THE competing forces of feverish hope and cold reality race in Jim Goldie's mind.

Occasionally, they form a photo-finish. The dream of producing the best is thus matched with the substance of a powerful thoroughbred flashing past the winning post.

This is Goldie's core business, his life. He lives in hope and he lives off winners. There is a physicality to the horseman's dreams. He does not just train the young thoroughbred, guiding its steps to the winner's enclosure. He matches sire with dam and breeds horses at his Libohill Farm Stables in Uplawmoor.

"It is a puzzle," he says of training and breeding. It is a word he returns to continually as he faces a week that will culminate in the challenge and the opportunity of the Ayr Gold Cup.

The puzzle is solved with increasing success on a variety of strips of land throughout Britain. Last season Goldie won £455,000 in Flat prize money and £112,000 over jumps. The realist in him knows this is an excellent return in an unforgiving business. The dreamer looks over the hills and down towards Ayr.

Goldie craves a winner of the Ayr Gold Cup. This is partly because he loves to win, partly because he was bred in Scottish racing tradition and partly because he needs to solve a puzzle that has been beyond a Scottish trainer since 1975 when Nigel Angus won the race with Roman Warrior.

"It's a wart," he says with a laugh of the annoying blemish that can not be erased despite his best efforts. "I maybe should think of a different word but I have the same conversation every year. It would be good to win for that reason alone. It would be appropriate to do it in referendum year."

When the suspects are paraded for trainer most likely to end the Caledonian drought in the Gold Cup, Goldie is always in the frame. He has 17 runners listed for Saturday's main event but most will only qualify for the consolation races. "I have two real players," he says. These are Jack Dexter and Hawkeyethenoo. Both are class horses but this is hardly a secret kept from the handicapper. Hawkeyethenoo won the 2012 Stewards' Cup at Goodwood and Jack Dexter has lifted a Group 3 race and both have to carry the burden of weight that these records bestow.

The trainer now has to find a new way to complete the puzzle. Jack Dexter, his five-year-old gelding, finished third under top weight last year and Goldie has taken what he described as a massive gamble with the horse he describes as potentially Group 1 class, that is one that should be competing in the very best races rather than scrambling against horses with lesser burdens and lesser talent.

"It is another handicap. That is the reality," he says of the relatively humble status of the Ayr Gold Cup. "But to the West of Scotland it is the biggest race we have. It is our local Derby," he adds of the attraction of the six- furlong sprint.

It is a race that has a signif-icance for Goldie that stretches beyond its £160,000 prize fund. He is a racing man born and bred. He rode for his father, Thomas, a permit holder in Kilwinning. His stables are a family business with wife Davina and sons Jim and George all employed in an operation that has earned £6 million in prize money since 1994 and produced more than 600 winners.

As well as a Stewards' Cup, the stable has won Listed races and at the Grand National meeting. It has won an Ayr Bronze Cup and an Ayr Silver Cup. It now goes for gold again on Saturday. Jack Dexter has been prepared especially for the race and Goldie describes his approach as both a "bold move" and a "massive gamble". The horse has been given a break since July, missing potentially lucrative races to leave him fresh for the Gold Cup.

"Rather than play the percentage game, I decided to give him a chance to regenerate his obvious powers. It is a big throw of the dice for me," he says.

"Racing is a big picture. You map out a horse's career, you go with the flow to start with and then you get to know what the horse wants and you know what it is capable of because its form tells you. It becomes easier to plan. We have had a poor season with Jack Dexter compared to what he did before. We had to reassess. It is a gamble, but it is a calculated gamble."

Jack Dexter was a product of Goldie trying to solve the puzzle, matching one of his stallions, Orientor, with a mare, Glenhurich, that comes from a dam side that always produces winners, at whatever level.

"There are reasons why Jack Dexter is what he is. Folk say he was a fluke, But he was a fluke that I set out to breed," he says.

The strategy of finding a successful breeding strategy and then producing the offspring to win races galvanises Goldie.

"I love the puzzle. The winning is very good but the anticipation of the win gives as much pleasure. This is the thrill to racing. You set out on many journeys but you do not always hit the peak."

But this reality is trumped by hope. "That is why folk breed horses. They think they are going to have the next Frankel or Shergar. And some of them do," Goldie says.

He is a character who believes in the value of hard work and deep thinking. He deserves to have a puzzle solved at Ayr on Saturday afternoon.