22.0 PHOENIX RISES TO IRISH GUINEAS STARDOM FOR DAQMAN: Daqman won 70 points on one horse yesterday when he chose 22.0 BETDAQ offer Phoenix Of Spain (WON 16-1) to be the likely lad for a shock in the Irish 2,000 Guineas yesterday. Phoenix made all the running. Daqman made all the profit, a bull’s-eye 50 for the win, plus 20 the place. It takes the score to Daqman 23, Pricewise 12, almost double the returns of the Racing Post expert.
Daqman’s Irish 2,000 Guineas one-two
WON 16-1 (from 22.0) PHOENIX OF SPAIN (bull’s-eye bet)
2ND 4-5 TOO DARN HOT ( Fortune Cookie)
CURRAGH CLASSIC TODAY BUT SUPERNAP FILLY RUNS IN FRANCE: There’s a super scene of four major races today, with the Irish Guineas taking top billing but rivalled by strong tests of the thoroughbred in France, where collateral Classic form dictates the supernap. Headlines:
QABALA TO TURN THE 1,000 TABLES
THERE’S NO FINA FILLY IN FRANCE..
MAGICAL TOO NEAR CALYX SHOCK
CLOSE CALL SO PLAY A WILD CARD!
QABALA TO TURN THE 1,000 TABLES
3.35 The Curragh (Irish 1,000 Guineas) Hermosa tries to do a Winter (2017) today and complete the Newmarket-Curragh 1,000 Guineas double for Aidan O’Brien. Attraction (2004) and Finsceal Beo (2007) have also done the double this century.
Aidan O’Brien has had six more 1,000 successes since Classic Park (1997) became the first ever Classic winner for his stables.
Qabala didn’t get the quick ground in the 1,000 that had won her the Nell Gwyn, but she was little more than a length off Hermosa in third over the extra furlong of the Classic, despite trying to challenge down the unfavoured far side. Fairyland was fifth, Just Wonderful sixth, Iridessa in eighth.
Just Wonderful Excuses were made for her (badly drawn) but her Rockfel runner-up of last September, Dandhu, was 10th, behind her again.
Just Wonderful was also behind East, when that one was second in the Breeders Cup Juvenile for fillies.
I have watched the Newmarket Guineas replay several times and Just Wonderful did not get near the leaders until approaching the dip.
It was too late then and all pressure did was to make her sprawl all over the show.
Greenness and becoming unbalanced on the specialist track may have cost her a place. But Ryan Moore deserts her now.
Hermosa looks a sitting duck to improved performances from beaten fillies at Newmarket, who have turned the tables SIXTEEN times in 20 years.
In fact, the supplemented Qabala only has to run as she did at Newmarket to take this, with the race run to suit on this different track.
Iridessa (beat Hermosa in the Fillies Mile in October) probably needs further now but is likely to stay on, and be involved in the finish.
East has gone on to be third in the French Guineas this May, with connections also complaining of a bad draw.
It would be a fantastic double for the forgotten man, Tipperary-born Jamie Spencer, once stable jockey at Ballydoyle, if he could do the Irish Guineas double with East, after his all-the-way winning ride on Phoenix Of Spain in the 2,000 yesterday.
Because two of her last three starts have been run with ease in the ground – even soft and heavy – she’s being overlooked but, as a daughter of Frankel, out of a mare who won on good to firm, East must surely be considered for speed on top of the ground.
She is also the obvious one to be on your side if the forecast showers have any impact, and two fillies placed in the Pouliches have gone on to win at the Curragh.
VERDICT: Ryan Moore tells us not to expect Just Wonderful to turn around the form with Hermosa, and the form we have for East has her only just in front of the not-so-Wonderful.
The stats say that Hermosa has a formidable task to hold off beaten fillies from the Newmarket Guineas, and the star among them is clearly Qabala.
THERE’S NO FINA FILLY IN FRANCE..
3.28 Longchamp (Prix Saint Alary) Laurens leapt to fame in last year’s Saint-Alary, perhaps the best winner since subsequent Diane scorers Stacelita (2009 for Jean-Claude Rouget) and Sarafina (2010 for Alain de Royer-Dupre).
Royer-Dupre, who has won it twice more since Sarafina, has the Classic form filly in Siyarafina.
Though she herself has won only a conditions race, the well-beaten runner-up was then only a head away from landing the French 1,000.
The winner, Castle Lady, had Imperial Charm in fourth. Castle Lady earlier accounted for Imperial Charm (second) and Cala Tarida (stayed on fourth), in the Prxix de la Grotte with the Rouget filly, Montviette seventh.
Fount looks the main danger to Siyarafina. Like her, the daughter of Frankel had not raced until 2-2 this Spring. Platane’s family traces back to Goldikova on the dam’s side but she currently seems pegged down as a Group 3.
MAGICAL TOO NEAR CALYX SHOCK
3.50 The Curragh (Tattersalls Gold Cup) It only seems like yesterday. It was, indeed yesterday. The good thing, Calyx, with the entire ITV Racing team queuing up to tell us he could not be beaten, was a floperoo at Haydock. No response. A long way second.
Here we go again. Magical, the Fillies and Mares Champion at Ascot, who so nearly upset Enable in America, is clear in the ratings of Flag Of Honour, whom she’s already beaten twice this season. I’ll pass the 1-5 walkover price.
CLOSE CALL SO PLAY A WILD CARD!
4.03 Longchamp (Prix d’Ispahan) Roger Varian has the chance of a big-time Group-1 double with Qabala at the Curragh (David Egan) and the favourite for this race, Zabeel Prince (Andrea Atzeni).
But it’s a prize that hasn’t left France for 16 years, since Falbrav (Luca Cumani 2003) and which has gone to older horses just twice (Goldikova and Cirrus des Aigles) since 1976.
Prince’s reappearance Earl Of Sefton success in April was impressive (Lockinge winner, Mustashry, third) and he’s ‘home’ to the land of his sire, French Derby winner, Lope De Vega. But he won first time up last year, only to fade away.
Prince is now officially a 117 horse, just 2lb up on last year’s French Derby winner, Study of Man, who didn’t get his ground in the Irish Champion Stakes (fifth to Roaring Lion) and Arc De Triomphe (only four lengths or so off Enable).
It’s a tough enough choice between the colts but they face giving weight to two four-year-old fillies on 116 (Wild Illusion) and 115 (With You).
Wild Illusion was runner-up in all three of Epsom Oaks, Ribblesdale and Breeders Cup (filly and mare). Took the Opera at the Arc meeting with With You only fourth.
So my verdict is that, yes the prize goes to an English trainer at last, but via Wild Illusion to continuance of the amazing season of Charlie Appleby.
DAQMAN’S BETS
2.28 Longchamp (supernap)
BET 20pts win SIYARAFINA
4.03 Longchamp (win 30)
BET 10pts win WILD ILLUSION
FORTUNE COOKIES
(3.35 The Curragh, 20pts l/s each)
HERMOSA and QABALA
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