9-4 WINNER BY SIX LENGTHS: Oakley Girl should take to Tapeta. That’s how Daqman continued his winner-a-day sequence in 2016. But the six-lengths success for Oakley Girl (WON 9-4) was not quite enough to pay for the day, with two seconds, Tara Flow (nap) and Off The Pulse (9-2) spoiling the party.
HE TRIES TO LAND 8-1 NAP: Daqman takes you race by race through the jumps card at Towcester today, and spots one AW bet each at Lingfield and Chelmsford. His nap was around 8-1 this morning for a trainer who’s had one runner one winner in the last fortnight.
CATCHIN TIME KEEPS HIS FORM WELL
1.05 Towcester Dual Market Rasen winner Chankillo will find Towcester a different proposition with its hill-climb finish but Sam Twiston-Davies, who won on him in October, is back on board despite the gelding’s stone hike in the ratings.
Bertenbar also has a professional jockey in the plate for the first time since last March, when he scored at Huntingdon.
Mr Bachster has to bounce back from poor runs since success 10lb lower at Fontwell in November and Winged Express, a runaway hurdles scorer last time, has pulled up on both starts over fences.
The race, therefore, seems open to Carhue Princess, 5lb below her winning CD mark on the soft here at Towcester around this time last year. She’s been racing over further and this is only her second run since at the trip.
Hezr Hereford trainer Tom Symonds has had two wins from five still standing in the last nine days, and Carhue Princess is his only runner travelling across country to Towcester today.
1.35 Towcester Taroum has never scored on ground worse than good to soft but John Flint, a regular at Chepstow and Ffos Las, takes him to Towcester for his return to the track, despite having local meetings on Saturday and Sunday. John had his first winner of the jumps season on the last day of 2015.
Peter Bowen comes from the same quarters with Bishop Wulstan, who showed signs of a return to form last time after dropping 21lb since March but Bowen’s yard is currently doing badly. So, too, that of Richard Phillips (My Miss Lucy)
American Life and Arquebusier have shot up the weights and require help from their claimers. Charlie Deutsch switches to American Life from Eminent Poet, who could also have done with his 5lb allowance, hit by an 11lb rise for scoring at Taunton eight days ago.
My pick, heavy-ground-horse Catchin Time, was Laura Hurley’s first winner of the season when he scored eight lengths at Uttoxeter a week ago. He’s up 8lb for that (7lb of it as a penalty today) but put together a quick hat-trick in 20 days at this time last year.
BALLISTA TO SHOW BLISTERING PACE
2.05 Towcester Fergal O’Brien (Son Of Suzie) is in fancy form with figures of 1011433 still standing since Boxing Day, whereas Tony Carroll (Kings Cross) has had 30 losers in the same period.
The error-prone Rosa Fleet should be thereabouts on form and Cloudy Bob has been well backed on all his autumn-winter starts.
I’m narrowly swayed by the stable form of Son Of Suzie, and Paddy Brennan has gone well on him before.
2.35 Towcester This race is named after ‘clean healthy forage’. I could do with some of that after Christmas and New Year parties. But foraging for winners continues to be tricky, even in such a small field as this one.
Happy Diva ran second on today’s course in a 16-runner field to a subsequent 135-rated Listed-placed mare and could be too good for the bridesmaid Pulling Power (form figures 2202, bumpers and a hurdle).
2.50 Lingfield Interesting to see if novice-trainer Richard Hughes has got this right. He’s dropping one of his recruits, the 7f David O’Meara winner Russian Realm, back to sprinting and down in grade.
Another 7f animal, Seychelloise, has scored at today’s distance but that was in a lowly class 5, and Normal Equilibrium steps up from the minimum 5f for the first time since June, 2014.
Could all this manoeuvring help Mythmaker? Well, he’s up 7lb without winning since July .
So, putting it altogether, I fancy Ballista, down from class 2 or higher for only the second time since May, 2013, and within around a couple of lengths of the winner in all of her last four class-2 starts.
I reckon this is a case for pacemakers. One of them is Ballista; the other is your heart monitor as you try to execute the late trade-out on your bet-and-lay!
PLENTY LEFT IN THE TANK? MAYBE..
3.05 Towcester Blinkers might revive Bobbie Boru, who has let Venetia Williams down since winning over shorter on heavy in November.
But the hood didn’t work on Big Night Out at Leicester and it was cocoa instead of champagne back at his Warwicks stables.
The maiden September Blaze has run into a place when unfancied the last twice. Maybe Plenty pulled up in his first try over fences, and Passing Fiesta has failed to complete since April.
So it all seems to point to Black Narcissus but she was lucky to score at Plumpton recently when the long-way leader fell in front of her, and the handicapper hasn’t even raised her a pound.
So I’m having a second look at Maybe Plenty, who is two stone (repeat, 28lb) lower than her Listed-hurdle rating, and has 16lb less over fences than when runner-up over the smaller obstacles to Broxbourne, who has won a class-2 hurdle.
Maybe Plenty is slow but sending her to the front in her first steeplechase looked like paying dividends at Market Rasen until she whacked the 12th fence hard.
Trainer Gyles Smyly is yet another today who had his first winner of the jumps season recently, and I’m hoping there’ll be Plenty left in the mare’s tank, dropped back in trip. Maybe.
6.10 Chelmsford Scarlet Minstrel only just missed out when upped to 2m at Kempton in December, after winning over shorter here at Chelmsford.
She had not been all that progressive until then. Now, as a four-year-old, she can go on from there and beat a seven-year-old, Flashman, who has to concede more than a stone.
DAQMAN BETS (staked 1 to 9 for strength)
BET 6pts win CARHUE PRINCESS (1.05 Towcester)
BET 6pts win (nap) CATCHIN TIME (1.35 Towcester)
BET 4pts win SON OF SUZIE (2.05 Towcester)
BET 6pts win HAPPY DIVA (2.35 Towcester)
BET 3pts win BALLISTA (2.50 Lingfield)
BET 4pts win MAYBE PLENTY (3.05 Towcester)
BET 4pts win SCARLET MINSTREL (6.10 Chelmsford)
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