THE CHELTENHAM CONNECTION: PART 4 IN THE SERIES: One month today to the Cheltenham Gold Cup, and Daqman completes his day-on-day survey of the connection between the Dublin Racing Festival and the championship races (March 16-19). Look out for his verdict next week.
DAQMAN NAPS AT LINGFIELD: Daqman has bets today at Kelso, Fakenham and Lingfield (AW nap) under the headlines:
🔹 CHELTENHAM: SEE HOW THEY WON
🔹 LAURA TO RIDE BACK ON A WINNER
🔹 COUNTDOWN? NO, COUNT UP FOR JP
CHELTENHAM: SEE HOW THEY WON
Where do the Cheltenham winners come from? Is the increasingly strong Dublin Racing Festival the key to the championship races in March? Here are the paths to Cheltenham taken by the champions of Day 4 in the last three years. It’s one month today to the Gold Cup!
⭕ 1.20 Cheltenham, Friday March 19 (Triumph Hurdle): The 2018 Triumph winner, Farclas, was beaten into second place in Leopardstown appearances at both the Christmas meeting and at the Dublin festival.
Pentland Hillos (2019) came straight from victory in a Plumtpon maiden and last year Burning Victory was doubling up from a Grade-3 strike at Fairyhouse.
⭕ 2.30 Cheltenham, Friday March 19 (Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle): Kilbricken Storm (2018) followed defeat in the Challow Hurdle with victory in the Albert Bartlett at 33-1. He never won another hurdle and only one chase.
The Irish winners of the Albert Bartlett, Minella Indo (2019) and Monkfish (2020) followed up from defeat at Clonmel and success at Thurles, respectively.
⭕ 3.05 Cheltenham, Friday, March 19 (Gold Cup) Native River (2018) had won the Denman Chase at Newbury the last day. Both victories for Al Boum Photo (2019-20) followed a prep in the Savills Chase at Tramore.
LAURA TO RIDE BACK ON A WINNER
⭕ 3.00 Lingfield The day the music died. Ritchie Valens, one of those in the infamous plane crash when some of you were young, is remembered as one of the runners in this race.
His jockey will be Laura Pearson, returning from a holiday self imposed to keep her allowance intact for better things this Spring and on turf in the summer. But boss Tom Clover wanted her back today.
Sadly Davy Russell, his holiday imposed by injury, will not be fit for Cheltenham. So much for the ups and downs of race-riding; apprentice or professional, it’s a hard game.
Ritchie Valens’ yard had a winner yesterday and the handicapper has dropped him to the mark he had when winning for the only time. That was six races back at Chelmsford in June.
But Ritchie and Laura might have been placed, or even won, here at Lingfield in January, when slow away and hampered two out; finished strongly. I took 3.3 on BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE.
Uther Pendragon is 0-14 on AW and, when Punting scored here, she was racing off a rating 10lb lower than today. It’s nearly four years since Renardeau scored above class 5.
COUNTDOWN? NO, COUNT UP FOR JP
⭕ 3.20 Kelso The awful mudbath is back, despite balmier weather, making it barmy to have too big a bet.
You can pick the ‘winner’ and he’s too tired in the mud to jump the second last fence when 12 lengths clear.
Had Un Prophete not fallen at Fontwell, legless, he would have completed a double for me after the progressive Chameron won at Leicester.
Appropriate to my series, completed today, this race at Kelso is called Cheltenham Countdown, and it could go to Vision Du Puy, owned by J P McManus.
J.P.’s idea of a Cheltenham countdown is filling his betting bank well ahead of the festival. This is his current record:
February 5th one winner; 6th three at 8-1, 12-1 and 14-1; 7th one at 10-1; 8th two winners; 11th one; 13th three, including 12-1; 14th two; 17th one; 18th one.
Vision Du Puy (BETDAQ 4.2) is with the Skeltons, who are similarly saturating their stats with strikes, among them seven winners since Sunday.
He has been dropped in the handicap and, as an Auteuil winner on very soft, should be at home in the conditions.
The local horse, Serious Ego, won at Haydock last month, with a 10-race gap since his previous success, and he’s raised 9lb.
Ebony Jewel has failed to emerge from the novice stage but has been highly tried and is down 5lb to the mark which helped him place here a year or so back.
Minella Charmer (7.4 offers) and Corrieben Reiver have been absent 480 and 426 days, respectively, but both have won after long breaks before now, and Brian Hughes takes the ride on Charmer, looking for winner number 103 this season.
DAQMAN’S BETS
1.50 Kelso
FORTUNE COOKIE
BET 10pts win PROTEKTORAT
3.00 Lingfield (win 10, nap)
BET 4.25pts win RITCHIE VALENS
3.20 Kelso (win 10)
BET 3pts win VISION DU PUY
BET 1.5pts win MINELLA CHARMER
4.15 Fakenham (win 10)
BET 3pts win GETTING CLOSER
What are points? Points facilitate a staking plan, which is the secret to creating profit. One point is whatever you choose: a pound, a euro, or whatever ….
Start with a bank and decide how much you can afford to lose over a period of time, and determine the size of your bets accordingly. Daqman makes this variation every day.
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.
