DONCASTER: BETDAQ-DAY BANKER: There are still Flat-season flings to be had, and today BETDAQ sponsors five races on a strong card at Doncaster, with Daqman going for 10 consecutive bankers.
CHELTENHAM: JUMPS ARE BACK: But the Jumps season is creeping into contention and Daqman gets involved in some of the early skirmishes at Cheltenham today.
DAQMAN POISED FOR THE TON: Daqman needs two more winning bets to hit 100 against Pricewise, the scores Daqman 98, Pricewise 16. Tomorrow morning they take in the Cox Plate (see foot of the column).
MAGIC CIRCLE FOR FREE-BETS MAXIMUM
2.35 Doncaster (Betdaq 2% Commission EBF Maiden Stakes) One of the best horses to take this was John Gosden’s Gregorian, subsequent winner of the Diomed and Hungerford stakes races.
Now here’s Gosden with two chances: Kalkrand is related to Graded/Group race winners; Royal Artillery is by the potent sire War Front, who got the current 2,000 Guineas favourite, Air Force Blue.
3.10 Doncaster There may be a hidden horse here. Justice Well – 30.0 on BETDAQ this morning – has been racing over the wrong trip on the wrong ground.
Very lightly raced, along with Aetna, Jamaican Bolt (drying ground against them) and 12.5 offer Joey’s Destiny, who was unlucky at Goodwood on the last day.
3.45 Doncaster (Betdaq.com £50 In Free Bets Handicap) Three-year-olds, who officially get 9lb from older horses over this 1m 6f, have won nine times in the decade.
One of them was trained by Ralph Beckett whose Magic Circle still has bottomweight today, despite carrying a penalty, as he seeks a hat-trick. He gets nigh on two stone from his nearest market rival, William of Orange, and is worth maximum stakes at the 20-point level of our betting today.
4.20 Doncaster (Betdaq – Serious About Racing Handicap) Luca Cumani, who won this last year, saddles Laurence (8.6 in the BETDAQ orange this morning).
Laurence lost a shoe when fancied more than Pacify on the last day, and is dropped in class here.
MARAAKIB BEST BUT ‘SILVER’ IS HIDDEN
4.55 Doncaster (Download The Betdaq App Amateur Riders’ Handicap, Division 1) Well known for sponsoring its apprentice series, now here’s BETDAQ supporting amateur riders.. and paying twice for the pleasure, with the race divided!
In fact, it’s the second year of the sponsorship, and the 2014 result implies that it’s useful for a rider to have won on his mount before.
Amateurs don’t get much chance to get acquainted with their rides, and to know that the connection is there, and is a winning one, is a bonus for betting.
That applies here to Silver Alliance, Samsonite and Rainford Glory, all three winners over 1m 2f, the distance of today’s race.
It’s also useful to be on a course winner, a horse that knows his own way around, as it were. Only Sakhalin Star in the two divisions has scored at Doncaster but soft-surface-lover Maraakib ran right away from him on the last day at Leicester.
Silver Alliance is ‘hidden’ by his having raced in a higher class or over the wrong trip lately. Rainford Glory is up in grade, and with a penalty to pag.
Lightly-raced Clovelly Bay might improve but King Of The Celts could do with the course drying out. I see it between Maraakib and Silver Alliance, a huge 26.0 on BETDAQ as I write.
5.30 Doncaster (Download The Betdaq App Amateur Riders’ Handicap, Division 2) Gone Viral, Hernando Torres and Karnage (gelded and could improve) have the winningmost riders.
Gone Viral may have most to fear from Our Time Will Come (I took 6.8), an in-and-out performer but placed at the right level here.
FASCINATING VINNIE-VICENTE CLASH
3.20 Cheltenham David Pipe claims that Saint John Henry is at his very best right now, albeit he’s a buzzy sort.
As such, he was an ideal bet and lay at 9.0 on BETDAQ early mouse. As a winner first time last year at this time, seems sure to run right to the line.
3.55 Cheltenham Paul Nicholls has won this three times since 2006, twice with first-run-back young chasers like Vicente, who has already won outside novice company.
He’s only once been unplaced – still standing – in nine starts since the hood was applied.
Ballykan, never out of the first three, has similar credentials. In fact, six of the seven runners were winners on the last day.
But the one that’s hardest to resists is Vintage Vinnie, who beat Upswing 29 lengths before that one franked the form at Worcester.
Interesting that the third horse, remote behind Vintage Vinnie and Upswing, had earlier been favourite to beat Ballykan but unseated rider.
A Good Skin has a Cheltenham chase win on his CV, albeit not jumping with a great deal of confidence, and Weather Babe has done nothing wrong.
VERDICT: Vincente, who has been given some easy tasks since he was error-prone early in his fencing career, faces one with better chase form in Vintage Vinnie. But VIncente was officially a 23lb better hurdler. Fascinating stuff and I’ll put them both in my Daq Multiples.
RAIDERS SHOULD REEL IN THE AUSSIES
7.40am Moonee Valley, Saturday (Cox Plate) Aidan O’Brien bids to follow up his ground-breaking Cox Plate success last year with Adelaide.
But, as well as O’Brien’s Secretariat Stakes winner, Highland Reel, Peter Chapple-Hyam is there for England with Arod.
Trip and ground are perfect for Highland Reel, second in the French Derby but only fifth in The Curragh version. Ditto Arod.
Fourth in last year’s Epsom Derby, he has been campaigned over shorter ever since, with back-to-back success in the Diomed returning to Epsom and then the Ascot Sumer Mile.
Adelaide won from a bad draw in gate 13 last year, Ryan Moore tucking him in, then coming at them down the outside.
Tomorrow morning he has a much handier gate 4 for Highland Reel with Arod in the adjacent stall 5. Oz-based Godolphin trainer John O’Shea has also fared well, with Hartnell in 3 and Complacent (James Doyle) from gate 6.
Right next door is the Ladbrokes Caulfield Stakes winner Criterion, and another with a recent Group-1 win, Winx – filly on a five-timer – is in gate 1. The same stable has another Group-1 winner, Preferment, coming out of 9.
French-raider Gailo Chop has a chance on some form (Group-1 second to Solow in the Spring), but his best results are on very soft ground.
VERDICT: Though 11 of the 14 winners this century came from stalls 1 to 7, in a reversal due to jockeyship – just as happened in the Arc – three of the last four were out of gates 9 to 13.
However, English and Irish quality horses are always likely to outclass the Aussies at this trip, and Highland Reel and Arod in 4 and 5 have dream tickets.
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked to win 20 points)
BET 8pts win ROYAL ARTILLERY, and 0.75pts win (stakes saver) KALKRAND (2.35 Doncaster)
BET 1.75pts win and place JOEY’S DESTINY, and 0.7pts win and place JUSTICE WELL (3.10 Doncaster)
BET 2.5pts win SAINT JOHN HENRY (3.20 Cheltenham)
BANKER: BET 20pts win (nap) MAGIC CIRCLE (3.45 Doncaster)
BET 2.6pts win LAURENCE (4.20 Doncaster)
BET 8pts win MARAAKIB, and 0.8pts win and place SILVER ALLIANCE (4.55 Doncaster)
BET 3.5pts win OUR TIME WILL COME (5.30 Doncaster)
DAQ MULTIPLES: 5 x 2pt win doubles and 2 x 1pt win trebles MAGIC CIRCLE (3.45 Doncaster) and MARAAKIB (4.55 Doncaster) with both VICENTE and VINTAGE VINNE (3.55 Cheltenham)
TOMORROW: BET 5pts win HIGHLAND REEL and 3.5pts win AROD (7.40 am Moonee Valley)
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