DAQMAN RACING BRAIN POWERS UP EIGHT NAPS: All four Daqman selections were placed yesterday but only the nap won.. and how! Brain Power (WON 1-2) scored by 28 lengths and 26 to complete a hat-trick of naps for our man, who is now on eight out of nine for 233 points to 20-point stakes.
WON 1-2 BRAIN POWER (yesterday)
WON 3-1 ICE COOL CHAMPS (Sunday)
WON 3-1 CLAN DES OBEAUX (Saturday)
2ND 1-3 JUGE ET PARTI (Friday supernap)
WON 11-10 AINSI VA LA VIE (Thursday supernap)
WON 1-2 QAYSAR (Wednesday)
WON 7-4 KAYFLEUR (Tuesday)
WON 2-1 CIAOADIOSIMDONE (Monday)
WON 4-5 FOX NORTON (Sunday supernap)
SET FAIR FOR THE LADBROKES WEEKEND FESTIVAL: Today Daqman takes you through the Newbury weekend cards, one of the top sponsorship meetings in the calendar, two days of pointers to the big festivals at Christmas and in the Spring. Saturday is the former Hennessy Gold Cup, now the Ladbrokes Trophy. And the weather forecast is good.
TWO-DAY QUALITY CARDS AT NEWBURY
The forecast is fine weather. The plan is for TWO sensational Ladbrokes-sponsored days at Newbury, Friday and Saturday. The prospect is for a weekend of champions. That’s how it looks, and this is how it rolls out:
12.20 Newbury, Friday (Ladbrokes National Hunt Maiden Hurdle) The race that launched Cheltenham Champion Hurdle ace Buveur d’Air in 2015.
So check out this year’s choice of his trainer, Nicky Henderson, from Chef Des Obeaux, Pacific De Beaune and Whatswrongwithyou.
12.50 Newbury, Friday (Ladbrokes Chase) Six-year-olds have taken five out of six. Harry Whittington, who broke the mould with a five-year-old scorer in 2015, saddles one aged six this time, Bigmartre, who put in a good round to win on his chasing debut at Ludlow.
1.20 Newbury, Friday (Ladbrokes Novices’ Hurdle) Henderson again on his home track. He’s won it twice in three seasons and can choose from five possibles. That could be a prophetic pick!
1.50 Newbury, Friday (Ladbrokes Novices’ Chase) This, the former Berkshire Chase, is a sensational pointer. Bobs Worth (2011), who won the RSA and then the Gold Cup, and Coneygree (2014), the 2015 ‘gold’ hero, both won as a launch pad to star status.
2.25 Newbury, Friday (Ladbrokes Handicap Chase) Get the favourite beaten! It’s happened every year for 10 years. The secret? The winner comes from 11st 5lb or lower.
3.00 Newbury, Friday (Ladbrokes Long Distance Hurdle) Thistlecrack is likely to be a short price to resume his 2015-16 sequence of nine in a row including this one.
But he missed the festivals this year and has young pretenders coming to oust him, notably another prolific winner, Colin’s Sister, trained by a bullish Fergal O’Brien, and Wholestone, yet another top Nigel Twiston-Davies contender, who is 3lb better off for two lengths with Colin’s Sister on Wetherby form.
3.35 Newbury, Friday (Ladbrokes Handicap Hurdle) Hello George! Philip Hobbs used to farm this one (three wins 2007-12) and hopes that George can pick up the thread.
DITCHEAT LIGHTWEIGHTS LOOK HOT
SATURDAY: 12.10 Ladbrokes Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, 12.45 Ladbrokes John Francome, Novices’ Chase, 1.20 Sir Peter O’Sullevan Memorial, 1.50 Ladbrokes Handicap Hurdle, 2.25 Ladbrokes Gerry Feilden Hurdle, 3.35 Ladbrokes Jim Joel Memorial.
3.00 Newbury, Saturday (Ladbrokes Trophy) The former Hennessy, a 3m 2f Grade-3 handicap, is one of the big three chases on the calendar.
Like last Saturday’s Lancashire Chase, in which the old (Cue Card) failed to withstand the new (Bristol de Mai), we have a former Gold Cup winner, Coneygree, up against new kids on the block, with the handicapper ruefully declaring that there are 10 or 12 potential improvers in the pack.
One of them, only six, is in my horses-to-follow list, Paul Nicholls’ Braqueur d’Or, trying to make a name for himself off the minimum weight here.
Also off 10st is the more experienced Cogry, to be saddled by current big-race king Nigel Twiston-Davies, and only 3lb higher is Present Man, another Ditcheat lightweight.
One of those could topple the favourites but, in recent years, as with so many handicaps, quality will out. Only two winners in the decade have carried less than 11st 1lb. And the last five winners have all been set 11-1 to 11-6.
American (absent 255 days) and Whisper seem to stand out there but Whisper is now nine and they don’t win at that age, unless a giant of the era going for a repeat (Denman 2009).
The favourite, Willie Mullins’ Total Recall, ‘deadly, like an elastic band’ according to Ruby Walsh when they won the Ladbrokes Munster National, has been raised 18lb, but carries only 10st 8lb.
AL SHAHIR TICKING ALL THE BOXES
1.30 Lingfield The going is soft (heavy in places) which by Lingfield jumping standards is actually pretty good !! It’s usually completely bottomless or abandoned which is a shame as it’s a course I like from a jumps perspective.
The opening bumper is run on the all-weather but in the first turf race of the day the consistent Al Shahir has to be the call for the nap.
As always, I look for ticks in the boxes to reduce elements of risk – even more so when I have a decent naps sequence going and I can’t find many flaws with this one.
TRAINER Dan Skelton is in good form – six winners in the past 14 days.
GROUND He won a bumper on heavy ground at Newcastle – winning by eight lengths but the full winning margins were 8,15,21,14 – talk about getting a field strung out. He also handled the soft ground when second at Wetherby last time out.
DISTANCE ideal.
FORM At first glance it might look a little disappointing that he has finished second in both his starts over hurdles having gone off at 11/8 and 6/4. However, on closer examination of the evidence by Inspector Daqman I think he has been beaten by good horses.
At Newton Abbot he was second to Maria’s Benefit who went on to storm home by eight lengths in a competitive Sandown £20,000 handicap next time out.
Al Shahir was then beaten 10 lengths by Kalashnikov at Wetherby last time out but that one is now unbeaten in two starts and looks a very exciting prospect indeed for Amy Murphy.
OPPOSITION A big field but I don’t think too much to worry the selection. Chief market rival is First Flow who is making his hurdling debut for Kim Bailey and has shown promise in two starts in bumpers – finishing fourth in both of them. Fairmount ran well at Chepstow in his second bumper start and is interesting on hurdling debut.
PRICE The final component – around evens on BETDAQ at the time of writing and I think that looks reasonable. So much so he is upgraded to SUPERNAP status.
MARKS OUT OF 10 9/10 NAPS (hopefully after today!)
ALL ABOARD THE BOLLIN LINE
3.20 Sedgefield Bollin Line bids for a four-timer and is down in the weights !!! He switches from hurdles to fencing admittedly but is in such good heart at present that it’s hard not to get drawn into his chance here from a handicapping perspective. He does have winning form too over the larger obstacles.
BELGRAVIAN TO WALK IT FROM FRONT
3.40 Southwell A busy eight race card at Southwell concludes with this amateur rider event over a mile.
Simon Walker is always great value in these events and he should land this onboard Belgravian who made all to win over seven furlongs at Kempton last month.
His run at Chelmsford last time out is best ignored as he had a nightmare run. A switch back to front running tactics will surely be the order of the day here?
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked to win 20 points)
SUPERNAP: BET 20pts AL SHAHIR (1.30 Lingfield)
BET 10pts win BOLLIN LINE (3.20 Sedgefield)
BET 12.9pts win BELGRAVIAN (3.40 Southwell)
Did you know that as well as checking the realtime prices on BETDAQ below – you can also log into your account and place your bets directly into BETDAQ from BETDAQ TIPS.
