4.6 AND 21.0 GUINEAS ONE-TWO FROM DAQMAN: Daqman landed a one-two yesterday with Trading Point (WON 1-1) and Mooltazem (2ND 11-1). Today he attempts the same feat in the 2,000 Guineas at 4.6 and 21.0 in the BETDAQ orange this morning. Daqman was also paid out on another big place effort yesterday with Harome (2ND 18-1).
DAQMAN’S 63 POINTS IN FRONT OF PRICEWISE: Daqman is 16-5 up on Pricewise of the Racing Post in their value challenge and 63 points clear to a single-unit level stake (Daqman +20.00, Pricewise –43.25). Today’s races are 1.50, 3.35 Newmarket; 2.40 Goodwood; 11.50 Churchill Downs.
O’BRIEN £1.8m SUPERSTAR ALREADY?
Ballydoyle’s Newmarket 2,000 Guineas bid is for loose change today. The 2,000 guineas of the race’s inauguration would now be worth £357,000 in present-day purchasing power. In fact, the winner of today’s race will get £283,550.
But Aidan O’Brien can hope for more than three times as much by taking the £918,519 first prize for tonight’s Kentucky Derby with Mendelssohn on Churchill Downs, and the trans-Atlantic Classic double would net well over a million.
Mendelssohn has already won £888,888 this year by scoring at Meydan in the UAE Derby so that, allowed only a glimpse of his preparation in a Listed at Dundalk in March, we could already have one of the super horses of the season with almost £1.8m in the bag this year alone!
He has the whole season before him to overtake Enable’s £3.8m but she will be back at The Curragh this month and then Royal Ascot.
Whatever else there is among the colts will have to win both the English (£850,000) and Irish Derbys (855,000 euros) even if Mendelssohn wins today and then retires to stud!
So is there a star lurking in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket today?
REDEMPTION DAY FOR ROARING LION
3.35 Newmarket (2,000 Guineas) It was one of the first bets in history. ‘Out of the strong came forth sweetness,’ said Samson, posing the question to the Phillistines: what does it mean?
The wager was for ’30 soft shirts and good suits’. But they couldn’t find the answer.
Today you’ll be walking in treacle, trying to make sense of the Guineas form, and wondering what to put your shirt on.
The answer may lie with Samson, who was referring to honey he had found in a lion’s carcase. Many centuries later, it became an advertising logo of long standing.
Now the colt called Roaring Lion, who has been given up for dead, could still be the outsider of the 2,000 Guineas at a very sweet 21.0 in the BETDAQ orange this morning.
Masar With Roaring Lion below par, he had nothing to beat in the Craven Stakes and had the run of the race, deliberately shaken up and asked to show what he could do. That was no trial run. That was his Guineas.
If connections thought he was so good that he could get away with that again, he wouldn’t be languishing as third favourite in the market, even with the O’Brien pair against him.
Cardsharp If he does try to make all, Masar may be taken on by Cardsharp, who is likely to set a good pace for stablemate Elarquam.
Elarqam is the enigma of the race, best bred in the field, by Frankel out of a mare who won at Group-1 level five times, but again has beaten nothing well, eased down to score over Tip Top Two (rated only 106 despite two wins since) at Newmarket in the autumn
Roaring Lion Only 80% in the Craven Stakes. ‘Too fresh’ and no gallop on to settle him or bring out his galloping action. The Dante is likely to be his race but there could be some pace on today and that would engage his gears.
Saxon Warrior He and Roaring Lion came away from the Racing Post field. Even more than the Lion, he will need a strong pace.
In Aidan O’Brien’s own words, he has developed into a ‘massive colt’ and this may be a stepping-stone to the Dante and the Derbys of Epsom and The Curragh.
Gustav Klimt was deliberately put into one of the trials to shake off the winter cloak which has shrouded most of the Ballydoyle runners so far. Fit and classy, so deservedly 4.6 favourite on BETDAQ this morning.
Expert Eye Even if you make excuses for Expert Eye, and reckon he can finally make a big-time comeback today, will he get the trip in a Classic field?
James Garfield Expert Eye could well reverse Greenham form with James Garfield, but it’s off-putting to hear Sir Michael Stoute say we will only know when the race is run whether the Guineas is his trip.
Racing’s cricket-mad knight never puts spin on his horses but has been known to bowl the Press the occasional googly.
Success in this would raise the master trainer’s status on to an even higher plinth, just below God and pigeon-droppings distance above Donald Trump.
ORDER IN/BETDAQ VALUE 1 Gustav Klimt (4.6), 2 Roaring Lion (21.0), 3 Saxon Warrior (4.8), with offers on BETDAQ at time of writing.
NOTHING CAN CROSS THE BRIDGE..
1.50 Newmarket Sharja Bridge is very lightly raced and fancied as the Group horse in a handicap here. It’s virtually 10-1 bar one, which by default injects some value into the 4.2 BETDAQ offers about the favourite.
Brorocco is expected to need the run. Dommersen has never won on turf and stablemate Tricorn, though third in the Britannia, has been gelded since.
2.40 Goodwood Remember big-field Goodwood handicaps? That’s where the high draw gets swept wide and the low draw gets trapped in the posse on the rails. Good here, isn’t it!
In fact, four of the five winners of this have come from. single-figure stalls, where Right Action (in 4) tries to move up in class and, at the same time, shrug off a 10lb rise for back-to-back wins.
He’ll have to catch Masham Star (in the one stall), 9lb better off for a length and a half on July Course form with Medahim.
Dooncha was third in last year’s Lincoln but not so good in the same race this time around. Taurean Star missed his usual winning start.
2.55 Newmarket Defoe tries to climb out of Group 3 (he’s won two at that level). The first time was a bit over ambitious and he flopped in the Group-1 St Leger.
But it’s hard to see the Listed-level pair, Count Octave and Khalidi, stopping him here.
Red Verdon is also Listed level and Ed Dunlop’s highest hopes are to ‘finish in the first three.’ There are only five runners, Ed!
David Elsworth says that Winter Derby winner Master The World could get the trip. All the experts reckon he won’t get a mile and a half, says the wily former wizard of Whitsbury. What all 200 of them, David?
DAQMAN’S BETS
1.50 Newmarket (win 30)
BET 9.25pts win (nap) SHARJA BRIDGE
2.40 Goodwood (win 30)
BET 4.5pts win MASHAM STAR
3.35 Newmarket (win 50)
BULL’S-EYE BET 12pts win GUSTAV KLIMT
BULL’S-EYE BET 2.5pts win and place ROARING LION
11.50 Churchill Downs (win 20)
BET 5pts win MENDELSSOHN
DAQ MULTIPLES: 3 x 3pt win doubles and 1pt win treble Sharja Bridge (1.50 Newmarket), Masham Star (2.40 Goodwood) and Defoe (2.55 Newmarket)
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