DAQMAN BEST BET BOATMAN WINS: Daqman rowed in with another winning nap when The Thames Boatman won a Wolverhampton sprint on the nod last night. He bids to follow up the nap at Catterick on Tuesday.
WON 6-4 THE THAMES BOATMAN (nap)
CHELTENHAM BETDAQ COUNTDOWN: A bonus double, 17.0 and 11.0 outsiders suited by the drying ground. It’s all part of Daqman’s countdown to Cheltenham, with BETDAQ Sportsbook and Exchange offers.
‘BLAZING’ WEATHER FORECAST
CHELTENHAM COUNTDOWN: Thursday 17.0 shot
£100,000 bonus. Whoever wins Saturday’s Morebattle Hurdle (1.50) at Kelso is in line for a six-figure Cheltenham festival bonus.
Emmet Mullins, who did it in 2021 with The Shunter, runs McTigue, who has four festival engagements, but there are other possibilities.
Should they score at Kelso, Colonel Mustard, Deere Mark, Lebowski, Luttrell Lad, Teddy Blue and Nayati would target the County Hurdle on the Friday of the festival; Nell’s Son and Bensoon, the Coral Cup; and Wajaaha the Martin Pipe.
There may be Grand National clues on Saturday. The Last Samuri, winner of the 2016 Grimthorpe Chase at Doncaster, would go on to finish second in the Grand National won by Rule The World (2016) and second and third in the Becher Chase (2016-17).
⭕ 2.10 Cheltenham, Thursday week (Pertemps Final) Dry weather right through to Cheltenham is good news for An Tailliur, 17.0 in the BETDAQ Sportbook.
It also boosts the chances of Banbridge in the Arkle, Tuesday, at 11.0 in the BETDAQ Sportsbook or the Turners, Thursday, for which he is only 5.0.
⭕ 3.30 Cheltenham, Thursday (Stayers Hurdle) As one who acts well on top of the ground, Blazing Khal could be a banker for the meeting (3.5 BETDAQ Sportsbook), where others short in the betting want it soft.
BALOO LOOK COOL
⭕ 4.15 Catterick Leicester’s all-chase card has attracted an average of 4.1 runners per race and that’s before any more drop-outs because of the good to firm ground. I’ll give the meeting the swerve and head further north to Catterick for the afternoon bet and nap.
Betty Baloo was an easy winner here earlier in the month and given it was a small field the handicapper probably couldn’t be too harsh so has only pushed the mare up 2lb.
With hindsight that now looks lenient as the Catterick runner-up Credo came out to win by 13 lengths herself at Warwick last week to give the form a huge rubber stamp.
Fiston Du Mou was also a Catterick winner last time out but in a match race where the pair were split by three parts of a length. The market seems to have over-reacted as take that form line out (arguably not worth much in form terms) and he would surely be a much bigger price?
Lounge Lizard is 0-9 and not proven on quicker ground but has pieces of form to suggest he could go well but it’s guesswork really on the going front.
BEST LEFT TO HAGGAS
⭕ 6.30 Southwell Looks the most interesting race of the night on the Tapeta surface and surely in time will prove better than the official class 4 status?
Five of the six three-year-olds have tasted success before and in the case of French Invasion he hasn’t tasted defeat having won both of his previous starts at Kempton and Lingfield. He starts life in handicap company tonight for Charlie Johnston and my experience with the handicapper in these situations is that he doesn’t take too many chances with unbeaten runners and errs on the side of caution so his opening mark of 86 might prove high enough.
Mighty River was the morning favourite on Betdaq Betting Exchange and the James Tate trained runner has been consistent around this trip and class but I’m not so enthusiastic about the fact that he was put up 3lb for finishing second last time out.
Preference is for the William Haggas trained Ramensky who made a winning all-weather debut at Wolverhampton having shown promise on the turf last year, notably when runner-up on his final start at Goodwood.
He might not have had much to beat at Wolverhampton as the other joint favourite didn’t fire but visually he looked impressive and looks the sort to keep improving for his formidable stable.
TROPEZ TO POWER HOME
⭕ 7.00 Southwell Another class 4 handicap but this one over a mile looks far more trappy.
That said, I was taken with Tropez Power at Lingfield last time out when he chased home the Gosden trained hotpot Unforgotten who was won since and completed a hat-trick.
It was a really strong effort from Tropez Power who was a course and distance winner here in December and is still very much a player despite being 6lb higher in the weights since that success.
Seldom a day goes by without Mick Appleby saddling a winner and he sets a poser here by running two. The early Betdaq market suggested Alexander James with Oisin Murphy in the saddle is the one. He ran well in a better race here last time but was beaten into second by the selection on the December form.
DAQMAN’S BETS
4.15 Catterick (win 10, nap)
BET 6.6pts win BETTY BALOO
6.30 Southwell (win 10)
BET 3pts win RAMENSKY
7.00 Southwell (win 10)
BET 2.2pts win TROPEZ POWER
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