9.0 FORTUNE COOKIE RATED A SHERGAR CUP BULL’S-EYE NAP: Daqman has a win-50 bull’s-eye nap when a Fortune Cookie at 9.0 on BETDAQ runs on the Shergar Cup card at Ascot today and a 20-point supernap at Newmarket. Here’s how he goes into Saturday:
DAQMAN 47, PRICEWISE 27 (Daqman +112.36, Pricewise -14.00)
BULL’S-EYE NAPS 1-1 (100%)
SUPERNAPS 10-14 (71%)
LAYS LOGIC 11-15 (73%)
FORTUNE COOKIES 7-15 (46%)
SHERGAR CUP HEADLINES
BARONE WINS AFTER EVERY HOLIDAY
THE STAYERS RACE SUITS EAST ASIA
CHALLENGE: OPPOSE THE FAVOURITE
POSSIBLE FOR MAN TO GET THIS TRIP
BARONE WINS AFTER EVERY HOLIDAY
SHERGAR CUP LEADING TRAINERS (10 years): Andrew Balding 8 wins, 15 places; Mark Johnston 5, Robert Cowell 3. JOCKEYS: Hayley Turner has twice won the Silver Saddle from 13 appearances. TEAM (19 years): Rest of The World 7.
FAVOURITES: 9-54
FORTUNE COOKIES: East Asia (1.25 Ascot)
⭕ 12.50 Ascot Shergar Cup (Dash) STATS: Only one winner has been aged over five in 10 seasons (none were three-year-olds). Only two in eight years have been drawn lower than stall 7. None in nine years bigger than 6-1 SP. Trainers: Andrew Balding 3, Robert Cowell 2.
FORM: Tone The Barone has won his last two Ascot handicaps and, while he’s now 8lb higher than for his latest access at Lingfield, King Of Stars is 12lb higher, Stone Of Destiny 10lb.
His last Ascot strike was Tone’s final turf run before a Spring campaign on AW, and then a holiday. He has won after every single break.. four times in a row!
King Of Stars has been on the upgrade but likes to go with the pace, and a handicapper who learned his trade at Southwell may find this 5f hard to get.
Similarly, Desert Safari’s best turf form (poor strike rate: 1-11) is at Goodwood, where he was third and seventh only last week.
BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE value 12.0 Tone The Barone
THE STAYERS RACE SUITS EAST ASIA
⭕ 1.25 Ascot Shergar Cup (Stayers) STATS: A poor race for favourites (1-10). Trainers: Ian Williams 2.
FORM: Cleonte, who won this in 2018 and took the Queen Alexandra here in 2019, is 20lb-odd down the handicap now. Like the other CD winner, Island Brave, he’s played on the big-race scene since his salad days, without much success.
Uber Cool has won in lower grade, and scores after a break, but he’s had only three races in three years or so. I’d want him to be trained by Nicky Henderson to spend my money in those circs.
Call My Bluff is a class 4 and class 5 winner, trying to leap the grades. So I’ll go along with the Ian Williams’ talents for this race and take East Asia for a revival in a race that suits. Favourite for the Northumberland Plate after a hat-trick but didn’t act on the Tapeta.
BETDAQ value 9.0 East Asia
CHALLENGE: OPPOSE THE FAVOURITE
⭕ 2.00 Ascot (Challenge) STATS: Not a winning favourite in sight! Best race for visiting jockeys, who are 8-10. DRAW: Six out of 10 from stalls 1-5. CLASS: This race and the 3.10 are class 3; the rest of the card is class 2.
FORM: Sam Cooke was something like his old self in first-time hood on the last day, but will it work again? Badly drawn in 11.
Similarly, HMS President was runner-up in first-time cheekpieces on Thursday. Will they work again, and so soon?
Group One Power, consistent but beaten into a place four times since scoring at Epsom in the Spring, is out in stall 12.
Spanish Kiss ran wide here, going for a hat-trick, but has the one stall today: 4.7 on BETDAQ.
⭕ 2.35 Ascot (Mile) It could be soft ground by now: Young Fire (five times a winner on soft) Dashing Roger (2), Ouzo (2) plus Raising Sand (3 but mainly good to soft) and Revich (2 on good to soft) should not be inconvenienced.
Dance Fever was third in the International but has yet to get a mile, and any worsening of the ground would be against him. Ouzo (5.9) looked best value this morning
POSSIBLE FOR MAN TO GET THIS TRIP
⭕ 3.10 Ascot (Classic) STATS: You’d think stalls 1 to 4 would benefit from the bend but, if you watch the reprises at this trip, you’ll see they have to go all out early in the struggle to keep pace as the higher-drawn horses crush across.
In fact, All winners in the decade have been drawn from 5 to 10, and Mark Jpohnston has three in that group: one of them sure to go forward at pace, while the two others wait like a velodrome race in the Olympics.
FORM: Possible Man got back up when headed by State Of Bliss at Nottingham (1m 2f) and his breeding says more to come over further, like today.
BETDAQ value 8.4 Possible Man
⭕ 3.45 Ascot (Sprint) STATS: Won by horses carrying 9st 7lb to 9st 13lb., as you’d expect: that’s where the quality lies.
FORM: Clive Cox was back to form with a winner yesterday and Royal Scimitar ‘won’ a much better race than this at Newmarket on the near side but the far side had it and he went down half a length.
BETDAQ value 5.6 Royal Scimitar
DAQMAN’S SHERGAR CUP SELECTIONS
12.50 Tone The Barone Hayley Turner
1.25 East Asia Sean Levey
2.00 Spanish Kiss Tadhg O’Shea
2.35 Ouzo Andrea Atzeni
3.10 Possible Man David Egan
3.45 Royal Scimitar Nicola Currie
DAQMAN’S BETS
12.50 Ascot (win 20, place win 10)
BET 1.75pts win and 2.25pts place TONE THE BARONE
1.25 Ascot (bull’s-eye nap to win 50)
FORTUNE COOKIE
BET 6.25pts win EAST ASIA
3.10 Ascot (win 20)
BET 2.75pts win POSSIBLE MAN
3.45 Ascot (win 20)
BET 4.25pts win ROYAL SCIMITAR
4.10 Haydock (win 12.0)
BET 7.5pts win FOXES TALES
4.30 Newmarket (supernap)
BET 20pts win QUINTILLUS
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.