20 POINTS BACK FROM PLACE BET: A game of fine margins – DAQMAN’s three selections finished 1,2,3 with the SUPERNAP beaten a short head but losses were mitigated with the ‘BET TO WIN 20’ place recommendation on Paddys Runner (finished third at 12/1).
WIDE RUNNER THE PICK: DAQMAN stays loyal with a ‘wide’ specialist at Southwell in the 1.45pm.
A HENDERSON CRUSADE
1.25 Doncaster French Crusader, trained by Nicky Henderson, had much more in hand than the official two length margin would suggest when making a winning bumper debut at Huntingdon in November.
The horse had a multiple list of entries this week with Henderson plumping for this, despite the presence of the unbeaten Ravenhill Road.
Ravenhill Road couldn’t have been more impressive when winning his debut over hurdles at Sedgefield by 23 lengths but it was a weak contest and the weight concession to French Crusader may be too much.
HE WON’T SHOW UNTIL LATE..
1.45 Southwell A new one for the racing dictionary. I’m told that ‘showboating’ has entered racing parlance with the regular Southwell punters.
The draw is so important on the left-turning Nottinghamshire track that any horse that can beat a high stall is ‘showboating.’
Why Showboating? Because the horse of that name twice got a high stall but revelled in racing wide and winning to gasps from the crowd.
Showboating is at Southwell again today. Ten years old now. But again drawn high (7 of 9) so again likely to be the ‘wide boy.’ It all seems to centre on two tremendous runs when seemingly no chance:
Drawn 9 (10 runners, July 2015): Showboating, headway on wide outside 3f out, soon clear, eased (WON 7-2 favourite)
Drawn 13 (12 runners with one stall vacant, March 2017): Showboating, held up in rear and wide straight, stayed on strongly, led last 75 yards (WON 7-1).
Dougie Costello has never ridden Showboating in any one of his 109 starts so I hope the locals and the gelding’s 28 other jockeys will tip him off.
It’s 68 days since his Yorkshire trainer, John Balding, had a winner. But the race has a Mark Johnston runner which has won from the front. Perfect for a late swoop and a bit of eponymous ‘showboating.’
DONNY ROSE TO BLOOM
2.35 Doncaster Oscar Rose was well fancied for a much more competitive race than this at Cheltenham last time out but was unluckily hampered and unseated her rider at the sixth.
She is on the recovery mission today but should have the class to get competitive in this mares’ handicap hurdle.
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked to win 20 points):
BET 10.4 pts win (nap) FRENCH CRUSADER (1.25 Doncaster)
BET 3.1pts win and 2.2pts place (stakes saver) SHOWBOATING (1.45 Southwell)
BET 3.8pts win and 3.9pts place (stakes saver) OSCAR ROSE (2.35 Doncaster)
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.
