Marsad, backed to maintain a family tradition is set to lead the market behind hot favourite Astonished for tomorrow's Ladbroke Ayr Gold Cup after being the object of sustained support yesterday.

The five-year-old trained at Epsom by John Akehurst, whose father Reg was an acclaimed master at landing punts in valuable handicaps, was clipped to 10 to 1, having begun trading at Ladbrokes quote Astonished, easy winner of the Portland Handicap at Doncaster last week, is quoted at 3 to 1 favourite, with Grangeville at 8 to 1 and Pepperdine at 9 to 1.

Marsad has returned to form on his last two starts, finishing respectively fifth and sixth in the Great St Wilfrid Handicap at Ripon and a valuable race at Goodwood last month, and a deluge over Scotland's West Coast - which has turned the ground good to soft with more to follow - has convinced the nation's punters that tomorrow will be the chestnut's day.

A total of 29 horses were declared at yesterday's 48-hour declaration stage, with the most notable absentee being Ed Dunlop's Deep Space. Asked whether his money was behind the gamble, Akehurst, whose gelding will emerge from stall 21, responded: "It's not mine or the owners' - it's Joe Public.

"I am very pleased with him. He hasn't been right all the year but on the last couple of runs he seems to have hit form.

"He has now got his ground and hopefully the draw will be all right - it depends where the pace is, I suppose, and we will have to wait and see.

"I'm not sure if he will go on heavy ground but he will go on very soft whereas I know a lot of them won't."

Explaining Ladbrokes' move to cut Marsad, Andy Clifton said: "The softer the ground has become at Ayr the hotter the gamble has become.

"Obviously he is a soft ground horse and he ran very well on the wrong side of the course at Ripon a couple of starts ago and wasn't beaten that far at Goodwood last time.

Ian Balding has confirmed that Grangeville, who is unlikely to find conditions at Ayr in his favour will run whatever the weather over the next 48 hours.

"The horse definitely runs," he said. "He would be better suited if it didn't rain but he runs."

Ayr's clerk of the course Richard Pridham, describing conditions on the Western meeting's opening day, said: "Early this morning there was perfect going but after the rain we've had it has gone back to good to soft."

Asked as to the effect of the draw, Pridham added: "I think it's pretty consistent all the way across the track and there shouldn't be any advantage wherever a horse is drawn."

However, with worsening conditions likely to result in a couple of empty stalls come the weekend, Gay Kelleway reiterated her call for the introduction of reserves for races with a 48-hour declaration time.

Kelleway, whose Khalik was narrowly balloted out of the Gold Cup's consolation race, Silver Cup on Saturday, said: "The horses' last run was going to be his preprace for the Silver Cup but he missed the cut.

"It is guaranteed one or two horses won't run in the race in the end - why can't we have this system of reserves?"