CURRAGH SPOTLIGHT: Yesterday’s score (Daqman 0, Pricewise 0) tells the story of shocks all round. Can they do better at The Curragh today (Daqman leads this season 55-25).
DARING REDCAR NAP: There’s a daring nap from Daqman for Redcar at 8.0 on BETDAQ, and a 13.5 win and place bet at The Curragh, where he names two fillies well drawn for the big race.
THROUGH THE WEEK: Don’t miss DAQMAN’s midweek coverage as we build up to Saturday’s King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.
13.5 LANDLINE FOR STABLE HAT-TRICK
2.00 The Curragh Last year’s winner of this hasn’t scored again, in marked contrast to 2011 when the future Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine, Misty For Me, took it on the way to a treble completed in the Moyglare and the Marcel Boussac.
In 2013, it went to Tapestry (Yorkshire Oaks) for the same trainer. You guessed it; Aidan Patrick O’Brien, the man from Ballydoyle.
For the bonus, who is the sire of his runners today, Hydrangea and 1.3m guineas buy Key To My Heart? Too easy; of course, it’s Galileo. And the owners: Yes, The Lads.
If you got all three right, you could get a job on Channel-4. I’ve renamed The Mench Man; I now call him Jelly Baby, after yesterday’s grovelling ‘Let’s not talk too much about the betting’. Sorry, oh spineless one, ITV weren’t watching; but Mark Johnston was pleased.
Incidentally, Hydrangea, Mur Hiba and Velveteen are the only fillies in this opening race to watch that have Group-1 entries.
Had she not been hampered when heavily-backed favourite, Velveteen – stall one today – might have made a race of it at Naas in the Spring with subsequent Cherry Hinton (as was) winner, Roly Poly, also trained by O’Brien.
High numbers in the draw are favoured – the Scurry one-two came from stalls 14 and 19 yesterday – and the dice seem to have fallen for David Wachman, with his trio coming out of 12, 13 and 19. Alphabet is Group-2 entered.
Though his juvenile stats for The Curragh are weak, Wachman had his first two-year-old winner of the Irish season on Thursday, the last horse he saddled before today.
2.35 The Curragh Pollardstown trainer Brendan Duke has had only five juvenile winners all told in five seasons but two of them were the last two winners this race.
It, therefore, seems reasonable to expect that Landline – third to Caravaggio on Polytrack; now first run gelded – has been prepping for this in his three maidens.
Brendan has booked Kevin Manning, who landed a gamble for him in the race last year, so the 13.5 early mouse offer on BETDAQ is most acceptable (three chances of a place).
Nurseries are hardly Aidan O’Brien’s field but Istan and son Joseph’s Pronounced are Group-1 entered, though I guess they would be, wouldn’t they. I imagine that even the stable cats get block entries in the two-year-old ‘classics.’
JUMP ON HOT THREE-YEAR-OLD JACK
3.05 The Curragh (Minstrel Stakes) Gordon Lord Byron was awarded this race in the stewards’ room last year, after finishing second, half a length in front of Sovereign Debt, giving that one weight.
Adaay seemed to improve a ton with three wins from four last season but the handicapper was not impressed, raising him only 9lb, and he hasn’t struck much form since.
Three-year-olds have not been strongly represented in this in the last two seasons but landed three wins in four years before that, and French raider Cheikeljack looks hard to beat, only three lengths off the winner of the Group-1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot in June, and now back up in trip.
But Dick Whittington, who was a Group-1 two-year-old and had a series of minor problems in his second season, could be a threat back to form in a Group 3 on the last day.
Four horses – Adaay, Cheikeljack, Dick Whittington and Sovereign Debt – are separated by only 0.6 points in the BETDAQ orange this morning, with super-bridesmaid Sovereign Debt the shortest; I’ll go for the French raider.
BOCCA BACIATA PLACE IS GUARANTEED
4.15 The Curragh This Group 2 for fillies and mares went to a Galileo, owned by The Lads, trained at Ballydoyle last year but it was Aidan O’Brien’s first winner of the race.
Best In The World and Earring have both been well held by Pretty Perfect, who did nothing for the form in the Irish Oaks yesterday.
The German 1,000 Guineas wasn’t a great race but at least Hawksmoor proved that she didn’t have to lead, though she may have to show early pace today from gate 12.
Moyglare fourth to Minding last season, Tanaza was repeatedly hampered in the Gtoup-1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot but, as with her previous start in the Irish 1,000 Guineas, was an unfancied outsider that day.
Devonshire, third in the 2015 Irish 1,000, has twice run well on the course again, second in the Park Express and winner of a Group 2 in May (holds Lucida).
Bocca Baciata is a bridesmaid at all Group levels: third in the Blandford and the Blue Wind; second in the Pretty Polly to Minding. Curragh form in the last 12 months: 313442. But that makes her a good win-and-place bet in this less competitive race.
A high draw can win this (I remember Manieree going straight to the front) but the last four winners by stall have been 4, 1, 1, 1.
So the top three-year-olds, Hawksmoor and Tanaza in my book, have problems in 12 and 13. So I’ll take the older pair, Bocca Baciata at 5.3 (there’s no Minding in this) and the fresh Lady of Dubai at 7.6 (only one run this year).
THE NAP: Lobster Cocktail (2.30 Redcar), well hidden in his three maidens, looks a plot horse for Redcar’s leading trainer on percentages, Ed Walker, yet 8.0 in the BETDAQ orange, as I write.
DAQMAN’S BETS (to win 20)
BET 3pts win and place (nap) LOBSTER COCKTAIL (2.30 Redcar)
BET 1.6pts win and place LANDLINE (2.35 The Curragh)
BET 4pts win and place CHEIKELJACK (3.05 The Curragh)
BET 4.5pts win BOCCA BACIATA and 3pts win LADY OF DUBAI (4.15 The Curragh)
BET 2.5pts win and place HIGHLAND ACCLAIM (4.45 Redcar)
£25 IN FREE BETS
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