7-2 WINNER WAS 7.4 BETDAQ OFFER: Daqman finished in front yesterday with Entrancement, paying almost double on BETDAQ in the run-up to the race at Bath. She just headed a Nicky Henderson nine-year-old hurdler, another warning for Cesarewitch punters: see Thursday’s Daqman preview.
WON 7-2 ENTRANCEMENT from 7.4 taken on BETDAQ
O’BRIEN PLAYS SIX TWO-YEAR-OLDS: The Newmarket Cesarewitch meeting opens today alongside a strong card at York but the day’s spotlight is on three Group races for two-year-olds at HQ, in which Aidan O‘Brien has six runners.
IN THEORY, O’MEARA HAS IT
⭕ 1.30 York (Autumn Handicap, 7f 192yd) STATS: Winners came from extremes of the draw, high and low: 14, 4, 5, 4, 13, 4, 19, 1; with winners aged 4 and 5 (six out of eight); only one successful favourite. Going: soft.
Theoryofeverything (holds Hafeet Alain and Navagio) won well over the straight mile at Ascot (soft) but didn’t last out the extra furlong in the Cambridgeshire. BETDAQ 8.6.
David O’Meara stablemate Padishakh was placed at Group level and ran in the French Derby for Jean-Claude Rouget, returning to form at Ayr recently as a gelding. BETDAQ 10.0.
Empirestateofmind, useful last season over a mile on soft and heavy until a long break after a wind op, has not yet regained his form but has dropped close to a stone.
Naxos could be better than the bare form, and Look Back Smiling finished 2023 and started 2024 with strikes at Doncaster including the Spring Mile.
LAST CLAP OF THUNDER..
⭕ 1.47 Newmarket (Cornwallis Stakes, 5f Group-3 2yo) Saeed Bin Suroor and Oisin Murphy are both going for hat-tricks in this.. by separate routes.
But when trainer and jockey do get together, the outcome is a winner 30% of the time.
It happened only a week back at Yarmouth when Midnight Thunder (pictured below) led and went clear over 6f, tempting the conclusion that he could go in again quickly and over shorter.
Softish ground will help on this last mission in England before Midnight Thunder is campaigned in Dubai.
The Strikin Viking is the obvious danger, twice placed at Group-2 level, but he ran too freely in the Gimcrack.
⭕ 2.25 Newmarket (Oh So Sharp Stakes, 7f Group-3 2yo fillies) Yet another Beckett filly among nine runners for the yard today, seven at Newmarket.
My pick of his York contenders is below, and Cathedral in this is taken as his best at HQ.
KNIGHT NEEDS THE SOFT
⭕ 2.40 York (1m 6f handicap) It’s William Haggas 3, Ralph Beckett 2 in the last seven seasons.
Haggas is back with David Menuisier his main rival here, both with three-year-olds running off 95.
Beckett runs his unbeaten juvenile Amiloc in the £100,000 EBF Final at 2.05; it’s a pinstickers’ race but Amiloc’s stamina could be decisive.
The Haggas runner in this handicap, The Reverend, 1m 4f winner at Ascot, steps up in trip but is not certain to get it on breeding. Forest Gate takes an even bigger leap in distance, scoring over 1m 2f on a sound surface at Epsom the last day.
Who’s Glen got the distance all right in lower grade at Chester and his trainer, Andrew Balding, will know something about Master Builder; his Contacto ran second to that one at Haydock (Filibustering fifth).
But more recently, Filibustering was hammered five lengths on the same course – but in mud – by a scintillating run from Minstrel Knight (1m 6f heavy).
POINTER FOR BALLET SLIPPERS
⭕ 3.35 Newmarket (Fillies Mile; Group-1 2yo) Not since subsequent Oaks scorer Minding (2015) has the winner of this race been worth following. Four of the last five were hot favourite; four of the last five failed to win another race!
The seven runners are headed by the one-two in the May Hill Stakes, Desert Flower for the boys and blue and January for the Lads at Coolmore.
Aidan O’Brien would land his fifth Fillies Mile since 2014 if January could turn around the placings with Charlie Appleby’s Doncaster winner, who has raced only on top of the ground.
Desert Flower, by Night Of Thunder, is only the second foal of a Hard Spun mare; the first is also a dual winner, kept to a sound surface. But Night Of Thunder’s progeny has a good strike rate on the soft.
Tabiti is a winner at 6f and Ralph Beckett will want to find out if she is going to stay, before making plans for next season.
Anna Swan could have run in the Group-3 Oh So Sharp Stakes earlier on the card but Sir Michael Stoute is convinced she will stay and is worth a crack at Group 1, after a convincing win over 7f at Newbury (soft).
But January apart, Aidan O’Brien has an exciting improver in Ballet Slippers, first foal of the prolific Magical, sister of the 2016 winner of this Fillies’ Mile, Rhododendron.
Ryan Moore didn’t really have a choice; always expected to go along with the May Hill form, but January may need to be on her toes if, as expected, Ballet Slippers improves from her recent Ascot success. Far too big at Betdaq Betting Exchange 23.0 and 21.0. Will be shorter.
ATLAS STRONG FORM TIP
⭕ 4.10 Newmarket (Old Rowley Cup, 1m 4f handicap) Mount Atlas is versatile and the form solid, as a Redcar winner over 1m 2f on soft who went on to score at 1m 4f (Goodwood) the last day, with the runner-up winning next time out at Ascot, and the third taking the Melrose at York.
DAQMAN’S BETS
1.30 York (each to win 20)
BET 2.6pts win THEORYOFEVERYTHING
BET 2pts win PADISHAKH
BET 1pt win EMPIRESTATEOFMIND
1.47 Newmarket (win 10)
BET 3pts win MIDNIGHT THUNDER
2.05 York (win 10)
BET 5pts win AMILOC
2.25 Newmarket (win 12)
BET 3pts win CATHEDRAL
2.40 York (win 20)
BET 2pts win MINSTREL KNIGHT
3.35 Newmarket (win 20, 2-place payout 0.25)
BET 1pt each way BALLET SLIPPERS
4.10 Newmarket (win 30, nap)
BET 10pts win MOUNT ATLAS
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