NEWS FLASH! 33.0 WINS AT 20-1: Another stunning big-race Saturday for Daqman, capped by Flash Fire (WON 20-1), a 33.0 morning BETDAQ punt in the big-field Victoria Cup at Ascot, which put him 27-9 up on Pricewise, his trade-paper value-betting rival.
PLACE LAYS DOUBLE IS LANDED: Daqman had, in effect, four winning bets in the same race. As well as both win and place Flash Fire, he dared to lay (each for a place!) the two fancied Cup horses, because of their inexperience. Result: Predominance (12th 6-1 favourite) and Hold Tight (last of 26 at 8-1).
9-2 DERBY TRIAL WINNER.. AND MORE CLASSIC TESTS TODAY! Daqman, who previews three Sunday Classic tests, also landed the Lingfield Derby Trial with a single bet, had a 12-1 place in the Swinton Hurdle and saw his win-and-place nap finish runner-up as the plunge horse, 11-0 in to 9-2. Full details:
WON 20-1 Flash Fire (win and place, from 33.0 on BETDAQ, morning offers)
WON 9-2 Humphrey Bogart (Lingfield Derby Trial)
WON (place lay) Predominance (unplaced 6-1)
WON (place lay) Hold Tight (unplaced 8-1)
WON (2nd 9-2) Diuretto (nap) (win and place from 11.0 on BETDAQ)
WON (4th 12-1) John Constable (win and place)
DOUBLE OAKS BOOST FOR SO MI DAR
What do you think of the show so far, folks! You have less than a month now to decide on the Epsom Derby and the Oaks.
What did you like at Chester? US Army Ranger or Port Douglas.. or neither one? Maybe you were taken by the Lingfield Derby Trial winner, Humphrey Bogart (needs supplementing), the way he was launched to win the race late on.
Maybe today’s trials at Leopardstown and Saint-Cloud hold the Epsom key. It’s for sure that Thursday’s Dante Stakes at York will have a big say.
As for the Oaks, the Epsom Derby Trial is stacking up the John Gosden filly, So Mi Dar, as the main home defender against Minding.
So Mi Dar took on the colts at Epsom and won. Now we know the opposition was stronger than we thought.
The runner-up was the same Humphrey Bogart who won yesterday’s Lingfield Derby Trial after the third home, Viren’s Army, had foiled a gamble on Linguistic to snatch the BETDAQ Dee Stakes, also at Chester.
I’m adding So Mi Dar to my Fortune Cookies.
Minding, Ballydoyle, Somehow and Seventh Heaven put Aidan O’Brien in an enviable position with fillies but I’m certain there’s something for So MI Dar, if only a Group-2 Ribblesdale.
TODAY: Check out the strength, past and present, of three trials, one in France and two in Ireland.
TOMORROW: Daqman’s Group-grabbing Fortune Cookies for York.
TUESDAY: Big-money outsiders: Daqman past and present
WEDNESDAY: The Musidora Stakes trial for the Oaks at York
THURSDAY: The Dante Stakes tests the Derby claims of Midterm.
FRIDAY: Yorkshire Cup day.
SATURDAY: Another big punt!
DAY THE GREAT DERBY BIRD FLEW IN
Today is discovery day again.. Who’s got the X-Factor? On this day 51 years ago, one of the greatest Derby winners of all time, Sea Bird, took off from his Classic trial at Saint-Cloud.
And just six years ago, poetry-in-motion Dylan Thomas came to prominence as he prepped for the Epsom and Curragh Derbys, placed in England before winning the Irish version. Here’s how they fit into the trial scene today:
2.45 Saint-Cloud (Prix Greffulhe) Some 22 winners of this have gone on to take the French Derby, the best of them in modern history Montjeu (Irish Derby) and Peintre Celebre, both subsequent winners of the Arc.
Only two have ever won the Epsom Derby, Sea Bird in 1965 and Pour Moi in 2011, whose trainer Andre Fabre has two runners today.
Harry Dunlop finds out today whether Robin Of Navan is as good on a sounder surface as he was on soft-heavy when taking the Saint-cloud Criterium in the autumn.
It’s an obvious move, returning to the same track and with his main rival, Cloth Of Stars, beaten by him in the Criterium and also earlier at Longchamp.
3.00 Leopardstown (1,000 Guineas Trial) Get your Betdaq-green notebooks out for future lays! Four of the last five winners of this have failed to win another race.
Aidan O’Brien has won it three times in the decade (2006, 2013 and 2015), and NONE of the three has won another race!
Now Or Never was runner-up to Jet Setting in an earlier Guineas trial here, but that one was nearly 10 lengths off the lead in the real thing at Newmarket.
Maybe Kind Of Magic can bounce back for Ballydoyle, in what looks like a jockeys race of tactics.
But the big value this morning was Misty Millie, who has done nothing wrong but, because she’s not with the big yards, was bring exchanged at 12.0.
3.35 Leopardstown (Derby Trial) Dylan Thomas (2010 Irish Derby) and Fame And Glory (2009 Irish Derby) were among three out of four winners of this from 2006-09 to be placed afterwards in the Epsom Derby.
But nothing so far can bring back the turn-of-the-century triple header (2000-2) of Sinndar, Galileo and High Chaparral.
Aidan O’Brien’s form figures for the Trial in the decade are 1121112134 and he has half the field today in a bid to restore his hold on the race.
Beacon Rock was only a short-head and a neck off Chester Vase runner-up Port Douglas in the Beresford Stakes in September.
But Ryan Moore appears to prefer Shogun, third in the Craven Stakes to the disappointing 2,000 Guineas flop, Stormy Antarctic.
He’s a winner only of his maiden. That’s one of the black marks against a horse that consistently pays off. Another is when they play up in the stalls, which makes me wary of Idaho.
Jim Bolger finally set foot in the winners’ enclosure at Wexford and Midnight Magic could improve if, at last, the stable is running into form.
Richard Hannon landed a thriller of a Lingfield test with Humphrey Bogart, but Ventura Storm gets a change of ground conditions here.
They look a motley crew, generally exposed, so I shall take a chance on Tirmizi, a Sea The Stars colt of Dermot Weld’s, who was strong in the market this morning.
PLAZA IS VALUE FOR KING OF PLUMPTON
2.15 Plumpton Alan King and Wayne Hutchinson are 11-30 at Plumpton with hurdlers and Royal Plaza, bred for a good career over jumps, has shown enough signs to suggest that 6.8 BETDAQ offers were worth taking this morning.
3.05 and 4.15 Ludlow Tom George is flying right now with a 45% strike rate (5-11) and he’s 36% in handicap chases at Ludlow.
He has Noche De Reyes, three times a course winner, and back on his favourite surface. At 3.85 and closing down the favourite, Ink Master, in the BETDAQ orange as I write.
Ink Master has to be the saver for Philip Hobbs, but the stable does best on the course in handicap hurdles (5-9 which is 56%), and I will want an earlier bet on Eardisland (3.05), win and place at 10.5.
The saver this time has to be dropped-in-class Searching, from a yard that has won this race twice in the last seven years.
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked 1 to 9 for strength of selection)
BET 3pts win and place ROYAL PLAZA (2.15 Plumpton)
BET 7pts win ROBIN OF NAVAN (2.45 Saint-Cloud)
BET 2pts win and place MISTY MILLIE (3.00 Leopardstown)
BET 2pts win and place EARDISLAND, and 1.5pts win (saver) SEARCHING (3.05 Ludlow)
BET 5pts win TIRMIZI (3.35 Leopardstown)
BET 6pts win (nap) NOCHE DE REYES and 3pts win (stakes saver) INK MASTER (4.15 Ludlow)
£25 IN FREE BETS
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