3-1 NAP A PERFECT PREP FOR ASCOT: Daqman’s nap bounced back in time for Royal Ascot with the Cork Oaks winner yesterday, Pretty Perfect (WON 3-1), and he’ll lay out his betting strategy and BETDAQ benefits on the opening day tomorrow. Look out for his triple-bonus bets.
WEATHER WILL GIVE THEM HOPE: Unfortunately, the going at Ascot is hardly pretty perfect, with the course admitting this morning that it’s ‘more or less soft all round.’ Some are hoping for even more rain, so last night Daqman took the BETDAQ ante-post races and checked out the soft-ground winners.
SPECTRE OF A SOFT AND WET ROYAL ASCOT
A spectre hangs over Royal Ascot. More rain on soft ground. And the only horse in my ante-post search with a soft-only profile after two runs or more is called Spectre (Coronation Stakes, Friday).
With the going ‘soft all round’ today, and more rain forecast, the punter has to decide – as ever – not only what conditions favour which horses, but whether the soft-ground starters become too short for value, and whether the easing in the market of some not known for the soft actually makes them value.
That might be the case where their action or their pedigree suggests they will have no problem with the conditions.
QUEEN ANNE STAKES: ERVEDYA LIKES VERY SOFT
A Shin Erwin firm, good, yielding, heavy (Queen Anne Stakes, tomorrow)
Belardo firm, good, good to soft, soft
Dick Whittington good to firm, soft
Ervedya good to firm, good, good to soft, soft, very soft
Esoterique firm, good to firm, good, soft, very soft
Kodi Bear good to firm, good, soft
Tepin firm, fast, good, soft
KINGS STAND STAKES: PEARL SECRET WON ON HEAVY
Move In Time good to firm, good, good to soft, very soft (Kings Stand Stakes, tomorrow)
Pearl Secret good to firm, good, soft, heavy
Waady good to firm, good, soft
Waterloo Bridge good to firm, yielding to soft
ST JAMES’S PALACE STAKES: GURKHA GETS HIS GROUND
Awtaad good to yielding, yielding, yielding to soft, soft (St James’s Palace Stakes, tomorrow)
Claudio Monteverdi soft/heavy
Cymric good to firm, soft
The Gurkha good, soft-heavy
PRINCE OF WALES’S STAKES: ALL THE SAME TO HIKARI
A Shin Hikari firm, good, heavy (Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, Wednesday)
Found good to firm, good, yielding, soft
My Dream Boat good to firm, good to soft, soft, very soft
Western Hymn good to firm, good, good to soft, soft, very soft
GOLD CUP: MAX COULD BE DYNAMITE ON THE SOFT
Clever Cookie good to firm, good, good to soft, soft, very soft (Gold Cup, Thursday)
Flying Officer good to firm, good to soft, soft
Griraz good, soft, very soft, heavy
Kicky Blue soft
Max Dynamite good to soft, soft
Mizzou good to firm, good, good to soft, soft
Order of St George good to firm, good, soft
Pallasator good to firm, good, heavy
The Twisler good, soft
Tiberian good, very soft
COMMONWEALTH CUP: I’M ALL RIGHT, JACK
Cheikeljack good to soft, heavy (Commonwealth Cup, Friday)
Donjuan Triumphant good, good to soft, soft
La Rioja good to firm, soft
Quiet Reflection good, good to soft and heavy
Waterloo Bridge good to firm, soft
CORONATION STAKES: SPECTRE OF A WET ASCOT
Besharah good to firm, good, good to soft, soft (Coronation Stakes, Friday)
Czabo good to soft, soft
Fireglow good to firm, good, soft
Jet Setting good to soft, heavy
Light Music good to soft, soft
Nathra good to soft, soft
Qemah good to soft, soft
Spectre soft, heavy
DIAMOND JUBILEE: RAIN A BLESSING IN DISGUISE
Coulsty good to firm, very soft (Diamond Jubilee Stakes, Saturday)
Dick Whittington good to firm, soft
Mattmu good to firm, good, good to soft, very soft
Moviesta good to firm, soft
Signs Of Blessing good, soft, very soft
Suedois good, very soft
Vancouver good, soft
BUNBURY IS SURROUNDED BY LOSERS..
4.30 Carlisle Michael Dods thought a lot of Ambriel last season and brought her along slowly. Good win and plsce bet at 7.0 on BETDAQ early mouse.
The stable has had two winners in two days and shows an excellent level-stakes profit at Carlisle, despite an average strike rate.
7.50 Windsor (Cash out Available At Ladbrokes Handicap) The Salmon Man and Ttainted Love have remained maidens, despite fair efforts, and Molten Lava doesn’t like cut in the ground.
All have eased in the markert, bowing to the potential of Bunbury on his handicap debut, after his showing up well in the requisite trio of maidens.
8.10 Nottingham Two CD winners here. Scott Dixon slips Best Tamayuz ino the bottom of a class-4 handicap, using the 7lb hike the handicapprer gave him for winning at Nottingham on the last day.
That’s a two-grade leap, and he’s never managed one step to class 5 before.
Bakht A Rawan and champion Silvestre De Sousa get on well together and the Rip Van Winkle gelding just missed a hat-trick at Chester, but struggling in the closing stages, suggesting that 1m 2f was far enough.
Aldeburgh (4.4 on BETDAQ0 was lucky to find himself in a slowly-run race on the course early in May but that may happen again. Or perhaps better to choose to take them on early and use his stamina to good effect .
CHIEF 10.5 FOR BACK-TO-BACK NATIONALS
8.30 Roscommon (Connaught National) I’m always tempted by a National, particularly after my 33-1 and 50-1 winners this year at Aintree and Fairyhouse.
In this onetoday, we have the reverse of Royal Ascot’s woes. The ground is on the firm side, though showers are forecast, so it could turn out to be good; hopefully they won’t be taking the top off it and sliding about.
Padraig’s Joy is consistent, but consistent at being a bridesmaid, with six places without winning wrapped around a single success over shorter at Fairyhouse.
Sir Abbot showed better form on the last day, after pulling up ‘clinically abnormal’ in December. Barry Geraghty sticks with it.
Tulsa Jack is 9lb higher than for back-to-back success in the autumn, and Mr Diablo seems to be the improver of the seven-year-olds after going close in a Grade A at Punchestown in April.
Willie Mullins took a Grade 1 home from Auteuil yesterday but not the big ones he’d hoped for, with Un de Sceaux and Whiteout beaten. We havn’t seen his runner, Security Breach, since 2014.
I shall have my pound on Aranhill Chief in the belief that this winner of the race last year will have been ‘got up’ for a repeat: I took 10.5 win and place.
BETDAQ TIPS (staked 1 to 9; banker 10)
BET 4pts win SAVE THE BEES (4.00 Carlisle)
BET 3pts win and place AMBRIEL (4.30 Carlisle)
BANKER BET 10pts win (nap) BUNBURY (7.50 Windsor)
BET 6pts win ALDEBURGH (8.10 Nottingham)
BET 2pts win and place ARANHILL CHIEF (8.30 Roscommon)
£25 IN FREE BETS
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