THREE WINNERS IN A YANKEE: After a sequence of seconds, Daqman was on his toes yesterday, landing three winners and a second out of four in a Daq Multiples yankee (with the singles, the day was worth 40 points):
WON 10-11 On Her Toes
WON 2-1 Bayston Hill
WON 8-15 Trainnah (nap)
NINE OUT OF 10 IN FIRST TWO: Daqman’s last 10 bets have finished 2222011211 and his naps are 12221, as we go into today at four meetings before the three-day Newmarket July festival (Thursday-Saturday), for which he will bring back Pot Of Gold bets and lays. In his value challenge, the scores are Daqman 53, Pricewise 24.
THE BOOKMAKER WHO GAVE PUNTERS A TIP
Once upon a time.. There was a sharp young (illegal in the early days) bookmaker called William Hill. To say he was the punters’ best friend sounds like mocking the afflicted if you’ve checked some of the odds his firm has offered since he founded his company 82 years ago.
I remember those who were not enamoured and showed it. I once saw Alex Bird, one of the last of the old-time professional gamblers, have a stand-up row with him face to face in the grandstand at the ace punter’s beloved York about the price of a horse or the overround in Hill’s book.
What was that all about, Alex, I said, commenting on the vehemence of the attack. ‘I’m hoping he’ll take a big lump of money later on this afternoon, and I was softening him up, so that he felt obliged to accept it,’ said the Birdman of Alderley Edge.
But one of the sayings of William Hill ranks alongside the epithets of the legendary Pittsburgh Phil or those of Damon Runyon, who achieved immortality when he said: ‘The race is not always to the swift or to the strong but that’s the only way to bet.’
Right alongside him should surely be a bookmaker seemingly helping out the punter! It happened when William Hill declared to the betting fraternity: ‘Only believe what you see with your own eyes.’
Simple stuff, but it would save you and I a mint if only we would stick to it. And the irony is, I’m sure, that William Will knew that punters wouldn’t listen.
I do have my own trusted whispers, though I try to avoid trainer and jockey quotes unless they are fact (say, a horse doesn’t like the ground) and pertinent to my own investigations.
But, after the frustration of a few losers, I forgot the golden rule and ‘listened’ to the ‘advice’ of a trainer on Saturday, as I will tell you in my opening race analysis below.
IS THIS ANOTHER DARK HORSE FOR KNIGHT?
3.40 Yarmouth Not always the punters’ Knight in shining armour! I didn’t make a big thing of it at the time but I typed Secret Art (WON 16-1) into my bets list on Saturday, only to make the mistake of then reading the stable comments in the Racing Post, where trainer William Knight didn’t so much as pour cold water on it but was somewhere between tepid and lukewarm.
Martin Dwyer let the cat out of the bag afterwards when, interviewed on Channel-4, he revealed that nobody’s knight had given him the right signals, and strongly, before the race.
Tackled about it (quite ‘in your face’ by a persistent Nick Luck), W. Knight – mentally counting the readies – grinned: ‘Well, many a jockey needs encouragement before a race..’
I wonder what William tells Jamie Spencer at Yarmouth this afternoon, when Dark Avenue lines up in an eight-runner race (perfect for a bit of win and place at 12.5)? Shall I put an apple on his head?
Just in case you are still not with it about the skills of trainer Knight in handicaps, take a look at his handicaps-only form figures for the last 10 days: 11201410. Winners’ odds include 8-1 and 16-1.
The stable has a lousy record here at Yarmouth (4%) but not much better at Sandown (7%) before Secret Art won, or Salisbury (9%) where the first winner in that sequence scored at 25-1.
Princess Eva also looks ‘the wrong price’ in this race at 8.4, with James Fanshawe striking at 36%, with his handicap debutants on 23% and the stable 50% in this particular type of race at Yarmouth. Phew!
HAGGAS JOCKEY BOOKINGS ARE COHERENT
2.10 and 5.10 Yarmouth William Haggas is on a hat-trick in the opener after a double at Pontefract yesterday.
Haggas, who won with a juvenile newcomer at Yarmouth only last week, has another here in Highland Lotus (2.10), for which Paul Hanagan (6-11 or Haggas) has been booked.
The owner Bill Gredley, rather than trainer Haggas, calls on Jamie Spencer for Coherent (5.10) in the getting-out stakes. Spencer is leading rider for Gredley, showing a big level-stakes profit.
With Highland Lotus at 8.2 and Coherent 4.7, we have an ideal stop-at-a-winner situation. And tasty double odds, should both Haggas horses win as they did yesterday!
NAP 4.10 Yarmouth A Sussex Stakes entry suggests that Deauville’s brother Heatstroke should trot up in this class-3 handicap. He’s a glass horse but might have been seen several times this season had he not been waiting for top of the ground.
COLE’S CAN BOLT IN IF THE TRACK HAS CUT..
3.50 Catterick Paul Cole has sent only three horses up to Catterick in six seasons; one of them, Baron Bolt, won six lengths over today’s CD with cut in the Spring ground in April.
He’s since gone close at Kempton, Newmarket and Nottingham, and perhaps a return to Catterick – with his winning jockey back in the saddle – can make the difference. I took 3.6.
6.15 Kempton The tiny Newmarket yard of Miss Joey Ellis had two AW winners in 2015; one of them Royal Caper. It had two turf winners in 2014; one of them Royal Caper.
Now here’s the stable’s mainstay reunited with the winning jockey on both occasions, Stevie Donohue, at 23.0.
.. BUT BATH NEEDS TO DRY FOR BURNING BET
7.00 Bath Burning Thread won this race two years ago for Tim Etherington and scored again in October over today’s CD when sent out by David Elsworth, who has a 40% strike rate on the Bath track.
An essential for Burning Thread seems to be a sound surface, but generous layers allowed me to take an early position at 17.0, hoping for the drying day which is forecast.
A safer bet if the juice stays in the ground may be the 8.2 offer Go On Go On Go On, shaping well for sprint-star trainer, Clive Cox. Looks just Clive’s cuppa tea!
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked 1 to 9 for strength; 10 would be a banker)
BET 3pts win HIGHLAND LOTUS (2.10 Yarmouth, if lose 7pts win COHERENT (5.10 Yarmouth, plus DAQ MULTIPLES 1pt double the two.
BET 4pts win PRINCESS EVA, plus 2pts win and place DARK AVENUE (3.40 Yarmouth)
BET 7pts win BARON BOLT (3.50 Catterick)
BET 9pts win (nap) HEATSTROKE (4.20 Yarmouth)
BET 1pt win and place ROYAL CAPER (6.15 Kempton)
BET 3pts win GO ON GO ON GO ON, and 1.5pts win and place BURNING THREAD (7.00 Bath)
DAQMAN’S MESSAGE TO WALES:
Go On Go On GO ON!
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