WHAM! WHAM! 17-2 & 5-1 WINNERS: Daqman landed a Double-Whammy double, both in heart-stopping circumstances, yesterday (see story below), naming the winner and a lay in consecutive races at Goodwood. The two races were:
3.30 Goodwood
WON 17-2 Bathos
WON (lay) 2nd 5-1 Thaqaffa
4.00 Goodwood
WON 5-1 Skiffle
WON (lay) 2nd 13-8 Black Princess
TODAY: Today’s the day of the last Derby trial in England, the Cocked Hat Stakes at Goodwood. TOMORROW AND SUNDAY: But the weekend Irish 2,000 and 1,000 Guineas could knock Derby – and Oaks! – calculations into a cocked hat. Here are Daqman’s standings before the action:
Bankers 3-7
Naps 3-5
Fortune Cookies 1-2
Lays (84%) 21 out of 25
Challenge: Daqman 30, Pricewise 9
13 FAVOURITES LOSE IN 21 LAYS OUT OF 25
Two desperate finishes. And Daqman won them both at Goodwood yesterday, to take his lays score to 21 out of 25, which is 84%, almost on a par with his record 45 out of 50 (90%) completed earlier this year.
In consecutive races, it was neck and neck between Bathos (his bet) and Thaqaffa (his lay) throughout the final furlong, until Bathos asserted just before the line.
Then Skiffle (his bet) put in a sustained challenge to The Black Princess (his lay), getting up towards the finish.
Lays are pretty subjective and have no starting price as such but, if you count both winning and losing lays as even money, at 20-points level stakes, then Daqman’s sequence shows a profit of 340 points. Here it is:
WON (lay) Cold As Ice (unplaced 4-6 favourite)
WON (lay) Lancelot Du Lac (2nd 4-1)
WON (place lay) John Reel (unplaced 12-1)
WON (lay) Mister Universe (unplaced 7-1)
WON (lay) Kayf Moss (2nd 4-1)
WON (lay) Space Oddity (4th 11-4 favourite)
WON (lay) Found (3rd 9-10 favourite)
WON (place lay) Silviniaco Conti (pulled up 12-1)
Lost (place lay) The Last Samuri (2nd 8-1 favourite)
WON (lay) Alice Springs (3rd 5-4 favourite)
WON (lay) Landofhopeandglory (unplaced 15-8 favourite)
WON (place lay) Henri Parry Morgan (UR 5-1 favourite)
WON (place lay) Bishops Road (fell 20-1)
WON (place lay) Saint Are (unplaced 25-1)
WON (lay) Supasundae (unplaced 15-8 favourite)
WON (lay) Alpha Des Obeaux (3rd evens favourite)
WON (lay) Jack Hobbs (pulled up 8-15 favourite)
Lost (lay) Minding (won 11-10 favourite)
WON (place lay) Hold Tight (unplaced 8-1)
WON (place lay) Predominance (unplaced 6-1 favourite)
Lost (lay) Thikriyaat (won 13-8 favourite)
WON (place lay) Limato (unplaced 3-1 favourite)
Lost (lay) Fadillah (won 8-15 favourite)
WON (lay) Thaqaffa (2nd 5-1)
WON (lay) The Black Princess (2nd 13-8 favourite)
MORE PRIZE MONEY WAITS FOR GODOLPHIN
3.30 Gooodwood (Cocked Hat Stakes) The former Predominate Stakes last threw up a Derby winner with Troy (1979), though Asian Heights (2001) was ‘reckoned’ by some shrewd judges, including trainer Geoff Wragg, but split a pastern before Epsom.
ALGOMETER The grey earned quotes for the Derby after running up to Midterm in the sandown Clsssic Trial but Midterm disgraced himself afterwards in the Dante and Algometer would have to show something magical here, or is more likely to go for the King Edward V11 (Royal Ascot Derby’).
ORMITO Bags of stamina in his pedigree, Ormito was the third horse looking on at a respectful seven lengths behind US Army Ranger and Port Douglas as they fought out the Chester Vase.
PRIZE MONEY The Godolphin revival saw Saeed Bin Suroor produce a hat-trick of winners at York and they won the fillies’ Height Of Fashion trial here yesterday with Skiffle.
Prize Money lacked a run when failing by just half a length to beat the smart Taqdeer (keeping it in the family, since owned by Shiekh Hamdan) at Newmarket at the Guineas meeting. Has to step up here.
SPEED COMPANY A good looking horse, who would have no trouble winning a class-2 handicap off his current mark, but a Newmarket Listed place following a hat-trick, rising up the grades, has prompted John Quinn to have a go at this.
Verdict: Much depends on whether the rain arrives.. and when! Algometer has always raced with ‘soft’ in the going return and has been let down by Midterm.
Ormito races as if he needs two miles and his stable is out of form, while hold-up colt Speed Company will need all of Ryan Moore’s guile not to get outmanoeuvred in a tactical race. So I’ll stick with Godolphin, and hope to land some Prize Money!
PERSUASIVE FOR AN EARLY CORONATION!
2.55 Goodwood It’s a difficult day so maybe a case of when you don’t get any good news, go for the obvious.
There is not a good word said about Aristocratic so I’ll rely on the Dark Angel grey Persuasive, who must surely win this if her Coronation Stakes entry is worth the paper it’s written on.
4.00 Goodwood Three-year-olds have a hard task beating their elders at this time of year, though Hestina and Genuine Approval are getting around two stone from the top two in the handicap.
With Elysian Field and Novancia both front-runners, it’s a difficult race to predict. But it might just play to the stayer She Is No Lady (5.4 on BETDAQ), as long as Ryan Moore ensures she doesn’t get too far out of her ground. Hestina the danger.
4.35 Goodwood Ruwaiyan won this on his second start last year but today is his seasonal debut this time around, albeit trainer James Tate is in excellent form.
But so, too, John Spearing, Clive Cox and Roger Charlton. Alan Bailey is the one struggling to get some prizemoney.
It’s a very bad day for betting and you pays your money and makes your choice, worse than find the lady in the last race. At least we know Ruwaiyan (5.5) will have been lined up for this.
DOUBLE UP SEEN AS A VARIAN GROUP HORSE
7.30 Haydock It’s a surprise to see one of the Fortune Cookies in my Group strategy dropped to this Listed level, swerving tomorrow’s Temple Stakes.
And an even bigger surprise to see Cotai Glory at 7.2 in the BETDAQ orange, early mouse, after what I hoped was a prep for the Temple in the Palace House Stakes.
The good to soft was too much for him then, any rain could ruin his chances today, and he may still need the run.
Moonraker has won first time out in the last two seasons but reached for the moon this time around, starting off in the Group-2 Duke Of York won by Magical Memory.
The 21.0 offers this morning at a time when trainer Channon has combined so well with jockey De Sousa suggests that he is a no-hoper here.
Take Cover will enjoy wet conditions but hasn’t won on turf since 2014 and is unreliable (has to be taken down early/diagnosed with irregular heart-beat after one race last year).
Double Up won first time last season, went up a total of 29lb and is seen by Roger Varian as a Group-level sprinter. I took the 4.5 in the orange this morning but also had a bit of the 7.0 Cotai Glory as a safeguard.
I simply don’t know the state of the ground, and no one else will until tonight. Last year’s one-two, Kingsgate Native and Out Do, will be trying to repeat or better that.
Whatever happens, Double Up and Cotai Glory (on firm) are horses to follow but, since this is not a Group race, I shall not deploy the 20-point Fortune Cookie stakes.
DAQMAN’S BETS (to win 20 points unless stated)
BANKER: BET 20pts win (SP nap) PERSUASIVE (2.55 Goodwood)
BET 10pts win (to win 10) PRIZE MONEY (3.30 Goodwood)
BET 5pts win HESTINA and 4.75pts win SHE IS NO LADY (4.00 Goodwood)
BET 4.4pts win RUWAIYAN (4.35 Goodwood)
BET 5.7pts win DOUBLE UP and 2.8pts win COTAI GLORY (7.30 Haydock)
DAQ MULTIPLES: 3pts win double PERSUASIVE (2.55 Goodwood) and RUWAIYAN (4.35 Goodwood)
£25 IN FREE BETS
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