ANOTHER HAT-TRICK OF BANKERS: With Dark Emerald (WON 5-6) yesterday, Daqman has landed another trio of banker naps in his current maximum-stakes sequence of 11 out of 16. The three are:
Shalaa (WON 1-2)
Donna Graciosa (WON 10-11)
Dark Emerald (WON 5-6)
ARC-MEETING COUNTDOWN: Daqman checks out the stats for the Prix de l’Abbaye sprint at Longchamp on Arc day, Sunday, bids for a triple whammy of lay, win and place bets at Ayr, and attempts four bankers in a row at Southwell.
SUNNY COUNTDOWN TAKES SHINE OFF ANGEL
The weather is an angel this week? It depends whose side you’re on, but backers of the hot favourite for the Prix de l’Abbaye sprint on Arc Sunday won’t have a dry eye if the warm spell continues.
Sunny days in Paris this week are gloomy for Mecca’s Angel’s connections. In trainer Michael Dods’ own words: ‘The ground is important for her; she doesn’t want anything near ‘firm’ in the going description. That’s why we didn’t run her on the fast ground at Royal Ascot, because she likes to get her toe in.’
Instead, Mecca’s Angel added more than a stone to her handicap mark – she’s now on 120 – by winning the Nunthorpe on ‘good to soft’ at York.
The hopeful view for connections is that the French authorities won’t allow Longchamp to get too firm, with the going already against most of the home defenders.
Eleven raiders from England and Ireland have snatched the big prize from France this century, and they are more likely to fancy the faster ground than the French.
The stats say that, in 18 years, only one three-year-old has won the Abbaye (in 2009) and you have to cast your mind back to 1978 for a two-year-old scorer, Sigy. That’s 37 years ago.
The Yorkshire-trained winner last year, Move In Time, doesn’t seem ground dependent, having won on good-to-firm and very soft.
But Move In Time is seven now, and only one horse older than six (in 1998) has scored in 45 years.
HOT SPOT: Goldream, winner of the Kings Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, and only 16-1 with Ladbrokes for Sunday, was nearly five lengths off Mecca’s Angel in the Nunthorpe on the soft at York but comes in to his own on a sound surface.
Goldream, who beat Move In Time, last August, has had only four races this season – started out by winning the Palace House Stakes – so will be fresher than most.
15.0 ‘HIDDEN HORSE’ PART OF A TRIPLE WHAMMY
2.10 Ayr There are two Dark horses by name in this, but the really dark one is Dark Ruler, a ‘hidden horse’ as I call it.
‘Dark’ after 31 races, Daqman? Yes, in the sense that today’s trip is his winning trip but he’s spent most of the summer over 1m 4f, even 1m 6f.
What that’s done for him is bring his rating crashing down 10lb or so to the 82 today which is now below his last winning mark. Kieren Fallon takes over on this 8.2 shot in BETDAQ orange offers this morning.
The mare Dark Amber (15.0) also has to be backed, as the only raider for Brenda Powell, who has scored twice from just three starters at Ayr in five seasons. Tom Queally booked.
With a win bet and an outsider – the two Dark horses – I shall bid for a triple whammy here by laying for a place Tapis Libre, who is trying to run down his handicap mark over the wrong trip (he’s been winning 1m 4f to 2m in the last two years).
BOLGER COLT COULD BE A CUT ABOVE HIS FIELD
2.15 Fairyhouse Irish eyes are on Dewhurst entry Clear Cut in the opener at Fairyhouse today. By Acclamation put to a daughter of Galileo who was sister to three Guineas-placed horses.
This joint venture by ace breeder Kirsten Rausing and trainer Jim Bolger has already been successful in that Clear Cut, a 57,000-euro foal fetched more than five times as much – 300,000 euros, in fact – as a yearling.
Potentially more precocious is Midst, Dermot Weld’s Oasis Dream debutante, and another by the same sire, a first foal like Clear Cut, is Mick Halford’s Golden Pearl. But both are fillies against the colt.
Strangely, not a single colt turns up for the next race, the Listed (3.20), a tough race for tipping and punting, with nine of the 10 two-year-olds already winners. Another which could produce an outstanding animal.
5.05 Fairyhouse There is a horse I like in this, a John Oxx three-year-old, lightly raced with plenty of scope for improvement.
Nebulla put in a fine effort in a £70,000 handicap at The Curragh earlier this month and drops the equivalent of three levels here, stepped up in trip: I took 8.0 on BETDAQ this morning.
The favourite, Intransive, has obviously had his problems since beating the smart Aloft at Gowran a year ago, and he didn’t attract the support I expected in a first-time visor, returning late in the season in a low-level handicap at Killarney.
I prefer Spin Point for the saver, another late developer who was deliberately made to grow up in a two-race education this month.
BANK ON KAYLA TO LOVE THIS STEP UP IN TRIP
5.10 Southwell All four Stuart Edmunds runners in the last fortnight have finished in the frame, and I was impressed with his Market Rasen Listed winner Cloonacol on Saturday.
Cloonacol was ridden by Paddy Brennan, and here he is on board Edmunds’ youngster, Kayla, for her second hurdles start.
A bumper winner who made a decent start to her jumps career on the last day, Kayla is a Kayf Tara and this step up in trip will suit her a treat. Banker nap at a shade of odds against on BETDAQ this morning.
DAQMAN BETS (staked 1 to 9 for strength; 10 is a banker)
LAY 3pts place TAPIS LIBRE, and BET 3pts win DARK RULER, and 1pt win and place DARK AMBER (2.10 Ayr)
BET 6pts win CLEAR CUT (2.15 Fairyhouse)
BET 3pts win and place NEBULLA, and 1.5pts win (stakes saver) SPIN POINT (5.05 Fairyhouse)
BANKER: BET 10pts win (nap) KAYLA (5.10 Southwell)
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