KING DAQMAN TIPS THE EMPEROR FOR 11-1 GOODWOOD STRIKE: King-of-the-tipsters Daqman tipped the only Irish winner at Goodwood so far; in fact an Irish one-two when the Johnny Murtagh trained Ottoman Emperor strode away with the Gordon Stakes from Aidan O’Brien’s Sir Lucan yesterday. It took the value challenge score to Daqman 44, Pricewise 26.
WON 11-1 OTTOMAN EMPEROR
THE LOW STALLS COULD MINE GOLD IN THE BIG MILE HANDICAP: Daqman reckons today’s Golden Mile will go to the low draw, and tips the first five home from stalls 2, 5, 3, 1, 9. That gives him bull’s-eye bets (to win 50 points) at 10.5, 12.5 and 18.0 on BETDAQ. Headlines:
SAFFIE LOOKS MARATHON CHAMPION
IT’S MOORE OF THE SAME WITH JOHAN
ART FORM JUST RIGHT FOR GOODWOOD
GO GLORY FOR ANOTHER HANDICAPPER
SAFFIE LOOKS MARATHON CHAMPION
⚠️ HEADS UP William Buick (5 winners) is leading jockey at Goodwood this week with two days to go; Danny Tudhope is on 3, followed by James Doyle (2).
Andrew Balding (3) and Richard Hannon (3) are joint-top trainers, with Alan King and Ralph Beckett both on two each.
⭕ 1.50 Goodwood The Friday card opens with a 2m 4f+ marathon, Calling The Wind a topical tip in the blustery conditions.
Calling The Wind was runner-up in the Queen Alexandra Stakes at Royal Ascot, which is even further. He met the third, The Grand Visir, at levels that day, but is 10lb better off.
At the same meeting, Elysian Flame went third towards the finish of the Ascot Stakes (2m 4f), suited by today’s easier surface and with Danny Tufhope looking for a fourth Goodwood hit this week.
Winner of this race last year was Just Hubert who now has the one-length third, Smart Champion, well in against him, with Saffie Osborne’s claim.
Runner-up last year was Rochester House (blinkered first time today). A Mark Johnston, and looks saved up for this but another badly off with Smart Champion.
The Grand Visir (close-up fourth in 2020) was giving them more than a stone, which suggests that Calling The Wind should finish well ahead, though the Richard Hughes stable form (1-19) is off-putting.
The improver is Platform Nineteen (5-6), who puts himself to sleep early on and gets up a late head of steam – just the ticket for a long haul like this – but, again, you have to overlook his yard’s modest strike rate (2-18, with its last two favourites failing to reach the frame).
BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE value 9.3 Smart Champion, 9.7 Platform Nineteen, 23.0 Rochester House.
IT’S MOORE OF THE SAME WITH JOHAN
⭕ 3.00 Goodwood (Golden Mile) Positional play within massing horses is paramount in this 20-runner cavalry charge, every jockey a chess tactician, though few can beat the draw.
The results by stall in the decade suggest that William Buick, Ryan Moore, Jim Crowley and Danny Tudhope share pole position.
Winning draws (starting with 2011) have been 1, 8, 13, 5, 9, 1, 3, 3, 3, and 2 last year. The last time the race was on soft was five years ago when stalls 3, 6, 2 and 7 filled the first four places.
The leader from gate 4 ran out of steam. The unlucky horse from the one stall was a huge gamble but every move he made in the final two furlong he was taken sideways on the chequerboard that is Goodwood: ‘not clear run’ then ‘squeezed for room’.
Somehow, Ryan Moore escaped the melee three years running with a hat-trick from stalls 1, 3 and 3, one of them for William Haggas when he escaped from a pocket by jinking left. This is how the low-drawn horses look; first-five order in, with stall in brackets:
1 (2) JOHAN Moore rides out of gate 2 for Haggas today on Johan, a winner four times over a mile, twice with cut in the ground.
2 (5) MAYDANNY Won a 1m 2f handicap here at last year’s Glorious meeting, and second in the Royal Hunt Cup in June. Easily bested in the Coral Challenge at Sandown by Magical Morning but better off at the weights now and Magical Morning has to overcome stall 11.
3 (3) PATH OF THUNDER A massive gamble this week from 25-1 but up 8lb, has won only on the firm and carries a penalty.
4 (1) SHELIR A pound higher than when big-field third at York on the soft, and not disgraced trying to give a stone to David O’Meara stablemate Rhoscolyn (stall 8 today) at the Epsom Derby meeting. Levels today with Danny Tudhope on Shelir and Oisin Murphy on Rhoscolyn (stall 8). Hortzader (stall 4) also in the same team.
5 (9) ESCOBAR O’Meara’s fourth runner, Escobar, cannot be ignored altogether, though now seven years old.. Denied a clear run, eighth in this race (2018) then, after third in 2019, stepped up to be third in the Group-2 Lennox (7f) at last year’s meeting.
BETDAQ value 10.5 Johan, 12.5 Maydanny, 18 Shelir
ART FORM JUST RIGHT FOR GOODWOOD
⭕ 3.35 Goodwood (King George Stakes) Fortune Cookie Glass Slippers is back after a long lay-off. She loves the ground (assuming it rained again, as forecast) and has won Group-1 sprints at Longchamp, the Curragh and Keeneland.
But, even with a run under her belt, Kevin Ryan’s mare was beaten in this last year by Battaash when the weights were a lot more in her favour.
Battaash has won four years running, always with a low draw, and here he is racing down the middle of the course again out of gate 3. They might end up over the far side, if the field holds up at 13.
Art Power won a Group 3 at Naas a year ago on the soft but has been generally disappointing, though he’s been running mainly over 6f and 5f at Goodwood could be just the place for him to get the rub of the green.
Suesa is also a Group 3 winner (twice) but has not raced at the minimum trip: lightly-raced three-year-old who loves the mud. Battaash was also aged three when he first won.
Over on the near side could be Arecibo and Dragon Symbol, drawn 11 and 12. That could be a fascinating duel down the rail.
Arecibo tried to make the leap from class-2 handicap at Newmarket (soft; carried 10st) to Group 1 at Royal Ascot and was beaten only by Oxted, with Battaash back in fourth (went left under pressure), Keep Busy fifth. I don’t think Battaash will allow that again over this faster five.
The grey Dragon Symbol has played acey-deucy in his short career: seven runs for 1111222; the penultimate second was when Campanelle was given the Commonwealth Cup (heavy) after Dragon bumped her before he passed the post first (disqualified). Suesa was back in eighth.
The Dragon was also runner-up on firm in the July Cup on the last day, with Oxted third, Art Power fourth and Liberty Beach sixth but that was on firm ground.
BETDAQ EXCHANGE BETTING value 6.5 Art Power.
GO GLORY FOR ANOTHER HANDICAPPER
⭕ 4.10 Goodwood (Glorious Stakes) A Group 3 over 1m 4f which goes to horses aged four and five rated 109 to 114, so Eagles By Day, Mogul and Passion And Glory.
In similar vein to yesterday’s Gordon Stakes (won by Ottoman Emperor), I think it boils down to the improver against the tired established.
Mogul (117) won the Gordon Stakes last year before taking the Hong Kong Vase just before Christmas. That form rarely translates to English turf and this seasøn’s home form has been mediocre.
The improver is surely Passion And Glory (112), who has been winning only handicaps but in the manner which screams ‘Group horse.’
His target is the Ebor (1m 5f), a £150,000-to-the-winner Group race disguised as a handicap, so we are to assume that today’s step up to 1m 4f will be fine. He travels so impressively in his races.
Euchen Glen (116) has been around forever but stepped up from handicaps only last autumn to win three Group 3 and a Listed, two of them over 1m 4f on the soft.
BETDAQ value 4.4 Passion And Glory
DAQMAN’S BETS
1.50 Goodwood (win-50 bull’s-eye bets)
BET 6pts win SMART CHAMPION
BET 5.75pts win PLATFORM NINETEEN
BET 2.25pts win ROCHESTER HOUSE
3.00 Goodwood (win-50 bull’s-eye bets)
BET 5pts win JOHAN
BET 4.25pts win MAYDANNY
BET 3pts win SHELIR
3.35 Goodwood (win 20)
BET 4pts win ART POWER
4.10 Goodwood (win 20 nap)
BET 5.75pts win PASSION AND GLORY
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.
