious chance, I think.

“After she won at Redcar, David said we should put her away and look at the Bronze Cup.

“But I said we should go for the Armstrong Memorial at Ripon and then when she won that we thought we thought we’d better go for the Great St Wilfrid.”

TODAY’S NAP: Be A Devil (6.20pm Wolverhampton).