171 POINTS UP AFTER BRAVE NAP: With back-to-back naps (that’s seven up out of the last 13), Daqman brought the profit on his best bets to 171 points (20-point level stakes) in less than a fortnight. His last two winners were a 4-1 shot on Friday and Home Of The Brave (WON 9-4) yesterday. The seven successes:
WON 7-4 Zig Zag Girl (nap)
WON 8-5 Knife Edge (nap)
WON 4-1 Almodovar (nap)
WON 10-11 Persuasive (banker)
WON 1-2 Millefiori (nap)
WON 4-1 Touch The Sky (nap)
WON 9-4 Home Of The Brave (nap)
LOOK OUT FOR OUR DAILY COUNTDOWN TO THE DERBY: It’s Epsom Derby Week next week and Daqman’s countdown to the big race, starting tomorrow, will cover horse, trainer and jockey plus his now-familiar ‘see how they won’ stats probe and ABC guide to the runners. Here’s how he stands with his tips:
Daqman 34, Pricewise 13
Naps 7-13 (53%)
Lays 21-26 (80%)
TODAY: Classic form and Royal Ascot contenders on show at Naas, and three Group races at Saint-cloud, make today a day that decides the future of several two and three year olds, and could also decide some of your Royal Ascot bets.
CLASSIC GENERATION BANKS ON EMBIRAN
2.35 Naas I went for O’Brien three-year-olds in this in the last two years – both lost – but it was Dermot Weld who won with a second- season filly in 2014.
Weld is striking at 20%, and his Embiran, runner-up to Moonlight Magic in October, must be favourite here after running third in the Tetrarch to Irish Guineas winner, Awtaad.
Park Stakes runner-up last year, Anamba, is interesting on her return to the action, but Mick Halford, though 33% on AW, is 0-61 on turf this season and a basement 5-101 at Naas.
When trainer-in-form Ger Lyons combines with jockey Colin Keane, they have a 32% strike rate, and Tennessee Wildcat, who slumped to as low as 87 sprinting for an English yard, has reached Listed level and races off 102, three wins out of five back up to a mile. But he has a long absence to overcome.
Once described by Aidan O’Brien as ‘can be a bit funny’, The Happy Prince has only his second race under Ryan Moore, who got him going to finish second in a 6f Curragh Listed at the backend of last year.
Yuften had good form for Willie Haggas but you’d expect to see a younger horse win this, and it would be a bit of a knock to the form book if Embiran let down the Classic generation: around 4.0 in the BETDAQ orange, as I write.
HAKEEM KING-SIZED VALUE AT BETDAQ 5.3
3.10 Naas Dawn Approach won on the way to glory but was a stone better than anything to shine in this.
At least we have a pre-Ascot clash of talent between Ballydoyle and the English form, represented by Hakeem.
The dual Naas CD winner Psychedelic Funk was odds-on this morning, with the Lyons-Keane combo having already beaten Peace Envoy with King Electric at the Curragh, and Lundy might be O’Brien’s best, though seemingly second string and easy to back at 9.4 in the BETDAQ orange.
But, at Newmarket, Hakeem split Global Applause and a subsequent easy Godolphin winner before Applause earned that very epithet by winning the National Stakes at Sandown.
For a decent bet, you have to take whatever opportunities seem to present themselves and, though these are two-year-olds not yet reliable, the gulf between 1.83 Psychedlic Funk and 5.3 offers Hakeem is plain wrong. Hakeem is king-sized value.
4.15 Naas The Commonwealth Cup is run early, with hopefuls Washington DC, Waterloo Bridge, Smash Williams and Acclaim having a private prep that could indicate a very strong Royal Ascot candidate.
‘The Lads’ (Magnier, Tabor, Smith) could well discover that Washington DC, who will enjoy today’s sunshine-drying ground, is a very serious rival to their Wesley Ward trained favourite, Acapulco.
BETTY APPLE OF MY EYE IN THE CLEOPATRE
1.35 Saint-cloud Vazirabad (Coronation Cup) and Manatee (Ascot Gold Cup) clash in a prep which is spoilt by the small field.
3.00 Saint-cloud (Prix Cleopatre) Apple Betty and Gargotiere, both unbeaten, meet to decide which one will be favourite for the French Oaks, Prix Diane.
Jean-Claude Rouget (Apple Betty) knows the score with Gargotiere, having run her to a short-head at Chantilly with a lesser light in his yard.
3.35 Saint-cloud (Prix Corrida) Arc De Triomphe winners Solemia and Treve have won this in recent years.
While even the Pretty Polly at the Curragh a month from now is still a dream for Speedy Boating, the Irish Oaks fifth is expected to improve a lot on her 2015 career.
Speedy Boating and Candarliya were both well adrift in the British Champion Mares And Fillies but Candarliya was well below par that day, and their relative expectations can be measured by the SP: 9-2 Candarliya and 25-1 Speedy Boarding.
The prep form of Candarliya, only a neck off the winner in her Group-3 return, and Speedy Boarding, two lengths off a Group-2 success, match to the pound, but I prefer Candarliya.
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked 1 to 9 for strength unless stated)
BET (to win 20 points) 6pts win EMBIRAN (2.35 Naas)
BET (to win 30 points) 7pts win HAKEEM (3.10 Naas)
BET 8pts win (nap) APPLE BETTY (3.00 Saint-cloud)
BET 6pts win CANDARLIYA (3.35 Saint-cloud)
BET 8pts win WASHINGTON DC (4.15 Naas)
£25 IN FREE BETS
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